I don’t know why it never occurred to me to make it when we went home.  It wasn’t until years later and after I was married that I wised up and asked for the recipe.  And even then, I only made it for the first time about 2 weeks ago!

Of course, then I just had to change it up!  It will never match the pumpkin bread made in my grandmother’s kitchen, so I am excited to experiment a little and create a version that suites me and my family.

SO – instead of a loaf  (or two) I made them into muffins, added some cranberries, and used whole wheat flour – and man are they tasty!!  The list of ingredients looks long, this is likely part of why I put making this off for so long… but really, it’s EASY!  I promise!  it’s just a lot of spices, but you dump it all into one bowl and use your mixer.

mmmmmm, muffins…

Pumpkin Muffins with Cranberries and Walnuts

Makes 12 muffins (plus a little extra)

2 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Cloves
1/8 tsp Ginger
1/4 Cup of Vegetable Oil
1 Can (or 15oz) of Pumpkin Puree
1/3 cup Water
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 dried cranberries
Sparkling Sugar (aka decorator sugar, completely optional but PRETTY and adds crunch)

Preheat Oven to 350F

1. Sift together the first 10 ingredients into the mixing bowl
2. Make a well and add gthe vegetable oil, pumpkin, and cold water
3. Blend on medium until incorporated
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each
5. Fold in walnuts and cranberries

Let batter rest while you prepare the muffin pan!  (This allows the baking powder/soda to work it’s magic!)

• Start by lining the pans with muffin papers sprayed lightly with cooking spray.  Or you can skip the papers and just spray with cooking spray and coat each of the muffin cups with cinnamon sugar!  YUM!
• Fill the muffin cups to nearly the top of the paper/edge.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes, turning half way through baking time. Muffins are done when a tooth pick in the middle comes out clean or with a few crumbs.  Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooking rack as soon as you can possibly handle them!

I used a mini muffin pan for my left over batter and made minis!  they cooked up in about 20 minutes – gotta watch them closely because the bottoms tend to burn.  let’s just say they are good to taste so you can save the big muffins for sharing!

I started with a recipe from my very favorite, King Arthur Flour, for Lemon Squares.

Since I didn’t actually have any lemons, I decided the sensible solutions was to use the limes.  And then blueberries.  Fruit is good for you!  This should count for a fruit serving, don’t you think?

Lime and Blueberry Squares (adapted from KAF)

Crust
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
zest of 1 lime (or two, or lemon!)

Topping
4eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice (approximate, I used the juice of 2 limes)
4 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°F

Make the crust!

Cut the butter into the flour and confectioners’ sugar and press into a 9-inch square pan. Bake 25 minutes or until light brown.

Make the yummy topping!

While the crust is baking, combine all the topping ingredients into a bowl and mix well.  When the crust comes out of the oven and is still hot, pour the topping over it and put it back in the oven to bake for about 30-35 minutes.

Let it cool and then cut into squares, dust with confectioners sugar and devour!

I am a total sucker for gadgets and technology.  This crosses over into my  my love of cooking.  Ok mostly I love baking, but occasionally I actually cook something.  This leads to my passion for local and organic produce, eco-friendly, and green technologies.  (Full circle with the technology!).

I am also married to an artist.  While I have always appreciated good design and art, I never really understood WHY until we met.  He has encouraged me to pursue my creative side, hence my random craft projects, photography, and paintings!  It’s ok to laugh, and I hope it inspires you to just try something for the fun of it!

All of this comes together (haha) with social media!  I find my self devouring lots of social media information and then turning it around to help people when they get stuck in their small businesses and collegues in larger corporations who aren’t using this stuff every day and are then asked to ‘make it work’ (easier said than done, for sure!)

So if any of this is remotely interesting to you – go click on that ‘subscribe’ button over there and comment often!