By Shellie Morettini of  Blueberry Acres, also a member of MOWomenBloggers

Giving up canned pumpkin and making some great muffins to boot!

Pumpkins! It’s the call of fall in our household. Our little Blueberry can sniff out a pumpkin patch like some kids know when you are hiding chocolate in the house. As a result, we find that we enjoy many pumpkin-centric treats at this time of year. But while we long ago gave up canned pumpkin, I have discovered that a great many home cooks still rely on canned when fresh is so much more amazing!

If you are thinking about trying to be a little more conscious with your food, finding fresh local produce from small farmers like us is a fantastic way to not only get to know your neighbors but it’s also a smart way to help your kids better connect with the food they eat.

To start, pick out some midsize pumpkins. If you have a choice, I recommend sugar pumpkins. They are typically easy to find and available both at farmer’s markets and your local mega mart.
Slice off the tops and then scoop out the interior. Once clean, bake flesh side up in a 350 degree oven for 20-35 minutes. Some recipes will suggest oiling them or seasoning them. I like to just roast them dry.

Just keep an eye on the pumpkins after 20 minutes to ensure that they don’t burn. A little bit of carmelization is a good thing but you don’t want them to look like the crazy tanning lady.
Once they have cooked and cooled, you can scoop out the flesh and discard the skin, or if you are like me, make some happy little Berkshire piggies happy by giving them the leftover pumpkin.

I just love those piggies and will use any excuse to show pictures of them: Wilbur, Spot, White Fur, Stinky and Hubert (he’s French), our baby barrow Berkshire piggies. I love them. And yes, I will eat them too…but I digress.

From there, you can freeze the flesh or use it right away. I’m more of an instant gratification kind of gal, so I made muffins with my freshly cooled pumpkin. And when I say muffins, let’s be honest…I mean cupcakes that I call muffins so I feel a little better about myself.

Blueberry’s favorite Pumpkin Muffins
For the muffins:
1 cup room temperature butter
1 ½ cups pumpkin puree
1 to 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
2 ½ cups AP flour
½ to ¾ cup instant rolled oats
For the topping:
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons AP flour

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter, sugar and pumpkin together with an electric or stand mixture. Then add eggs and mix until thoroughly incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients.

After you have mixed your dry ingredients, slowly incorporate them into your wet mixture. The dough should be wet but not overly wet. Think cookies versus cake. From there, scoop into muffin cups-about 2/3 full. From there, mix all of your topping ingredients in a separate bowl and spoon generously on top of your muffins before baking for about 20-25 minutes.
I’ll be honest; this isn’t a great shot of the muffins. By the time I took this, I had downed several of them…in the name of research, of course! However, all of that sugar made me a little jumpy. Sigh. The things I do for blogging.

While you can absolutely buy pre-ground spices, I strongly recommend that you invest in one of these cool little things:

I cannot tell you how much I love this little grater. And if you are wondering what the heck that is in my needing to be manicured hand, its nutmeg. Once you have smelled freshly grated nutmeg, you will want it on and in everything. The little plastic jars of spices cannot hold a candle to this. In addition, this little grater can also help you discover the joy of freshly grated cinnamon

I was trying to be so cool and give you an action shot here of me grating fresh cinnamon into the mix. However, shortly after I snapped this, I managed to grate about half of my finger into the mix. You will note that I didn’t include that in the ingredient list. You are welcome.

What I really love about these muffins is that they are idiot proof, and frankly, living my life, I need more things that are idiot proof. The first time I made this recipe, I forgot the baking soda and powder but they still turned out like rock stars…or rocks, but at least tasty rocks. If you wanted to riff on this recipe, you could substitute applesauce for some or all of the butter. You could also swap out whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour. In addition, you could omit some of the sugar. Bottom line is that there are many ways to make and remake this recipe..just get in the kitchen and bake!
Shellie Morettini, a member of ARWB and MOWomenBloggers, is a Mom/Wife/Farmer/Consultant whose daily life screams “portfolio career” whether she likes it or not. Her family is sharing their journey from a hectic city life to a more bucolic life on their little farm, Blueberry Acres where they raise heritage chickens and turkeys, Berkshire pigs, Belted Galloway cows, organic produce and one 5 year old nicknamed The Blueberry. To help support her husband’s livestock obsession, Shellie maintains a virtual practice where she offers outplacement, resume writing, job search and recruitment consulting to both individuals and organizations. She rants blogs about job search and recruiting topics at Looking2Landed.
Shellie has been featured on MSNBC, Modern Homesteaders and her mother’s fridge among other places. She always welcomes an excuse not to clean chicken yards, so feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.