PUMPKIN MUFFINS

This week Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp chose Pumpkin Muffins for us to bake. Thank you Kelly - excellent choice! I made the muffins for our Sunday morning "linger at the table, read the newspaper, guzzle coffee" kind of breakfast. I used Craisens, extra cinnamon and allspice (because I like a kick to my pumpkin), walnuts and sunflower seeds on top. Just loved it all. There is not much I can say about the muffins other than they were out of this world delicious. They are the type of food that warms your loved ones insides before heading out on a cool autumn day. Perfect for October!

A little pumpkin history:

Pumpkins originated in Central America.
In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.
Colonists sliced off pumpkin tips; removed seeds and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. This was baked in hot ashes and is the origin of pumpkin pie.

I am dedicating my blog this week to my sweet mom who passed away this year. She would have been 88 years old had she lived just three more days. This will be my first Thanksgiving and Christmas without her.

She grew up on a farm, the eldest daughter of eight children. She learned early in life to be content with little and yet she was the most generous person I have known. She learned to be a mom long before she married dad. I have two older brothers, but I was the baby and only girl so she spent a lot of time teaching me to cook and sew while the boys went hunting or fishing with dad. She was a formidable Rook player, sewed like Betsy Ross, crocheted, cut hair, kept the cleanest house on the block, and could make a bed as crisp as any soldier's bunk. She made beautiful quilts and afghans. She was the "June Cleaver" of moms.

Cooking was such a huge part of her life and thankfully I inherited her love for it. My early memories in the kitchen include the jobs she assigned to me while she prepared the family dinner. She had a way of making me feel as though my little jobs were the biggest, most important jobs of the entire dinner preparation. I got a lot of stirring experience. At five, it was stirring the sugar in the tea, then being promoted to stirring the egg and buttermilk into the cornbread around seven. I stayed right by her side (or maybe under her feet?) as she made cakes from scratch in her stand mixer, always showing me the right way to scrape the sides of the bowl, being cautious of the beaters (we didn't want any fingers to go missing). She helped me bake my first cake when I was around eleven. It was a birthday cake for my grandfather. I'm sure it was probably a disaster, but she seemed so proud of me and that cake.

She made biscuits every morning and cherished her bacon and eggs. One of my best food memories was her old-fashioned chicken and dumplings. She cooked such huge quantities of food we often joked with her about when the army was expected to arrive. Our family seemed to be built on the wonderful meals we shared together and there was always dessert. I think everyone's favorite was her teacakes which were stacked high on our plate with drizzled chocolate sauce on top.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were her favorite times of the year because she was able to show off her culinary talents. Cornbread dressing was her specialty. I will try and re-create her recipe this year, but mine will lack her secret ingredient - the love she tucked inside. There were always pumpkin and mincemeat pies at Thanksgiving, and red velvet and fresh coconut cakes at Christmas. One week before she passed away, she insisted on having a family get together and wanted to cook the entire meal herself. It was quite an undertaking for someone her age who tired easily, not to mention she had pneumonia at the time (which we would find out the next day), but she managed to pull it off. The dessert for that evening was her famous chocolate pie which she referred to as her "water pie" because it contained no milk. This was one of the last photos taken of her.

I am a better person today because of mom. So thank you mom, we miss you, and here's to you!

1920-2008

Thanks for letting me share. Now, for a little FUN stuff . . . .

"Pay it Forward" GIVE-AWAY. In honor of my mom, next week I will be giving away a giftcard to one lucky TWD'r. I wanted to do this because of how down everyone is about the economy. All you have to do is leave me a comment next Tuesday (October 28) with a promise that in a month or so you will pay it forward by having your own give-away, something of your choice of course. I will be using a random number generator to decide the winner - sorry there will only be one winner! I wish I could do more! Be sure to leave me your email address so that I can contact you if you win. I will announce the winner on Halloween! Good luck!