So, we all managed to survive Yom Kippur. Hopefully, it was a meaningful day for you. It’s not an easy one for me – fasting, standing all the time. This year I didn’t feel too well, so I had to sit a lot, where others stood – not such a comfortable feeling.
Well, now that the somber days are behind us, we can think about celebrating Sukkot with lots of yummy food!
Sukkot for me is the time for baking. We do not have a Sukkah, so we are lucky to go to our friends for meals. All I get to do is bake, and bring a cake with me.
I will not, however, start with a cake, but with another favorite dish – apple-cranberry source.
There are many versions of apple sauce. I hope you will like mine.
The most important thing to know – there are no exact proportions, no exact times, let your imagination run wild. Go with what you like.
Take about:
2-3 pounds of apples
1-2 pounds of cranberries
1-2 cups of sugar
Some citrus peels (see Note)
A little bit of crystallized ginger
A stick or two of cinnamon
Peel and core the apples, cut them into small enough pieces. Put them into a pot on medium to low heat. Add cranberries and citrus. Let the apples cook for a while, until they become soft.
Stir the mass with a wooden spoon quite often.
Once the apples are cooked, mash them. You can use an electric device of choice. However, I prefer my sauce rough enough and use an old fashioned potato masher for my preferred consistency. Yours may be entirely different.
Once the mass is ready to store, you can put it in glass jars. Of course, if you plan to store the source for a long time, you will need to sterilize your containers.
I store my sauce in the refrigerator or bring it with me as a gift, so I only rinse the jars with boiling water.
After you close the jars, it’s best to put them upside down on a wooden surface.
Once the sauce is cold, you can store it in the refrigerator, or enjoy right away 🙂
Hag Sukkot Sameach!
Note: A few words about citrus peel: My grandmother Surah bat Leizer, z’l used to carefully collect any citrus peel – orange or tangerine that was left after eating so rarely appearing in our cold region of Urals fruit and boil with sugar, then put in jars and store for baking. I, of course, don’t bother doing it. I just cut any citrus , add it in a jar, put sugar on top, and store in a freezer. Anytime I need it – it’s here for me. No need to thaw, boil, or otherwise manipulate it. If you can get your hands on etrog this year, you can add some etrog preserve to it as well. We will talk about that later.
Noshing Across the Nation 
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