Category: muffins

hey everyone, happy november! i went and disappeared for a few weeks again, but i’m back again with a delicious fall recipe. i’m actually writing this post from a bus on my way back from nyc where the girl and i celebrated our 4 year dating anniversary by eating delicious food and walking pretty much every square block of the city. friday night we hit thomas keller’s bouchon bakery, followed by dinner at 3 separate places in chinatown (mei li wah is AMAZING). saturday, despite being full from dinner the night before, it was burgers at shake shack, including a “pumpkin pie oh my” shake, which is a shake with a pie of pumpkin pie INSIDE OF IT. the future is here, people. later that night, we were lucky enough to dine at kefi for some awesome greek food. there was more food along the way, but i’m getting dizzy thinking about it. in any event, it was our kind of anniversary.

but now it’s time to head back home to beautiful washington dc, the land of, as i found out this past week, about a million food bloggers. we were finally able to make it to one of the food blogger happy hours last wednesday and had the pleasure of meeting some people we’ve been fans of for so long (check out the dc section of the links page – i love these people). if you haven’t made it out yet, it’s a great time with an incredibly warm and inviting bunch of people who are obsessed with food and drink, and it’s a great opportunity to pick everyone’s brains for their favorite restaurants as well.

whew, i’m kind of all over the place with this post and i haven’t even gotten to the muffins yet. i guess it’s been a busy few weeks (and i didn’t even get into me getting SWINE FLU for a week – seriously). anywho, the recipe is from the always great pinch my salt, whose recipe index i’ve relied on more than once. the fact that they are whole wheat bears special relevance to me right now, since the girl has been slowly influencing my baking since we moved in together – namely by turning every recipe into a whole wheat recipe. i was skeptical at first, but i’m slowly coming around (whole wheat waffles are actually REALLY good). these muffins can be frozen and are great to grab in the morning for the walk to work. hopefully the reported pumpkin shortage this year doesn’t hurt your chances of making these (or any of your pumpkin favorites). good luck!

i’ve got something to admit: i’m not a big fan of muffins. i think the concept is great, but in execution, i’ve just been let down too many times by ones that are bland, dry and overwhelmingly huge (with the exception of my mom’s blueberry muffins – those are amazing). these particular ones right here, however, have brought me a new kind of joy and encouraged me to accept muffins back into my life without question.

the girl and i have been meaning to go apple picking all fall and we finally made it out to the countryside this past weekend. we ended up at rock hill orchard, a small farm in mount airy, MD. luckily, they still had plenty of apples to go around, as well as a big pumpkin patch.

we picked about 15 lbs of apples and the girl grabbed a pumpkin that we made into soup that night. it’s a great little farm with amazing hot apple cider (free samples!). this was the first time i had ever picked apples from a tree, and it’s incredible to actually see where your food comes from. it makes you want to only grow your own crops and never visit a supermarket again.

it’s a good thing we got so many apples because i plan on making a batch of these every weekend. they are that good. they will keep for a few days (i just kept them on a plate covered with plastic wrap), but will probably disappear sooner. i found myself eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and as snacks) in a psychological game that played out with my taste buds asking my brain after each muffin, “why not have another? they’re so light and moist…and delicious…and yep, here we go, we’re eating another, oh god they are so good, why did we even bother asking you in the first place, brain?” my brain is clearly powerless in this situation.