A beautiful day

Guess what Jubal and I did today after school?

Pumpkin Muffins

Here is a great recipe I found on Pioneer Woman's website. Jubal helped me so this one is good to make with the kids. They are so moist and yummy and pretty healthy too! You can top with cream cheese frosting or just a cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Happy Fall Baking!

Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins (With Cream Cheese Frosting)

Muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 heaping cup pumpkin puree or just plain ol' canned pumpkin
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional!)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter with two knives or a pastry blender until all incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined. Pour into greased muffin pan—batter hardly ever fills all twelve unless you keep it down to 1/2 full. Sprinkle generous amounts of cinnamon-sugar over the top of each unbaked muffin.
Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup softened butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 pound powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients on high until soft and whipped. Spread onto completely cooled muffins, or place into a large pastry bag with a large star tip and go crazy!

Store in fridge, as icing will soften at room temperature.

A new home

Okay, I am guilty. I am guilty of having some plastic bags in the house ;). My excuse: I really like having them to use as trashbags and picking up after the dog. For years I have just stuffed them in a back corner somewhere, out of sight, and sometimes out of mind.
Well, I was inspired a couple of weeks ago and now they are stuffed in a cute little sack in my kitchen. I got the idea from this tutorial and it turned out really cute. The other neat thing about it is that you can use any fabric scraps that you may have. I have quite a stash of scraps so I was eager to use some up. So now, all my plastic bags that were stuffed in a corner are now hanging in their cute happy home in the kitchen. Nice.

Good Bye Taco bell!

I love taco night at our house. It's so easy to prepare and the fam really enjoys eating them. So tonight, I had it all ready and I was going to have dinner ready a little earlier so that we could have time to play before Jubal's bedtime. I got all my ingredients together but could not find my Taco Bell taco seasoning. Hmmm....where did I stash it? I looked in all kinds of places in the kitchen and could not find it. I concluded that the cashier forgot to put it in my bag. Bummer! Should I run to the store? No, I don't feel like hurrying out the door, wasting gas, waiting in line, and having a late dinner. Of course! The internet. So I did a search and found a wonderful recipe (on allrecipes.com) for some homemade taco seasoning. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It was wonderful! And I can pronounce the ingredients. So naturally I would love to share it with my blog friends.
You will need to double the recipe to make enough to season a pound of ground beef. There will be some leftover as well. For every pound of beef, chicken, or tofu, add 3 tbsp. of the mixture and 2/3 cup of water. You can also add about 1/2 tsp per batch of flour to thicken it up a little. Cut the amount of red pepper flakes/powder in half if you don't want it to be too spicy hot.

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (or 1/2 tsp fresh minced garlic)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes/powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Cookie Dough Find

I like to make my own cookies. It's so much healthier than the cookie doughs in the store and a lot more satisfying. However, there are days that I feel a little lazier and don't want to labor that much in the kitchen.
A few months ago, Ingles had a sale on some organic cookie dough from the Immaculate Baking Company. I bought it, tried it out and it is SO GOOD! So I thought I would promote them because of the reaction my family had to the cookies. They are made from all natural ingredients and there are no hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup. So even though a sweet tooth can be a dangerous thing, you can feel good that the ingredients are in pure form.

Disco Pajamas

The other day I went through my big bin of fabric to try to simplify. I cleaned out a bunch of fabric but still have a fair amount left over. So, I am trying to make some fun things with what I do have. My first little project was pajamas for Jubal. They turned out really cute too. I think they look like they come out of the disco era. When my little red head wears them, it is super precious! I got the pants idea from this tutorial:
www.instructables.com/i/How_to_Sew_Your_Own_Pajama_Pants/.
It is super easy and quick. I think I made his pants in about 30 minutes. I like that kind of project! For his little shirt, I took an old white t-shirt and appliqued a star onto it. I encourage you to try making the pants. They are well worth it.

Snow!

We saw our first snow today. I love this time of year!