Story notes: The Great Applesauce Expedition · 4:37am Jan 29th, 2022
Inspired by going to the basement to get applesauce, which I jokingly called “The Great Applesauce Expedition of 2022.”
We all know who Noi is, and she’s adorable.
Posted without pre-readers, because what could go wrong?
Lol, a couple of commenters found a few typos. Thanks! 
Once I had the idea for an actual applesauce expedition, most of the rest of the story fell into place. The only actual research I had to do was what kind of foods you can use applesauce in. We’ll get back to that.
It’s canon that Golden Harvest/Carrot Top is Noi’s older sister. Y’all got to cast your minds back a few seasons, but the two were running together in the Sisterhooves Social.
They didn’t win, but they tried.
As far as I know, the show does not ever mention Carrot Cake being Golden Harvest’s older brother, but it makes sense, doesn’t it? There are plenty of Apples in town but not so many Carrots. I will say in the interests of full disclosure, Carrot Top is related to the Apples; she’s there in some of the family reunion scenes (along with Shoeshine, Cloud Chaser, Bon Bon, and Cherry Berry) while Carrot Cake and Noi are not.
I can’t say how other kids’ imaginations worked, but when I was a kid and especially when I was walking somewhere my imagination would start working. Still does, although in different ways. In fact, this is of those things where it starts to become recursive, because I was at work doing mundane tasks while plotting out a story about a filly on a simple mission to get applesauce while imagining that she is on an epic journey which then spun off into considering what kind of stories Noi would know and how she’d put herself in them.
Since it was wintertime, I thought about Jack London stories and also how Jack is a male donkey, although some of those stories are kinda dark for ponies. That having been said, I could have worked a Yakutian pony into it, since I’m thinking of doing a Jack London style pony with them. Instead I just settled into a passing reference . . . but when I was at work, I also thought of the famous (at the time) mission of carrying serum to Nome, ‘ponified’ it to Gnome, and just went with it.
Shame, now that I’m doing a little research for the blog post, one of the waypoints was Minto, which sounds very pony. Also from skimming the Wikipedia article, this stood out: “The temperature had risen to −56 °F (−49 °C)...” Sounds balmy!
Balto, a Siberian Husky, was made famous by the run. Togo, another Siberian Husky, was not made as famous as far as I know. Both were good dogs.
Balto
Source
I don’t think we ever learned how to make igloos in Boy Scouts (it might have been in the handbook, though), but I do remember the wilderness survival manual suggesting nesting among the lower branches of an evergreen tree.
Now, the recipes.
First off, from Taste of Home, Carrot Casserole!
And what’s a carrot casserole without a dessert? Specifically, cinnamon applesauce cookies?
As a bonus, this link includes a recipe for homemade applesauce. We used to make applesauce at home when I was a kid, and I’m actually surprised I haven’t put that in a story yet.
Do give those recipes a try, and let me know what you think! And if you have to make a trek for any of the ingredients, tell me about it, or even better, write a cute story about it!
I make homemade applesauce a lot during the fall/winter so I will DEFINITELY give the cookies a try, If I can convince my family to eat it I'd love to try out the casserole as well.
I keep meaning to make Minnesota Hot Dish, but I don't have any tater tots, so I need to make a make a run to the Costco Business Center. The regular warehouse locations don't have them for some reason.
I bet ponies would love it, though I might have to use canned tuna or something instead of hamburger. Holy basil and topped with some smoked jarlsberg to brown for the last 10 minutes of baking makes it extra special.
I wonder what the Apple family thinks of Cider Donuts. Considering the sharp demand, is their cider too valuable to use for that?
You had my imagination working. Applesauce must be an amazing speciality, laden with exotic spices, produced by a secret fermentation process, then stored in oak barrels for ten years to bring out the flavour. Probably illegal in some countries.
Checks recipe. Oh, it's stewed apple.
agreed and its good you found that guy who focuses on her for art
I might just try the carrot casserole. It sounds/looks not too far outside my tastes. (I dislike celery on cencept and while not minding onion as a flavour I don't like the physical vegetable.)
I'll broaden my horizons or give my roommate something to eat that isn't that terrible cabbage casserole he likes making.
Well, now I know who she is. Pillow mark is best ever.
also something something "a-Noi-ed" pun
Need to get around to reading the story itself, but I just wanted to pop by here to make a statement: Noi is Best Background Filly!
Cherry Fizzy, however, is definitely somehow related to both Noi and Golden Harvest (could be the father, could be a big brother, who knows!) He's seen with Noi multiple times; many enough to mean they must be somehow related.
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We used to live near an apple orchard and I suspect that’s the reason we made it when I was younger. I should have asked my Mom, but then I hadn’t thought of this story last time I was home. We had a pan that had a little masher and screen and I liked using that to mush up the apples.
I honestly had a hard time (with basic googling) finding any recipe that called for applesauce and wasn’t a dessert. I’d be interested to see what else you could substitute it in, because it’s got to be useful for other cooking as well.
As long as most people in your family aren’t really set in their ways, I think the carrot casserole’s got a shot, too. Probably the ingredients could be tweaked for taste, too. Not having tried it myself, I have to imagine that the biggest challenge would be getting the carrots to the correct consistency, not too crunchy and not too mushy.
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I don’t know about tater tots, that’s not something I’ve ever liked, but I can tell you for part of December and part of January, I could not purchase hash browns, the shelves were completely empty of all brands. Which seems like a weird thing to have a shortage of.
Somebody who’s more into cooking than me and who ideally knows more about what horses like and don’t like (or is willing to engage in some wild headcanon excursions) could have a lot of fun writing a story based around food culture between humans and ponies.
While the show doesn’t say, I think that the cider that all the ponies want is alcoholic. The other kind is less desirable (but surely very good). Traditionally, it was a good way to use damaged apples.
Either way, if their cider commands a premium, probably selling it in something would also command a premium. The only way I could see them not taking the opportunity was if it wasn’t any better in donut form than something else . . . like, I’m thinking of the Zap Apple Jam, maybe Zap Apples don’t taste good unless they’re made into jam, so they don’t sell them as just apples.
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I can’s say if it’s illegal in some countries or not. I don’t know if you could ferment it, but since you can ferment apple juice, it seems like you could if you wanted to, and I guess if you did it could theoretically get better if aged. Also, FWIW, it often has cinnamon in it, which traditionally was an exotic spice.
And it’s good.
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I’m guessing you mean Lumorn?
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Honestly, it sounds in my flavor wheelhouse, too. Less sure on the cooking skills end of things, though. That’s where a lot of my ideas turn into disasters.
Eww, cabbage. So far the only thing I’ve found that I like cabbage in is sauerkraut.
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That’s not the only one she has, either. She’s sometimes a blank-flank, sometimes has a pillow, or a cupcake, or a magnifying glass.
Hmm, I’ll have to remember to use that somewhere.
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Noi is an adorable background filly, but I don’t know if I can say she’s the best. I don’t know if it’s possible to choose, to be honest.
That might be the connection! Hear me out: as you say (and I forgot) Cherry Fizzy is seen with Noi, Cherry Berry and Carrot Top were both at the Apple Family reunion, and there might also be a family connection with Cherry Jubilee as well. In that case, I’d guess that Cherry Fizzy is Noi, Golden Harvest, and Carrot Cake’s father, and is also the brother of one of Cherry Berry’s parents.
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Candy Mane is clearly spending too much time talking to young fillies.
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Yes.
And why I said i feel guilty, given what I did with noi,i think i told you before long ago, at your first Story of noi
So Cup Cake is, in this (interesting!) hypothesis, actually Noi's sister-in-law, not aunt?
Thanks for writing. :)
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Interesting, interesting~
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She really is. Still, they can learn a thing or two from her.
Oh! And by pure coincidence, I happened to stumble across this today:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/879533986303606834/938288185451110450/Screenshot_20220201-083651_Facebook.jpg
Related!
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I think you did, although I don’t remember. That’s probably for the best.
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Correct, and I think that’s how I’ve always had her in my stories, although Noi sometimes calls Cup Cake “Aunt”. [That’s in either Playing in the Park or one of the Christmas stories, possibly both.]
You’re welcome!
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Yeah. Lets just say, its a traumatized filly
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I think I've seen that previously so it was probably inspiration.
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Thanks. :)
:)
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I hadn’t, and as soon as I saw it I thought of Candy Mane.
Did I ever tell you that’s my headcanon for her now?
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I have a threequel in the incipient stages. It's a mystery!
Also considering something along the lines of "Attack of the Unrelated Tags" and put every warning tag on the story even though it doesn't apply.
Since two of my favorite winter snacks are apple butter on cinnamon toast and apple cider cinnamon caramels, I think cinnamon applesauce cookies are definitely in my near future!
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Yay! My inside squirrel is jumping for joy!
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If you make them, let me know how they are! My own cooking skills tilt more towards fires and unintentional flambés. . . .
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The wife made a batch a couple days ago. The taste was great (she instinctively doubled the amount of cinnamon called for) and the texture was very soft, almost cake-like.