Thoughts on Food Mills?

SO, my mom gave me a Foley Food Mill for my birthday, and I immediately made applesauce. My mom's applesauce is the greatest in the world, she makes it constantly, and I was determined to recreate. She swears by the mill, but I had trouble with it. It took a really really long time and a lot of effort to push the apples through. I cooked them (quartered, with the skins on) for about an hour, but I still had to get my huge boyfriend to help me because my arm was so tired swinging that mill handle around.

The end result tasted good (although I realize that I should have only used one cinnamon stick instead of two), but I want to make it a faster process. Any suggestions or ideas for how to wrangle a food mill into submission?

RECIPE

As far as the recipe goes, I looked in a bunch of Martha books, and all of her recipes listed mace and a thousand other spices to put in, but in teeny print at the bottom of the recipe, it would say "Homemade applesauce really doesn't need more than apples and water. All of these ingredients are optional."

My mom concurs, so I just went with 12 gala apples, half a cup of water, a tablespoon of sugar (which I realize now is not necessary at all), and two cinnamon sticks (but I only needed one). I simmered them, stirring often, for an hour, and then I processed them in batches in the food mill, removing the skins after.

It came out to be a delicious red color, without the gross oversweet storebought taste that I despise. Also, my house smelled awesome and my roommate gave me a million dollars. In hugs. Ok, in smiles. Ok, she just ate the applesauce happily.