Piña colada smoothie



I had a craving for piña coladas one day, and thought I'd try making them. There were two approaches that came to mind: use frozen coconut milk as the base, or use frozen pineapple juice as the base. Neither sounded creamy enough for what I was going for. Then I remembered our market stocks haupia ice cream (haupia is a traditional Hawaiian coconut-based dessert, not traditionally in ice cream form). Yes! Not to worry, though. If you can't find haupia ice cream, there is another way about it.

Honeycrisp apple sauce



The best apple sauce I ever had was from a bake sale I stumbled upon. It was farmland in every direction, and I suspect those apples went straight from a backyard tree into the jar. I've wanted to try making apple sauce at home ever since. This recipe from The Pioneer Woman is a pretty good place to start. I had to modify the recipe a little because I have only one small pan at the moment and only so many apples will fit in it. It makes a delicious apple sauce, and fills the whole house with the fragrance of cinnamon-y lemons and apples. Yum!