Quick Update and Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

Hey! What do you know we are still alive and well! 

Since I last posted Lizzy got into BYU and moved to Provo, John started middle school, (Zoey and Will same old, same old-high school and elementary) we moved out of our house for a major remodel, Lizzy got a mission call to Bolivia, BOLIVIA!, our roof has been torn off our and a new beautiful sloped roof built in its place and we are all just hoping we can move back into our house by the holidays.

Before Lizzy went to college she asked if I could put all of my recipes on the family blog so she could easily access them. Obviously, that didn't happen. But now I have a little more than a year to reach that goal and I'm going to make it happen. 

Since it's October let's start with a family favorite: pumpkin muffins. I know to a lot of people these are my pumpkin muffins but I actually got the recipe from Mary Purser (the source of many delicious recipes) when we lived in the Dallas. I can’t say how many batches of pumpkin muffins I’ve made in the past ten years. My kids never tire of them. (Let’s face it they’re basically cookies for breakfast.) I almost always make them in mini muffin tins. I think they taste better this way and there’s more to share.  John always asks for extra to give to friends at school.

Pumpkin Muffins

Combine:

• 3 cups sugar (yep, you read that right. Nutritionally, these are more like cookies.)
• 1 cup oil
• 1 can pumpkin (15 oz.)
• 4 eggs

Dissolve and add to above

• 2 teaspoons soda in
• 2/3 cup water

Combine in separate bowl and then mix in above:

• 3 1/2 cups flour (can do up to two cups with wheat flour)
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoons cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon allspice

Then mix in:

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or more than one cup)

Spoon batter into mini muffin pans coated generously with cooking spray. (You could be boring and put them in a regular tin or mini loafs, just be sure to adjust the baking time.)

Bake at 350º for 15-17 minutes.

This makes A LOT of muffins. You may want to refrigerate or freeze leftover batter. The batter lasts in the fridge up to a week and in the freezer for several months.