Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Posted on February 26, 2008 by Donalyn

Alright – if you hang around here much, you know I made these with squash. I can’t hide from you – I confess, you have found me out and I cannot lie. In things like this, pumpkin and squash are nearly always interchangeable. At least they are until there is a little more room in my freezer. And in case you were worried that I would run out, I ordered 4 kinds of squash seeds just last week, so you can put your mind to rest about that. Anyway – these are really yummy and canned pumpkin will work just fine.

Preheat oven to 350 and line a 12 muffin tin with muffin cups

First – in a small bowl combine & set aside:
4 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Stir together in a mixing bowl:
1 cup all purpose white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

You can mix this all together in another bowl, but I just beat the eggs and throw it all in the bowl with the flour and stuff and mix just till combined, not smooth.
2 beaten eggs
1 cup pumpkin
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 & 1/4 cup low-fat butter milk or reg low-fat milk


Fill each muffin cup about 1/3 full, top with the cream cheese, evenly divided and try to get that right in the middle. Evenly divide the remaining batter – this recipe makes 12 muffins, so use it all up. Bake for about 25 minutes, turning the pan once half way through – you can test them with a toothpick for doneness, but try to miss the filling of course.

Squash recipes are going on an indefinite hiatus now – my 8 month old granddaughter is reportedly a squash addict and I am counting on her to suck up quite a lot of it over the next 3 weeks or so that she will be living at my house. Then we will assess our squash supply and see where we are. I saw them make squash ravioli on Iron Chef America once and I am not above giving that a try.

Later today – a Tuesday bonus post!

Posted in recipes | 10 Comments

Photo Facts

Posted on February 24, 2008 by Donalyn

I was tagged for this meme by Flea
I have to post 5 facts about myself, each of which must be illustrated by a photo.

This is my sister Weezee and me sitting on the front steps of the house where we grew up. It was – and is – a typical small town neighborhood with piles of children, nosy old ladies, dogs that bit, and our grandmother’s old lady underwear flapping in the breeze on her clothesline next door. I still live fairly close – about 25 minutes away from this very spot.

This is one of my absolute favorite places on earth – Niagara Falls. This was taken of the Canadian Falls, from Goat Island. [again with the goats!] Lar and I had both been here growing up, but never together until the kids sent us for our 30th anniversary. It amazes me how many people just walk up to the edge, snap a few photos and off they go. Maybe they look at the pics a long time later on? I could stand and watch it all day. It is, after all, water running over rocks and we know how much I love that!

This little bunny is in my back shade garden. He reminds me of my grandmother who loved Peter Rabbit [maybe even a little more than a grown woman really should] and never tired of reading that book to us. He makes me happy.

This is one of my very favorite possessions – my Bodum French Press coffee pot. There is no way on earth to make a better cup of coffee than in a French press. I love it to distraction. [If you decide you must have one and you use my little Amazon search thing over there on the left, I make a nickel or so – just saying’] And Flea – you will notice from this pic that Fred and Bessie would probably feel pretty at home here at casa dlyn. Lauren was maybe 9 or 10 when she saved up her allowance to buy me that little cow soap dispenser you see – and he is not without bovine company around here if you get my drift. I wonder how often a snooty French press gets to share counter space with a decidedly un-chic ceramic cow soap dispenser? And come back tomorrow for the recipe for those muffins.

And finally, it has been a long winter – I think I need a little sun

For this one, I am tagging:Kate at Chronicles of a Country Girl – can’t wait to see her photos. My sister Weezee cause she will have fun with it. Scarlett at I’m no belle, cause she is nuts. And Marie, who just celebrated her 100th post with a 100 point meme – she can can probably come up with a few photos to illustrate 5 of them. Finally Ashleigh at My trivial ramblings ’cause the girl just got new camera – so she can show it off to us!
The rules for this meme are as follows:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Posted in me | 19 Comments

Sunday Prayers

Posted on February 24, 2008 by Donalyn

Something a little different today – give Glenn Kaiser a listen. blessings!

Posted in Sunday | 7 Comments

Something else that loves daylilies

Posted on February 23, 2008 by Donalyn

You will have to forgive me for 2 grandchild-centric posts in a row. Though today, we are also talking about daylilies, which is a Saturday thing and goats, which I believe are legal to talk about on any day of the week.

Remember this pic from last week?
I took this with my camera phone after Ellyn and I got back from a deliriously ecstatic morning at a great daylily garden near her house. Row after row of gorgeous plants for fabulous prices. I had a hard time restraining myself to just 7 selections. Restraint and daylilies are not terms that easily co-exist for me.

But that is not really what this post is about. It’s about the fact that the woman who owns this particular daylily garden is an absolute genius. Because when you have that many daylilies, you have a nasty little chore called deadheading. Each daylily flower last only one day. Then you are left with the spent flowers and it takes days for them to drop off on their own. Now of course in my own garden, I get out there at the crack of dawn every morning and snap every one of those nasty things off. Yep. Well, sometimes I might miss a few.
But, I don’t have huge growing beds or lots of people traipsing around who I want to bedazzle with gorgeous flowers so that they will buy them. When you have that kind of business, it is essential that you keep up with your deadheading.

That is where these guys come in:
Apparently goats love daylilies. But that is not the real genius, because the problem is not what to do with the blossoms after you get them off, but getting them off to begin with. And adorable though these little guys may be, I doubt they are very selective and unopened blossoms are probably just as tasty as the dead ones. No, just having the goats is not the genius part. Here is the genius part:
See? The little goats look all cute and engaging and the kids want to go see them and then the lady who owns the place, goes over and pulls a few deadheads off a couple plants and casually hands them to the parent, telling them “The goats LOVE to eat these.” So the parent takes their kid over to see the little goats and the kid is immediately captivated by shoving the deadheads through the fence and watching the cute little goats gobble them up. “Let’s give them some more Mommy!” But the daylily lady is now nowhere to be found, so the parent does this amazing thing! She goes over and starts deadheading daylily plants so her child can be further enchanted by feeding the little goats some more.And when those are gone, the parent goes and gets some more! [can you believe Ellyn gave birth only 2 days after this photo? I was bigger than this by the time I got out of bed the morning after conception with my second baby! she gets this from the women on her father’s side of the family. not from me. definitely not from me.]
 Who would not want to see their kid having this much fun? The day lily lady actually rents these goats every summer. And every day she sits, sipping on drinks with umbrellas in them, while parents/grandparents/customers stand out in the hot sun doing her deadheading for her so their kids can feed the goats. Genius I tell you!
I think any amount of deadheading is worth seeing your grandson enjoy himself this much. On the other hand, I have a heck of a lot of deadheading to do around here and these peeps are going to be living a lot closer this summer which means I can expect to see them around a lot more. Hmmmmmmmm – I wonder how much is costs to rent a goat anyway?

Posted in garden, grandchildren | 23 Comments

Grandchild-proofing my house

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Donalyn

So it looks like in just one short week, we will be invaded by a marauding band of ……… grandchildren. [and their parents will be here too of course] As mentioned before, the E&J family is moving a couple hours north of us and we are a way station of sorts for a few weeks while they get their bearings, figure out where they want to live relative to where Jason will be working and start looking for a house to buy. The plan is that they will be here for 2 or 3 weeks probably.

I am pretty certain that my perfect, angelic grandchildren would never get into anything they shouldn’t. Right? Can I get an amen?

Yeah – I didn’t think so.

Anyway, I would put the things I want to keep away from them in boxes or maybe some rubbermaid containers, but I’m not sure that is how the parents of today do things:

Going through some old pics on my computer, I come across these examples of modern-day parental storage that just seem…..not right to me.

And I realize they are getting ready to move and all, but back in my day, we moved our children in car seats and car beds and such – we didn’t store them in boxes:

And if I had known that bin of duplos I bought would eventually come to this, I think I would looked for another gift:

Now, it seems, you put the children in containers. Can you blame me for feeling confused?

Posted in grandchildren | 24 Comments