Pumpkin Pie Muffins

Oh boy. Seriously, I was wondering if I'd ever have it in me to blog again. I felt like a college kid who skipped class one day . . . and then the next day . . . and then it was a week. How did I miss blogging for almost two weeks?! Dudley calls me a blogoholic, but I've felt so guilty about missing blog posts and dates and being such a bad blogger that I haven't even looked at a blog. Well, I suppose it doesn't help that things have been just a little off-kilter here in Singleton-ville. Things to do, places to go, and people to see.
I made these pumpkin pie muffins, chosen for the CEiMB group by Oddball Oven Mitt, a couple of weeks ago, and they are so delicious. They're just the right amount of sweet and I love the texture. The only thing that I changed was to up the spices a tad, but that's just because I love spicy pumpkin breads. These are seriously wonderful pumpkin muffins, and I will definitely make them again. You definitely wouldn't know that they're "healthy" muffins just by tasting them!
OK, now I have to do a little rewind. My bloggy friend Marthe, of Culinary Delights, chose Easy Chicken and Mushroom Quesadillas for last week's CEiMB pick. I made these quesadillas last week, photographed them, but didn't ever have time to post them here. I love quesadillas. Growing up in Texas, we always had tortillas in the fridge, and one of the first lunches I learned how to make for myself as a child was a tortilla with cheese on it. I didn't know that I was eating a cheese quesadilla, but I ate a lot of tortillas with cheese on summer vacations growing up! I didn't have time to cook the chicken, and I don't really rock on mushrooms, so I made a few changes to these quesadillas. I subbed onions and sweet bell peppers for the mushrooms, and I made these veggie quesadillas with spinach, mushrooms, and peppers. I had some asadero cheese that I used in these quesadillas. If you happen to see it at your grocery store, be sure and grab some. Asadero cheese is the best, easiest melting cheese I know of. I think it's a form of oaxaca cheese and it also goes by the name queso quesadilla, go figure. These quesadillas were delicious!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Spiced Pumpkin Cookie Cakes

It's definitely fall in Washington, DC. The leaves are changing, and this week the weather turned downright nasty. I was so excited to make these pumpkin cookies; I love just about any incarnation of pumpkin, with the exception of pumpkin pie.


I will say, when I looked at the recipe, my initial thought was something along the lines of, "hmmmmm, perhaps these are going to be a tad more involved than I thought." These cookie cakes are really whoopie pies by any other name. The dough (or batter) comes together pretty easily, and then they need to be spooned or piped onto the cookie sheets. The only changes I made to the cookie dough were to sub half Steen's Cane Syrup for the molasses, and I added an additional teaspoon of Penzey's Cake Spice (I love that stuff!). If I'd had pumpkin pie spice, I think I would have used that instead. I just like a nice and spicy pumpkin flavor, and I knew that 1 teaspoon of cinnamon wasn't going to cut it. I didn't want to dig for my pastry bag, so I used the ziploc bag to pipe these out. For the most part, my cookies baked up ok. I had a few cookie casualties, there must have been pockets of air, because I had some explosions!

The frosting that sandwiches the cookies together is a cream cheese frosting. Now, I understand that cream cheese and pumpkin are flavors that work well together, but I just really don't like sweetened cream cheese. I'm that oddball that doesn't like cheesecake. Dudley happens to luh, luh, luuuuuhve cream cheese frosting, though, and he was around when I made these, so I made half sandwiched with the frosting, and I left the other half plain for me to nibble on.


These cookies were slightly more work than I'd bargained for, but they are tasty. Dudley was a big fan of the sandwiched cookies, and I like the plain cookies, too. I will say, I'm glad that I added more spice, as I think just one tablespoon of cinnamon wouldn't be enough for me. Thanks to Debbie of Everyday Blessings of the Five Dees for picking such a wonderful seasonal recipe. I'm really glad that I got to make these! You can check her blog post to read about her pumpkin cookie cakes and get the recipe.

Tuscan Vegetable Soup

When I was in fourth grade, my parents decided that my family would do the Jingle Bell fun run with my grandparents (super healthy runners and juicers of the 80's at this point) and my mom's two youngest sisters. On the way to the race, my sister was in the middle of the backseat, and I (in an uncharacteristic fit of big sister niceness) let my sister rest against me. Woah. Big mistake. The next thing I knew, I was covered in the Campbell's chicken noodle soup that she had for lunch that day (the race was in the afternoon). Of course, even though I was the one drenched in chicken noodle soup gook, my parents were way more concerned with my sister's health and well-being. I mean really, people, priorities? It ended up that my dad stayed home with my sister (he's a doctor, so the sickbed is his territory), I hurridly changed clothes, and canned soup has never touched my lips since. It actually took me a really long time (try years here, maybe college?) to rock on any sort of soup after that. Even now, a broth-based soup (as opposed to a chowder) is a dicy proposition for me. I like French Onion soup, and that's about the end of the line.

So, I was a little hesitant about this Tuscan vegetable soup. On the one hand, I don't really like soup at all. On the other hand, the weather in D.C. is ideal soup weather right now, and it made sense to try this out. I didn't have time to go to the store, and the only beans I have on hand are black beans. So, I ended up leaving out the cannelini beans, and I added some pasta. I didn't think the pasta addition through, and I added way too much! I forgot how much it swells up in soup. The pasta was seriously trying to devour my soup. Other than that, I followed the recipe to the letter. I did accidentally use a can of fire roasted tomatoes with chipotle, and I was upset when I discovered my error because I didn't want the heat of the peppers to interfere with the herbs. That said, I actually liked the kick that the chipotle added to the soup.


And the verdict? This was tasty. I still don't love soup, but I did like all of the veggies in this soup. I also loved the parmesan cheese on top. I debated adding it, and I'm glad that I did. It's such a blank canvas, and I'd like to play around with it. I can see myself making this again this winter, but playing with the add-ins a little bit more. I served the soup with these Soft Garlic Knots from the King Arthur website. These rolls are so seriously soft and yummy -- I highly recommend that you check out the recipe. Thanks to Pam at Lobster and Fishsticks for this week's recipe. Be sure to check out her blog if you'd like to see how she makes her soup.

TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

My fellow baking friend, Kayte, chose this week's Allspice Crumb Muffins. I can tell you, I have no idea how hard it must be to pick a TWD recipe. On the one hand, they're all going to get picked eventually, but, on the other hand, no one wants to pick an unpopular recipe. Kayte did a wonderful job considering the myriad different needs and wants of this group -- you can read about her decision making process and get the recipe for the muffins here.

I always stop and look at this recipe when I page through the book, the picture of the muffin is so enticing (if you want to take a peek, Dorie blogged about these muffins this week, too, and her post has the picture shown in the book). I love a muffin for breakfast, and I was so excited that this recipe was finally chosen! I made these early one Saturday morning. I decided while I was out walking Lucy that it was early enough for me to go home and whip these up just in time to have them for breakfast with a nice cup of coffee.

Wait a sec, let me tell you a thing or two about my coffee habit. I've loved the taste of coffee (and coffee ice cream, too!) for years, but I never wanted to develop a coffee habit. I didn't want to be a person who needs something to wake up in the morning. So, coffee was always a treat for me. I'd get it on my way to Friday morning meetings, or during the holiday season when Starbucks is featuring those oh-so-lovely gingerbread lattes and mint mochas. Then I moved to Washington, D.C. and I can think of at least 8 coffee shops within a 10 minute walk from my house. There is a Starbucks literally 2 blocks away, and I was constantly bombarded by the smell of coffee. It seemed like such a shame to ignore all of the wonderful coffee options, so I gave in. Pretty soon I was headed to get coffee every morning -- I made it part of Lucy's morning walk -- and then I decided it was downright ridiculous that I'd tried to avoid such a phenomenally good thing. But, buying coffee every morning is cost prohibitive (for me at least) so I got a coffee maker. The rest is history.

What does my coffee habit have to do with the muffins? Nothing, except that I made these before I had my coffee. I was lacking that lovely bit of brain boost that I've grown to love in the morning. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention, it's been known to happen. At any rate, I accidentally made these muffins with twice as much brown sugar, and by the time I caught myself, it was too late. So, I flip flopped the brown and white sugar measurements. I also subbed 1/2 Greek yogurt for 1/2 of the butter. You know what, though? These muffins were still really, really tasty. So, I might call these "it's ok if you mess up a little bit because they're still really tasty Allspice Crumb Muffins." Seriously, I loved these. My only other experience with allspice is in the gingersnaps that I make (which reminds me, I've been meaning to make a batch). I really loved the prominent allspice flavor in these muffins. Allspice just might be my new favorite spice, so if you know of any fantastic recipes that feature it, just give me a shout.

Thanks, Kayte, for picking such a great recipe. Do head over to Grandma's Kitchen Table and check out her blog. Kayte is an amazing blogger. First of all, she happens to be a member of several different baking/cooking groups, so there's always something new and fabulous posted on her blog. She also does a bit called Friday's Favorites, where she recounts the food she's making, the music she's listening to, and the books she's reading (my favorite part).

BBA S&S: Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread

Celebration bread just seems like such an odd term to me. When I think about celebrating, I'm generally thinking more along the lines of champagne, a nice glass of wine, festive decorations, a fabulous meal, or a cake. I can't say that I really think of bread. My dad has a love affair with bread, his daily bread; it's the staff of life, after all. Maybe that's why I don't associate bread with celebrations: bread is for sustenance (albeit delicious sustenance), cake is for celebrating. Peter Reinhart points out that this bread is perfect for Thanksgiving, and that's a celebration, isn't it? A celebration of plenty . . . and isn't this loaf of bread appropriate, because there's plenty of it!


I was so very unenthused about making this bread. For one thing, it came right on the heels of cinnamon rolls and cinnamon swirl bread, and I was thinking longingly of a nice crispy loaf of ciabatta bread. I knew I was going to give this bread away, I just had to figure who my victims would be. Luck would have it that we went out of town for Labor Day, and I needed a hostess gift. Problem solved: a nice, giant loaf of Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. I have issues with giving away things that I haven't tasted, though. What if it's awful? What if it shouldn't be eaten at all? I made the big double braid, plus a small roll for me to taste. It turns out that this bread is actually fantastic, and I really do think that it would be perfect for a Thanksgiving celebration or any fall dinner party. I will definitely make this bread again, and I'm glad that I tried it, otherwise I'd never have known what a nice bread it is.

(One observation, though: the recipe calls for way.too.many.cranberries! I happen to love cranberries, so I put the full 3 oz. in my dough. Oh my word. The cranberries create little pockets in the dough, and when rolling out the strands, all of these little pockets created a very strange, ropy texture in my dough that wasn't altogether pleasant. I would reduce the cranberries to 1.5-2 oz. next time.)

Lo Siento

No Ellie here this week. I'm in the middle of trying to get my prospectus together, and I didn't have time to get to the store. I'll be back next week!

TWD: Split Level Pudding

My dad would say that my muse isn't with me right now, but I'll just leave it that my brain is tired, and I'm fresh out of pudding related anecdotes. I like pudding . . . but it's not really my "thing," if you will, so I rarely make it. I did go through a chocolate pudding phase with my brother a few years ago and we made Martha Stewart's chocolate pudding all of the time.

I only made 1/3 of a recipe, so it was a fairly small amount of pudding. I don't really mind doing dishes, but it's not a chore that I seek out, and I couldn't see how on earth I was going to blend such a miniscule amount, so I made this the old fashioned way: with a whisk. My pudding thickened up really quickly -- in about 30-45 seconds! In fact, it was super thick, and I had a hard time "pouring" it into the ramekins. I really sort of hard to spoon it in, and then try to smooth it out. Thus, we have the rather unattractive surface of the pudding, but it was seriously tasty. As for the chocolate ganache on the bottom of the cup, it wasn't hard, but it was a distinctly different texture than the pudding, and I didn't really think that it contributed a lot to the overall effect. The disparity in textures was offputting to me, and I think that I enjoyed the actual pudding more than the combination of the two.


I think that the best way to describe this pudding is to share Dudley's reaction to it. I gave him the second pudding, I'd already eaten mine, and he ate it, exclaiming how good it was. When he finished it, he asked: "how many of these delicious puddings would you like me to eat?" When I explained that I'd only made two, and already eaten one myself, he asked why on earth I made such a small portion. I think he liked it, and I did, too. I'll definitely make this vanilla pudding again, although I think that next time I might leave the ganache off of the bottom.

King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Brownies

Depending on how long you've been keeping tabs on this blog, you may or may not be aware that my dad used to hide wheat germ in waffles and chocolate chip cookies when I was little. If you don't know about the wheat germ on the sly (that wasn't actually on the sly), then you don't know that while I've moved past this, I certainly haven't forgotten my encounters with wheat germ where I was certain it didn't belong. I suppose everything comes full circle though, because when the folks at King Arthur Flour tweeted about these whole grain brownies, I was definitely intrigued. I love my chocolate, but these days I'm not opposed to hiding things like zucchini or wheat germ inside of it, so long as it's tasty!

For the skeptics, these brownies are actually really tasty. Don't get me wrong, you won't mistake them for the dense and fudgy real thing; but, they're a nice, chewy brownie side. These brownies are on the cakey side of the brownie spectrum, and they have a great chocolate flavor. The whole wheat flour doesn't change the flavor, but it does add some texture to the brownies. I added peanut butter chips to my brownies, and I thought that they were delicious. I'm not going to stop making "real" brownies, but I'm going to keep these in the rotation. If you'd like to read the King Arthur blog post and get the recipe for these goodies, click here!