After my usual inquiries as to how school went today, I casually asked him,
"Hey, do you think that I'm old fashioned?"
He shot me a quizzical look.
(Insert long, thoughtful, pause here.)
He finally said, "In some ways, I think that you are. Why?"
(Don't you just love conversations with adolescents when they give you an honest answer and then wait to
see how you're going to respond!?)
I quickly volunteered, "I suppose that the fact that we've never had cable television, we don't own an
'i-anything', and our phones aren't 'smart' makes me kind of old fashioned, doesn't it?"
He hesitated for a moment and affirmed, "Yeah, I guess. But you're not old fashioned in a bad way. You're
old fashioned in a good way."
(Insert long, thoughtful pause here.) "Really?" I said, "Like what?"
He replied that he thought that the way that he was raised was old fashioned in a good way.
I thought, "Hmm.. That's an interesting observation coming from someone still in high school."
After a few more questions, I was able to figure out that, to him (among other things), manners, respect for adults, knowing how to tie a tie, use more than three pieces of silverware, and having a mom who cooks and bakes from scratch, are the good kind of old fashioned that he's talking about.
Wow! I thought, smiling as I put dinner into the oven.
That's cool.
Somehow, we managed to raise not one, but two, sons who notice and appreciate the rarity of things like home cooked meals and home made applesauce.
Needless to say, I let the conversation drop at that point because hey, I like to end things on a high note and he still is, after all, an adolescent male.
I came to the conclusion today that I probably am old fashioned in many ways.
I'm pretty sure that I'll never live down the fact that my children grew up in a house without cable television.
But I'm hopeful that the home made apple pie may offset it just a little bit
You know, for when they write their "tell all" memoirs and go on the late night talk show circuit?!
So, in case you're old fashioned, here's my apple sauce recipe. Don't worry, it's old fashioned in a good way.
Old Fashioned Applesauce
- 3 to 4 lbs of quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein. Peel and core them if you don't have a strainer sieve colander and pestle).
- 4 strips of lemon peel (I use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths)
- Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
- 3 inches of cinnamon stick or 1/4 to 1/2 Tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar (You may use white sugar).
- up to 1/4 cup of white sugar (more or less depending upon the sweetness of the apples)
- 1 cup of water
Directions
- Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
- Remove from heat.
- Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. (I add ground cinnamon at this point.)
- Mash with potato masher or use strainer and pestle.
- Return to heat and bring to a boil.
- Ladle into prepared canning jars and process in boiling water for 20 minutes.
