Pumpkin Crumb Muffins

 
I do most, if not all, of my baking during the holidays. I actually love to bake, but rarely do it. So as the holiday baking season begins, I can't let Thanksgiving go by with out a pumpkin spiced baked good. These Pumpkin Crumb Muffins are to die for. The muffin itself is just sweet enough. Sometimes pumpkin muffins are too sweet for this girl. This muffin is perfect because the cake itself is sweet, but not too sweet, and super moist with the most deliciously buttery, sweet, pie-spiced, streusel topping. Great as a dessert or with your morning coffee. Confession...I ate these every day for a week with my morning coffee. So good but completely not low calorie. Now I remember why I don't bake too much, I end up eating it all myself. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Crumb Muffins

Recipe from The Cafe Sucre Farine
Makes 12

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup milk (I used cream)
1/3 cup melted butter
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Crumb topping
1 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 T sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/8 tsp salt
7 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Spray muffin pan or line with cupcake liners. Combine flour, sugars, baking soda, salt and pie spice in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine pumpkin puree, cream, melted bitter, eggs and vanilla in a small bowl and mix well.  Make a well in the flour and add the pumpkin mixture and stir just until the flour disappears.

For the crumb topping, combine, flour, sugars, pie spice and salt and mix well. Add melted butter and stir with a fork until large crumbs form.

Using a large cookie scoop, scoop mixture into muffin liners or prepared muffin pan. Sprinkle generously over muffin batter.

Place muffins in your preheated 400 degree oven and then immediately turn down the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes, then cover with foil and bake another 5-7 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Other recipes to try:

Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Cake

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Pancetta

I know there are some people who don't like mushrooms. I'm not one of those people. I love mushrooms. Maybe its the meatiness, the earthiness, the overall yumminess. I love sauteed mushrooms with butter, garlic and a splash of sherry to top steaks and burgers. I like them marinated or sliced into salads, but I especially love them when they are creamed into soup. I started this soup base by using the rendered fat from pancetta to saute the mushrooms, onions and celery and it added an amazing depth of flavor. As a bonus, the saltiness of the pancetta salted the soup for us so I didn't add too much more salt once the soup was done. BUt feel free to salt to your personal taste. Use your favorite mix of mushrooms to customize your mushroom flavors and then don't forget to top it with crispy pancetta, fried mushrooms and thyme leaves. It is sheer decadence. For all the mushroom lovers, this recipe is for you. Enjoy!

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Pancetta

Serves 4

4 oz. pancetta, diced
1 T butter
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs mushrooms (I used crimini and button), sliced (reserve 1/2 cup for garnish)
2 Tbsp dry sherry
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup heavy cream
thyme leaves(garnish) 
salt (to taste)

In a dutch oven, cook pancetta until crispy. Transfer cooked pancetta to a paper towel and set aside. In the rendered pancetta fat, fry about 1/2 cup of the sliced mushrooms until golden brown and set aside for garnish.  
Over medium high heat, add 1 T butter to pancetta fat in the dutch oven, then add onions, celery, remaining uncooked mushrooms, and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and onions are translucent. 

Add 2 T sherry and cook until liquid is absorbed. Add chicken stock, thyme and pepper and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes. 

Transfer soup to a blender filling the blender only half full, working in batches as needed. Leave the top insert open but cover it with a towel and blend until smooth.

Transfer blended soup back to the dutch oven and add cream and over medium heat heat soup until hot, about 5-10 minutes more. Serve in bowls, garnish with pancetta, fried mushrooms and fresh thyme. Enjoy!

Other recipes to try.

Quinoa with Mushrooms, Onions and Pine Nuts

Udon Noodles with Mushrooms and Pancetta

Mexican Corn Soup with Fried Cheese

Halloween Decorating 2017

My computer is finally back from the computer ICU. It basically got all new guts, thanks to the virus my kiddos accidentally downloaded while playing Minecraft®. It shut down everything...sigh. No worries kids, I only love Halloween and couldn't post a single thing for the last month. 😥 Luckily these pics were still on my phone.
Things are looking up as I'm finally able to post all my Halloween creations. For the last two months my house has been in complete disarray. Boxes of Halloween decorations and craft supplies, plastic arms and legs, bloody jars, pumpkins inside and out...just crap everywhere during the creative frenzy, I call Halloween. I realize its nearly Thanksgiving, but take a look around and Pin it for next year if you see something you like. Enjoy!

Dining Room

This year I went with a black and white organic palette. Taking from nature, with a twig wreath with black and white oak leaves and white pumpkins. It was difficult to fight the urge to add skulls and spiders to my dining room decorations, however I resisted and created an elegant and very not scary style.  

For the chandelier, I hung a few different types of black leaf garland to create this dramatic fall of foliage mixed in with more of the white oak leaves. I loved this so much I wanted to leave it up all year.

A very simple centerpiece for the table using a grapevine wreath spray painted black, white pumpkins, white oak leaves, black floral accents and candles. Easy and beautiful. Black candles would be great here too.

I love these skull stepping stones I got from the 99. So I added them to my plate rack on the other wall of my dining room. I guess I added a skull or too afterall...;)

Living Room

I went with more neutrals in my living room, echoing the white pumpkins from the dining room. Color inspiration came from the wreath I made using creams and off whites. Unlike the dining room, I added skulls and crossbones.  :)

I continued the neutrals onto my entryway table. Unfortunately, I discovered the limits of my photography skills with the big window behind this table. Just couldn't get the picture I wanted. I took over 100 photos at different times, evening, morning, lights on and off, using filters, adding drapery to filter light, and ended up trying to adjust them in Photoshop for which I have limited skills as well...I'm really not that happy with these pics, but I wanted to post them anyway because I love this vignette.So ignore the yucky lighting. :)

Scarecrow Photo Booth

We threw a Halloween Party this year and I wanted to create a fun outdoor space that is basically a big Photo Booth with prop scarecrows, straw bales, corn stalks and my fake boneyard bonfire.This was so much fun to make and the final effect was really cool.Check it out! 

  Here's the How-to-link!  Boneyard Bonfire

Cemetery

Halloween isn't complete without a cemetery. I didn't get too many pictures of the outside of my house and its hard to see the rest of the tombstones behind the tree. Next year I'll add more to this by adding ground breakers and more tombstones. I wanted to show the cool swirl lights. :)

Bloody Jars

These bloody jars were so fun to make. I've seen lots and lots of specimen jars on Pinterest, most have labels and aged effects. I went with a less is more approach. I wanted to see in the jars so I saved all my plastic mayo, peanut butter, pickle, jalapeno and cheese ball jars.  Filled them with body parts, gauze and fake blood. I put these all over my kitchen for the party. It was a really cool prop.

Decorating with Jacks

I love Jack-o-lanterns. It wouldn't be Halloween without them. Here's a small corner of my kitchen where I display all my cute ceramic pumpkins and jacks. 

Ghostly Woman

Here's an in-process picture (no arms yet) of the ghost I placed in the corner of my living room for the party. She was real simple to make using PVC pipe, foam head and creepy cloth. She came together in less than an hour. Easy breezy.  

Grim Reeper

When my oldest son was 4 years old, we had this grim reeper decoration that made sound and shook when you walked past it. He was fascinated by it. He'd go up to it and trigger the sound and smile. That year, he was Batman for Halloween but he looked at me and said, "Mama, next year I want to be a 'Green Whopper' for Halloween." I laughed so hard, he was too cute. Here's my Green Whopper, (aka Grim Reeper) prop I made. The larger one behind it is one I got from The 99 Cents Only Store. I made mine with PVC, plastic rib cage, vertebra, skull, lots of creepy cloth, and witches hands from the 99.

Easy centerpiece using creepy cloth, bones, skulls, skeleton animals from the 99 and candles...

Easy light-up Jacks

This is just a fun and easy idea. I purchased small plastic treat pumpkins and battery operated tea lights and created this super cute jack-o-lantern. Perfect to add light to props to draw your eye to decorations or to light up walkways. Below, I hung a jack-o-lantern from the mouth of my skeleton cats that I placed in a planter on my patio.

Other Halloween Ideas:
Halloween 2013 
Halloween 2014
Halloween 2015
Halloween 2016

Cassoulet

Time. There just isn't enough of it in each day. Days are jam packed with errands to run, calls to make, chores to complete, kids to shuttle around, meals to cook, homework to do; It's the busy work that fills my every waking moment and leaves little time to nurture my soul. Every evening, exhaustion drags me down along with the realization that the things I wanted to do, was filled with things I had to do. I've always had trouble balancing my need to be productive with the things I really want to do. Now that the holidays are upon us, I'm going to hunker down, get back into the kitchen and feed my soul.     
This recipe reminds me that sometimes I have to clear my to do list, slow down, and make time to savor things that are just for me and take time to complete. Who cares if the laundry's not folded...like I do that anyway. 😉 This Cassoulet recipe is so wonderfully comforting with it's complex flavors of savory sausage and pork, creamy beans with a crunchy buttery breadcrumb topping. Clear your schedule and spend a day at home making this work of art!

Cassoulet

Serves 8-10
Slightly adapted recipe by Teri Appleton-Villanueva

Prep Beans
1 lb cannellini beans, rinse and clean
1 T salt

Soak beans overnight and then cook as directed with added salt.  Drain beans, reserving liquid.

Prep Sausages
2 cups water
12 ounces garlic chicken sausage
2 ounces salt pork
2 T vegetable oil
1 med celery rib
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs of thyme

Place water, sausage, salt pork and oil in a dutch oven. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a quick simmer; cook until water evaporates.Transfer salt pork to cutting board and cool slightly. Meanwhile continue to brown sausages. With kitchen twine, tie together celery, bay leaf, thyme and salt pork together and set aside. When sausages have browned, transfer to cutting board and slice 1 inch thick. Set aside. Do NOT wash dutch oven.

Cook Aromatics
Vegetable oil as needed
12 oz pork shoulder, cut into 1" chunks
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 med carrot, peeled, 1/4 inch dice
2 med cloves garlic, minced
1 T tomato paste

Add oil, if necessary, and pork to the now empty dutch oven and brown pork on all sides. Add onion and carrots, cook, stirring until onion is translucent. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook stirring, 30 seconds. 

Deglaze
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 diced Roma tomatoes
2 to 4 cups chicken stock
fine sea salt and black pepper
Immediately deglaze with wine. Bring to a boil, stir in tomatoes, celery/salt pork bundle, sausages, stock and drained beans. Add some reserved bean liquid enough to cover beans. Simmer soup for about an hour. Skim fat. Remove celery/salt pork bundle and discard. Season with salt and pepper. 

Variation: I like this soup to be thick, so blending about half of the soup makes it thick and chunky. Let the soup cool a bit before blending. Working in batches, pulse the soup in a blender to break up the ingredients into small pieces. Return it to the dutch oven. 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and make the breadcrumb topping below.

Gratinee (Brown Top)
1/4 cup packed parsley leaves
3 T unsalted butter, melted
3 large slices high quality white bread
fine sea salt and pepper

Pulse parsley in food processor until minced Transfer to a bowl, wipe out processor. Pulse bread into crumbs. transfer to parsley bowl and drizzle with butter and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.  Top soup with Gratinee and then bake until topping is golden brown about 30 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

Other recipes to try:

Tortilla Dressing

Parmesan Creamed Onions

Creamed Corn Casserole