I, like the rest of the nation, went a little crazy with the pumpkin during baking season. It started with Thanksgiving and didn’t end until today (well, we’ll see. I may be making one final batch of pumpkin pancakes this weekend). On Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin pie. A week later, it was the always popular pumpkin roll for a pre-school parent meeting. After that it was pumpkin cookies for a holiday potluck. Then came mini-pumpkin pies for the office potluck. Then pumpkin-chocolate chip-walnut bread loaves as gift giveaways. Pumpkin pancakes.

And, today, trying to rid myself of the leftover pumpkin, some pumpkin mini-muffins.I made half the batch with the chips & walnuts, and the other half plain. I also kept them in the oven a tad too long. Usually I’m a “get-those-out-of-the-oven-early” kind of gal. You know, they’re still baking in the pan even when you take them out. But I adjusted the time incorrectly when I switched to mini muffins from regular muffins.

Throughout the season I went through two 15-oz cans and 28 oz cans (threw some of one of the 28-oouncers away because it was going on weeks in the fridge), and nearly an entire container of pumpkin pie spice. BTW, the inventor of pumpkin pie spice (as in, one jar combining the right amounts of cinnamon; cloves; nutmeg) is a freakin genius.

Finally, here is one quick tip that I’ll share. Chinese dumpling soup spoons are ideal for doling out quick-bread batter into muffin tins. They’re also good for pancakes. I have a pancake batter doler-outer, which I got as a gift a few years ago and is also cool, but the soup spoon requires less clean-up. Also, they’re good for, you know, soup and dumplings and stuff. I have a cheap melamine set, you can get them cheap at Asian grocery stores. Do it.

A long list of recipes:

• Granny Kat’s Pumpkin Roll (you can find a similar recipe on any Libby-brand pumpkin puree can)
• Perfect Pumpkin Pie (yes, I’m traditional and go with the label recipe) and based my mini pies on this recipe
• Pumpkin Cookies (my preference is to go lighter on the sugar and thus I didn’t add the icing to mine. But I forget that is my preference. If I did these again I’d use the icing, and they’d go from meh to wowsas!)
• Pumpkin Pancakes. Already discussed. The kid has asked for them again. Thus, the already scheduled date for Saturday.
• Pumpkin Bread: My go-to recipe for pumpkin bread is from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. You know which one I’m talking about? The red and white checked book? With instructions on everything? I think the husband must have gotten ours as a gift from his mother. But, i still refer to it even for simple stuff like, ‘how long do I boil corn on the cob?’ ‘how long do i boil rice?’ and so on and so forth. I looked for a link to the recipe online, this one is pretty much it, though the book has a lot more tips and options.
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins Again, a little overcooked (my fault), but the kid tried and liked. It’s hard to go wrong when the ingredients include chocolate chips and pumpkin. Amiright?

Finally, I know earlier i said, no more grains. But that obviously didn’t happen today. Tomorrow, I’m sure. I’ve already pulled out the coconut flour from the pantry. It begins. Soon.