Just a little more pumpkin please!

Even though we are moving into the tail end of winter, the leaves are falling, and the chill is no longer comforting after the hot summer, but now makes you wear your weight in clothing, I am STILL craving pumpkin. Some of you may be sick of it after the holidays but I keep cravings. So I made these pumpkin muffins



They sat in my kitchen overnight and if I had not put a "Do Not Eat" sign in front of them, I'm certain my roommates would have devoured them. But they were a special gift for my boyfriend. However, I made the mistake of bringing them to his parents house and soon learned that out of the eleven I made (well I ate one of course) he only ate ONE! poor guy...

Anyways enjoy!

Recipe from The Pioneer Woman


Muffins:

1 cup All-purpose Flour
½ cups Sugar
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1-½ teaspoon Cinnamon
¼ teaspoons Ground Ginger
½ teaspoons Nutmeg
½ teaspoons Salt
4 Tablespoons Butter, cut into pieces
1 cup (heaping) Pumpkin Puree
½ cups Evaporated Milk
1 whole Egg
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla

Frosting:

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

apples

photo courtesy of lovin' from the oven

One of my favorite things about fall is apples! Marilisa and I took a road trip up to Hillcrest Orchards in North Georgia with our significant others to do a little apple picking last weekend. Unfortunately we missed the actual "picking season," but we still had a great time eating all sorts of treats, buying about 10lbs of different types of apples and listening to some bluegrass in Taylor's jeep.


Apple strudel bars are one of my favorite things to make when I have a couple extra apples on hand. The last time I made them, I sent the treats in the mail to my boyfriend Blake from Austin and he called to tell me he "straight up ate the entire batch in about 3 minutes" and that I needed to make more and send them stat... So I guess they are pretty good :)


Here's the recipe (adapted from here):
SWEET PASTRY:

• 2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 c. real butter, softened (no substitutions!)
• 1 egg, beaten

APPLE FILLING:

• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/4 c. flour
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 4 c. (about 3 medium) sliced, peeled baking apples (I used macintosh)

GLAZE:

• 2 c. powdered sugar
• About 3 Tbsp. milk or coffee creamer (I love using flavored coffee creamer)
• 1 tsp. almond or vanilla extract (which ever one suits you better)
• 1 dash cinnamon

To prepare crust, mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until you have pea-sized crumbles. Gently mix in beaten egg.

Spray a 9x9 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Gently pat about 2/3 of the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the dish. Preheat oven to 350 and set aside.
 
To prepare apple filling, combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Toss with apples and spread apples out on prepared crust. Sprinkle reserved crust mixture over apples evenly and bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes (mine took a little longer to cook in the middle). When finished, allow to cool completely.

To prepare glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, almond extract, and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Place glaze in a Ziploc bag and cut off a very small portion of one of the corners. Drizzle glaze over cooled pastry and allow to harden (you can place it in the freezer to hurry things along). Cut into bars and serve!