Welcome to the inaugural post of Salt & Pipper, a joint collaboration between an almost nine year old (Pip) and her mom who has a sketchy record of following through with writing projects (managing expectations? Check!)
Why a blog?
Mostly because my new kitchen has given me all the inspiration without spontaneously endowing me with writing, photography or the hustle skills to create a big girl blog.
Look at this kitchen. Just look at it.
Secondly, and the reason I think I might follow through with this, my daughter Pip wants to be a baker when she grows up (and an actress and a writer and sometimes a vet) and likes to help me in the kitchen. For her eighth grade project, she has decided to create a cookbook, so I thought a blog might help us start documenting and organizing. For the record, she starts third grade tomorrow. Third. Girl has vision.
So, here we are. A mom with okay cooking skills, a girl with vision, and a pretty kitchen.
Our first recipe will be an easy one: InstantPot Pumpkin Applesauce, because it’s perfect for school and work lunches and we are desperately trying to usher in Fall.
Start off with an assortment of apples. We mixed it up with honeycrisps, fujis and Granny Smiths. We did 6 for this recipe.
Peel and large dice them. You can not peel them if you’re some kind of monster.
This recipe really is fool proof. Just throw everything in the pot and give it a mix. And technically, I don’t even think you have to give it a mix.
Pip tip: when adding dashes of seasoning pour the seasoning into your (clean) hand first and then sprinkle it in to better control the amount.
Set the pot to 8 minutes high pressure.
Quick release when it is done and smell the autumn-y deliciousness while the pressure releases.
Your creation will look like this when you open the pot:
Looks a bit like curried potatoes, doesn’t it? You can probably use a potato masher at this point, but if you have an immersion blender, I say fancy it up!
At this point, ours was a bit tart. I think we used too much lemon (we used juice from a whole lemon, I adjusted in the recipe below so the next step might not be necessary) so I added about a tablespoon of honey to cut the tartness. This is entirely optional.
Let it cool a bit (or don’t. You do you.) and spoon out 1/2 cup portions. Makes about 10 servings. 
You can top with fresh blueberries, walnuts or if you have access to my dad’s (“Granddad” to Pip) blueberry jam, plop some of that in when it’s hot to add more dimension.
Pip, who is a Harry Potter nut claims this tastes like Pumpkin Juice, a Wizarding World of Harry Potter concoction of mostly apple juice and pumpkin purée, so yep. It probably tastes a lot like that. I wouldn’t know because what nut goes to Diagon Alley and doesn’t drink Butterbeer? (Answer: Pip)
Accio Pumpkin Applesauce!
InstantPot Pumpkin Applesauce
- 6 medium to large apples.
- 1 cup canned pumpkin purée
- 1/2 cup water
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp of vanilla
- 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (or more)
- Dash of salt
- Honey to taste (nutrition below is with 1 tblsp added)
- Peel and large dice apples
- Place apples, lemon juice, pumpkin purée, cinnamon sticks, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, water and salt in InstantPot*.
- Set InstantPot on manual high pressure for 8 minutes.
- Quick release when 8 minutes are up.
- Blend and add honey to taste (optional)
*If you don’t have an InstantPot (you should get one) you can make this in a slow cooker. I don’t know how, but I’d guess you just follow the recipe but cook it on low for 4-6 hours or something like that. What do I look like? A food blogger?
Salt & Pipper 