A Is For Applesauce

I signed up for the A to Z Challenge on somewhat of a whim. I remember reading my bloggy friend Christine's posts when she did it last year, thought it sounded like fun, then filed it in the back of my head (where it fell behind the filing cabinet and got covered up with dust bunnies and the occasional mouse turd). About a month ago, I started hearing whispers about it and signed my bad self up. 

Then the whispers turned into a buzz, and that buzz included words like "themes" and "blogging groups" and panic started setting in. 

I'm more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal.

So here it is, March 31, and my theme is that I have no theme, and all I can think about for the letter "A" is apples (I am a preschool teacher, after all), and otherwise, my mind is a blank.

And then, I remembered today a conversation I had through a video chat with my bloggy friend Lizzi, who lives in the U.K.

They don't eat applesauce for dessert, or even as a side dish. In the U.K., applesauce is a condiment, like mustard or horseradish.

ARE YOU HEARING ME?

No applesauce cake? Or applesauce bread? Applesauce muffins? No little cups of applesauce that you eat out of desperation when you want something sweet and that's all there is in the house? No big jar of Musselman's applesauce that your mom pours into small bowls and sprinkles with cinnamon and calls dessert? No substituting applesauce for the oil in a cake recipe when you want to cut calories and fat and can convince yourself and your family that it tastes JUST THE SAME as a regular cake and no, it is NOT rubbery and YOU CAN  JUST EAT A BOWL OF APPLESAUCE FOR DESSERT IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT?

The Pilgrims didn't leave England because of religious oppression; it was because they wanted to eat applesauce the way God intended, with plenty of sweetness and preferably some cinnamon and not as a dipping sauce for roast pork.

(Can you imagine what the fine people of the U.K. would think of the SQUEEZABLE applesauce marketed for kids? And don't even MENTION such things as strawberry applesauce, because that concept is, apparently, completely unfathomable.)

Just Say No to applesauce as a condiment and make your tummy happy with this recipe:

Applesauce Pancakes

2 cups buttermilk complete pancake mix
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup applesauce 
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup water

Cook on a lightly greased griddle as you would any pancake. 

Serve hot, sprinkled with powdered sugar. (Syrup is completely unnecessary, unless you are my husband.) I make these every year with my pre-k class during "A" week to wildly positive reviews.

One down, 25 letters to go....