Pinterest Tuesday: fall food edition

This weekend I was excited to try out a few fall recipes. I know it's still a little early in the season, but with a storm blowing through and temperatures dropping, it felt right.

The first was for meat loaf muffins, which appealed to me as a concept. I'm not a usual meatloaf maker. It's not something I ate much of growing up. Ground beef was on sale at Safeway and supposedly these little loafs bake in 15 minutes. I was sold.


Unfortunately, it didn't really work out. I don't know if the problem was the recipe I used or what, but my mini meatloafs epitomized the bad stereotype. They were dry and tasteless and ultimately inedible. I'm not even sure how to fix them for next time, so I won't make them again unless someone can recommend a fail-proof recipe for me to try.

The crock pot apple sauce I tried was everything I hoped for. The slow cook method left our apartment smelling of delicious fall spices, and warm apple sauce served with ice cream makes for a great treat.

I reviewed the recipe linked to the pin, and decided to go with my own. I added the peeled and cored apples (10 small), about half a cup of water, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a splash of lemon juice to the slow cooker. They spent about two hours on high before I added spices. I used a teaspoon of cinnamon and dashes of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. I was tempted to use fresh ginger root because I had some on hand and love the kick it gives the apples, but decided to stick with the McCormick variety this time. After one more hour in the crock pot, I stirred enough to mash some of the apples, but left the mix pretty chunky. I like chunky applesauce, but I would have blended it had Atlas not been asleep for the night (and prone to night-time wakefulness).