pumpkin week

This week entailed a lot of pumpkins and fall pretties in general. After a rough day on Monday, Zack made it all better with lots of surprises, including picking out pumpkins. We took our parents a few tiny pumpkins and chose two similar larger pumpkins to carve with our friends. 

We learned a bit about carving pumpkins with children. A child may spend 90% of the time meticulously cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin and 10% drawing a face for you to carve. He may spend 99% of the time drawing tiny black marker lines all over the pumpkin then 1% of the time asking you to cut out a beard (where even is the face?). Each child has his own personality, and they are never boring. How much richer of an experience than just carving my own *perfect* pumpkin at home! I love that my small group includes children. 

Oh yes, these flowers! Hydrangeas are not in season this time of year, but I suppose any flower can be bought for a price, and they are my favorite. I am spoiled, and they made my Monday afternoon so much better. 

Sometime in the last few weeks, Zack found this paleo pumpkin pie recipe and brought over the ingredients for us to make together. I finally got around to making it on Wednesday. It was fairly simple and a decent substitute for the real thing. (Check out the pumpkin muffins that I made last year here.)

I whipped up some cream and sweetened it with honey to make a paleo topping for our paleo pie. My pup sure enjoyed licking the whisk. 

What pumpkin treats have you made this year? How are you celebrating fall? 

pumpkin doughnuts

As my friend Wesley found out, when you request a flavor of doughnut, I may just bake it and deliver it to your door that very evening.  

I had signed up to bring a sweet snack to my small group, and I asked Wesley which type of doughnut I should make next. Even though it's spring, I was happy to make these pumpkin doughnuts. I like pumpkin flavors any time of year, and it's been plenty of time since the takeover of pumpkin flavors around Thanksgiving. These are great to try now or keep in mind for fall.

How do you feel about pumpkin? Is it a fall-only flavor for you? 

five spice pumpkin muffins

Last year, my friend Kim brought these amazingly delicious pumpkin muffins that her mom baked to our friend's bachelorette weekend.  I asked her for the recipe and enjoyed making them last fall.  When another friend's bachelorette weekend (this past weekend) was approaching, along with the first day of fall, I had to make these muffins and share them.  Thank you to Kim's mom for a fantastic hand me down recipe!  

FIVE SPICE PUMPKIN MUFFINS

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar (white)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1- 16oz can of pumpkin
3/4 cup Canola oil
3/4 cup water
3 eggs
3/4 tsp each: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger

Grease and flour loaf pans or use cupcake papers to line pans for muffins.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour for a loaf; 20-30 minutes for regular muffins; 10-15 minutes for mini muffins.

Note: Although not the traditional technique for quick breads, I have had most success by mixing the sugars and oil, then adding the rest of the wet ingredients, and next adding the dry ingredients in this recipe.  I have used a whisk to break up most of the lumps before filling the muffin cups nearly full.