Time for an embarrassing story about myself! Grab the popcorn and plop down…this one is a doozy!
A few years ago when we lived in Memphis, we had an apple tree in our front yard. It was an adorable little thing, and it made quite a few apples in the fall of 2009. At the time, Darah was just 2 months old, or so. I saw those apples and thought, “Oh my gosh! I can make and freeze some organic apple sauce for my daughter…and for FREE!!!” I put on my Betty Crocker/Martha Stewart/Crunchy Granola Mama crown and sash and marched out to that front yard with my bowl, returning inside with quite the harvest. I was about to ROCK THIS DIY SO HARD.
I found a recipe online…it looked simple enough, and I gathered all my ingredients. Darah observed from her bouncer, fascinated, I’m sure, to see her mom making something from scratch. I followed all of the steps and before long, I had something in my large pot the very strongly resembled apple sauce. And there was a ton of it. Oh man, I was going to enough apple sauce to last Darah for several months! So exciting!
As I continued along with the process, I got to the step where I needed to add some vinegar. I added it in, and immediately thought, “Eww, vinegar stinks even more than I thought it did. Hmm…well, whatever, I’m sure the smell will dissipate soon.” And about 2 minutes later it still smelled TERRIBLE. I gave it a couple of big sniffs and thought, “I don’t know…something’s a bit….off.”
Now remember, I had a 2 month old. I was a first time mom. I was running on baby grins and games of pat a cake, and was DEFINITELY sleep-deprived. So my old noggin’ wasn’t exactly in its sharpest state.
Finally, after inhaling this noxious odor for several minutes, it occured to me to review my ingredients on the counter.
And that’s when I realized that I put AMMONIA in my huge vat of organic apple sauce. Yeah I did. I added poison to my child’s food. And then I sniffed it. And sniffed it again. It’s a miracle I didn’t eat it, myself. If I had been more sleep-deprived, I may have just kept on cooking and freezed it. Who knows?
I totally cried when I realized that I ruined every single apple I had been waiting a few months to pick. And then I laughed so hard that I cried again.
Thank goodness this isn’t the only way to get organic apple sauce! I skip making it myself now (I just can’t be trusted, friends!) and rely on the quality and goodness of Earth’s Best Organic Apple Sauce. It only has ingredients I know and trust, and it comes in the perfect size containers for Darah’s snack time, or as part of her lunch. I have gladly relinquished my ill-fitting crown as chief cooking DIY diva and given Earth’s Best the title. It’s quality I can count on!
Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win Tiffany’s homemade apple sauce! Just kidding! You will win an Organic Apple Sauce prize pack from Earth’s Best!
Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my page.
Disclosure: I am a blog ambassador for Earth’s Best, and as such, I have received complimentary products as a thank you for my time. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.