Feeling Fall-ish

I love fall. I love the weather, the staggering natural beauty, and the seasonal fruits and vegetables that making fall cooking so much fun.

Last weekend, I took my girls out for a nature walk. We wandered through our neighbourhood, and picked an assortment of brilliantly coloured leaves.  The variety of foliage was amazing, and we were very, very pleased with our found treasures. 

We pulled out some paper and glue and set our imaginations to work! Here’s the fruits of our adventure:

  

This is Princess Kate wearing a very fance “Leaf Hat.”

We topped off our fall crafts with some fall baking.  Here’s a healthy and delicious recipe for Pumpkin Spice Muffins (courtesy of Courtney’s great recipe blog) that were quite a hit in our house.

Pre heat oven to 350. Prepare muffin tins with cooking spray or muffin papers and cooking spray.

In a small bowl combine ½ cup sugar, pecans and cinnamon; mix until combined.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, all spice and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl cream ½ cup pumpkin, butter and remaining cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Add in egg, egg whites and vanilla and beat until well combined. Scrape down the bowl with rubber spatula. In alternating thirds, add in remaining pumpkin, flour and sour cream. Basically: add in 1/3 of the flour and beat, then add in 1/3 of the pumpkin and beat, then 1/3 of the sour cream and beat; continue until all has been combined.

At this point you have a few options: make 12 large muffins, make 6 large muffins and 12 small muffins, or make 24 small muffins. Typically I make a few large and a few small, but it is up to you and what resources you have. Whatever size combination you decide on, be sure to fill the tins about 2/3. Top each muffin with a teaspoon of the sugar-pecan mixture.

The large muffins will take about 26 minutes to bake while the smaller take about 18 minutes. For both you should rotate the pans halfway through cooking.