Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Muffins

Fall is the perfect time for pumpkin recipes. When I looked around online for pumpkin muffin recipes, the ones I found called for tons of sugar; some even started with a cake mix. However, I wanted some nice substantial muffins that were not too sweet or filled with preservatives from a mix.

I found my recipe the old-fashioned way--in a book that was sitting on my shelf! This is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (1989), [with my changes in brackets].

I've tried this now with pumpkin, and with sweet potato. Both ways make a delicious muffin.

1-3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
[1/2 tsp. salt]
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves

1/2 cup [you can use as much as a cup] canned pumpkin [or cooked, mashed sweet potato]

1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil

1/4 cup chopped nuts [toasted pecans]

Mix in a large bowl the egg, milk, oil, and pumpkin. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients and the chopped nuts, just until mixed. Lightly grease muffin cups, fill 2/3 full. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

Marj's Salad Dressing

Our friend Marj drove down from the Netherlands to visit us when we stayed in Monts-sur-Guesnes (See Vacationing in French Country House, Was it all a Dream?). As you can see from the photo above, we had a wonderful kitchen and lovely food available from all the local outdoor markets. 

Marj made a salad dressing for us one night, the sort of thing a good cook just throws together, adding a bit of this, tasting a bit, and adding a bit of that. When I asked for the "recipe" she gave me the list of ingredients:

Equal parts of:

Olive oil

Apple cider vinegar

Add to taste and whisk all together:

Sautéed pine nuts

Chopped garlic

Mustard

Honey

Salt and pepper

The salad was delicious. We ate it on this veranda. What a wonderful evening!

Pinterest: Where You'll Find My New Favorite Recipes

Times change and social media seems to make time change even faster. Back when I started this blog in 2007, it was a good place for my son and me to post recipes for each other and for anyone else interested. It was easy to search by keyword, and we used it a lot--557 posts and recipes worth, to be exact.

Nowadays, I've been keeping my new favorite recipes over at Pinterest. You can find me there under Clair Zarges. I have pinned recipes to a whole bunch of my boards under Cook/Bake, then divided them up by Breads, Soups, Sandwiches, Pork, Beef, and so on.

I hope that you will check out my boards and everyone else's recipes as well. I hope to see you there.