Pumpkin Muffins

We had one lone pumpkin still from last Fall’s harvest. It was definitely pushing the envelope of preservation and needed to get used.
My hubby loves pumpkin muffins. So I thought I’d respond to his “love letter” daisies (from the last post) with a little love of my own by making some Pumpkin Gems for him.


I like to have these freshly made for breakfast. In order to make that doable for me I combine all the wet ingredients in one bowl and all the dry ingredients in another the night before. Then when I get up in the morning I turn on the oven, spray oil the pans, combine the two bowls and throw it in while I go shower. This works with any muffins really.

Truth be told, I forgot for two days in a row to actually get up and combine the two bowls… I’m not a high functioner right out of bed.

It still worked out fine this morning.

Since I hate it when people blog about good food and then don’t post the recipe… here ya go:



Pumpkin gems
10 lg or 12 Medium muffins

Preheat oven to 350º
Grease muffin pan

In a small bowl combine:
½ cup bran and ¼ cup boiling water.
Set aside for 5 mins

In another small bowl soak;
1 cup raisins barely covered in hot water.

Blend together thoroughly with a wire wisk;
1 egg
2/3 cup honey

Stir in:
1 cup pumpkin, canned or fresh cooked & mashed (which I greatly prefer)
¼ c water
Soaked bran
Soaked raisins

Blend Dry ingredients together in a separate bowl:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Blend dry ingredients into liquid ingredients just until mixed. Do not overmix.

Fill muffin cups almost full

Bake 20-25 minutes

Cool 5-10 minutes before removing from pan.

Now whenever we make muffins we take these healthy little goodies and then sprinkle brown sugar over them before we put them in to bake.

I know what you're thinkin... it changes the whole health factor… I try to mitigate that by using organic brown sugar hehe. But the truth is we like it… and we’re stickin to it.

Since I’ve been a muffin slacker lately and haven’t made any in a really long time I forgot about the brown sugar!

I know.

Nearly a disaster.

I gasped as they came out of the oven and I realized the error of my ways.

I quickly tried to sprinkle them in hopes that the existing heat would make it stick and all would be well.

It just kind of sat there on top… which is better than no brown sugar at all…. But not nearly as good as baked on.

And then it came to me.

“I have an idea!” I said. Everyone in my family becomes slightly concerned when they hear me say this… one never knows what’s coming.

So I head over to my studio/scraproom/giant mess that only I can find something in, and come back with this:

I knew my scrapping friends would like that.

I haven’t actually scrapped anything in quite a long time. I mostly take ridiculous numbers of photographs and store them for later.

But who among you has EVER thought… Hey I’ll use my embossing gun to melt brown sugar on my muffins??

Mmmhmmm that’s what I thought. I’m pretty sure I stand alone on this one.

And just for future reference it worked just ok. Still not nearly as good as baking it on but it kinda made it stick.


The final product. My love letter back to my hubby.


Oh and I couldn't help myself. I had to go out and grab a few of gifts from yesterday's post and plunk them on my counter as a reminder of how great my life is.

Garden Update

I know. This isn't my garden. I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

I had to put this in because Dylan weed wacked the back yard for me this weekend and lo and behold these beauties were hiding behind grass that you could lose a toddler in.

It was a happy surprise for me. Much better than all that murky marine layer you see hangin out over the ocean there. Apparently it heated up quite a lot inland. So we get the fog.

I have ridiculous number of garden pictures here today.

I'm dedicating them to my Mom.

When we talked on Saturday she asked how the garden was doing .... so Mom... these are for you.

We love these potatoes. They are the easiest thing in world to grow here on the Oregon coast and they make us look like some kinda awesome gardners. Hehe cool.


We made our first real salads with this stuff the past few days. I had a few thinnings before that but we'll be in spring lettuce for a while now that it's really going. I'll do rotational planting later in the season as the garlic etc finishes up and plant more lettuce every month or so to replace whatever decides to bolt. I have great luck with this Red Sails lettuce from Territorial Seed. It's very slow to bolt. I also go for the mixed seed packets because I gotta have a little random.


I was totally entranced by these little tendrils from my Oregon Sugar Pod peas.

I love how they reach up and grab the supports.

I can't explain it. I just do.


These pole beans too. Aren't they cool?

I have two types of pole beans one called Helda, It's a Romano type that someone gave me seed for. I've never grown a Romano bean before.
The other is your basic Blue Lake pole bean. Definitely a known quanitiy and not adventurous.

I like that combo. Known and unkown.


Whenever I plant something new I throw in radishes because radishes are ready really fast and by interplanting I can make use of the space in between plants and also have a little treasure hunt around the garden.


This probably doesn't look like much but it's one of my absolute favorite things about gardening.

A long time ago.... back in the days when my garden was run on child labor... ask them they will tell you...they all swear they could live their whole lives and never want to pick another bush bean....seriously guys it was only half an hour a day!

Where was I?... oh ... A long time ago I planted some dill to use in canning all the afore mentioned bush beans. And as any of you seasoned gardeners know with dill, once is enough. AND I love it! Every year I totally look forward to seeing just where they will pop up. It's like little presents from God whenever it happens.


And these cuties! Just the shape of them makes me happy.
It's supposed to be Improved Drawf Siberian Kale It really doesn't look much like the picture right now.


And this. You probably think this is a clump of daisies.

Nope.

This my friends is a love note. It's Rich's way of letting me know he was thinkin about me while he was weed wacking.

Guys, in general, weed wack with a vengence... everything goes... I once lost a few lavendar plants that way.

As you can see he carefully went around these daisies cause he knows I like them. Gotta love that.


Cilantro


Turnips of the left. Beets on the right.


Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts. This is my first time growing Brussels Sprouts too. I really hope they get those big honkin stalks you see in the store. I've never really seen one growing.


Peaches are coming along


The blueberries are loaded.


The greenhouse tomatoes are getting there too. The Stupice has two ambitious little tomatoes!


Gotta get going to a Track banquet now. Thanks for hanging out in the garden with me. Feel free to weed.

A Day in the Central Valley

The VanderPoel family graciously invited us to a weekend full of events at their house.

Jerome turned 13, Matthew graduated from high school, Anthony recieved his First Holy Communion.

Wow, a whole lotta fun stuff in one fell swoop.

Dylan was at the state track meet so Rich and I made a quick buzz down to celebrate with our godsons (Matthew and Anthony).

Collin came over from Sacramento after he got off work on Saturday and stayed with us at the hotel Saturday night... an extra bonus :).

Rich's mom workin it in Hank & Theresa's awesome kitchen. How cool is that? Totally worth all the hassle of the remodel.


John Paul made sure he was in charge of the little frosting packets for the cinnamon rolls. Hey somebody's gotta do it.


Rich got a game of hacky-balloon going. He never passes up an opportunity to not be sitting around. And back behind that blurred hunk of action is the graduate, Matthew, and an amused Collin.


I just love this kid. I swear, I have the best kids ever. He is totally rockin the fleet certification program at UTI... 4.0...Student of the Course many times over...excited to be learning new things. We are so proud.

Talkin with great-grandma


My little friend Philip. He didn't get all funny when I pulled out the Nikon. Didn't fuss or try to pose. It was such a gift when I spotted the nice light coming thru this window that he just checked me out and waited patiently for me to get it right.

Confession time: I have to say that the low light situation here made me once again pine for the 85mm f1.4... or even f1.8 that I had almost convinced myself I didn't really need. I so prefer shooting with natural light. I think I might be a flashaphobe.

Aunt Ag, Anthony, Victoria,& Samuel in a serious card game.