Hot Reuben Dip + Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with out of town family this weekend and I made this recipe to take to my mom's.  If you're a Reuben sammie fan, you'll be all over this dip.  SO GOOD.

Here it is assembled at my house:

And hot out of the oven at my mom's:

Since I have you here, I'll throw in a few pics of the day as well.

Why is it impossible for me to have a decent photo taken?

Will someone please explain this to me?

 

See?  Terrible.

But my girlfriend says I need more pictures of myself in my posts, so there ya go.

Chicken with Rosemary and Feta & Greek Garbonzo Bean Salad

I made two new things off of my Pinterest boards for dinner tonight and they were both really good.  I feel like I've been completely absent in blogland - posting and reading, so I figured I'd poke my head in with a few food pics before I go back to the crazy December to-do list.

The first is a chicken recipe.  This was really, really tasty and super easy to throw together.  While the chicken bakes in the oven, you get a simple tomato sauce simmering on the stove to serve with it.  It calls for fresh tomatoes, but bein's that it's December, I used canned.  Click here for the recipe.

Here's it is coming together at my house:

We're all garbanzo bean super fans in my house, so the salad was an easy sell.  Again, super easy and super yummy.  It comes together in one pot on the stove and calls for serving it warm, which is what I did, but it would be just as delicious as a cold salad.  Click here for the recipe.

Here it is assembled and ready to eat at my house:

We had a Caesar salad and naan bread alongside.

Here's dinner on my plate:

Applesauce Muffins

It feels like I haven't done a food post in FOREVER!  We're still eating, I swear. 

When I was going through all my treat recipes, trying to narrow down my holiday baking list, I came across this one.  It's actually called Applesauce Cake, but there's a note at the beginning that says it makes good muffins.  I hadn't done a batch of muffins in ages, so I whipped these up yesterday morning.  Super quick, super easy, and they came together in a saucepan.  A first for me.

Here's the recipe, from the newspaper, with my notes:

Applesauce Cake
For muffins, reduce the baking time to 15 minutes.

3 large apples, peeled, cored, quartered and cut into chunks
1/4 C water
1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 C vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour for 1/2 C of it)
3/4 tsp course salt (I used 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Powdered sugar, optional, for serving (I skipped this for the muffins)

Preheat oven to 350.

Lightly oil an 8-inch round cake pan.  (I used a standard 12-hole muffin tin.)

In a medium saucepan, bring apples and the water to a simmer over high heat.  Cover, reduce heat and cook until apples are very tender, 10 to 12 minutes.  Mash apples with a whisk, stirring to cook off some of the moisture, about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Whisk brown sugar into apples, then add oil.  Whisk in eggs, then flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Transfer batter to pan and bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes.  (My muffins took about 12 minutes.) Let cool in pan on wire rack, about 20 minutes.  Invert and let cake cool on rack.  To serve, dust top with powdered sugar, if desired.

Here's our muffins, ready to inhale:

And of course, on my plate:

I thought they were yummy.

The kids inhaled theirs and then said, Is this all we're having for breakfast?  I want pancakes and scrambled eggs!

Sigh.