GF Pumpkin Corn Muffins

I was searching for a corn muffin recipe to go along with our soup last night...the flavor on these were amazing, but they did end up a little dry.  I adjusted the pumpkin and milk *hopefully* next time they will be just right.  (recipe adapted from www.glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com) Oh, and don't forget the xanthan gum....a mistake made once upon a time, I'm not naming names, 

it just may have happened...a crumbly mess will be the result.

1 C sorghum flour

3/4 C GF cornmeal

1/2 C potato starch (not flour)

1/2 C light brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp chili powder (surprise!) or pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp cinnamon 

Combine above ingredients and whisk well.  

In a separate bowl place:

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 C grapeseed or coconut oil (melted)

3/4 C warm milk, or non-dairy milk 

3/4 C pumpkin puree or winter squash puree (a little grated carrot would be grate, too--haha)

 Mix well with whisk and add to dry ingredients.  The best part about gluten free baking is you can't over mix the batter...there's no gluten to ruin your muffins or pancakes by making them hard and stiff.

Line or oil muffin tins and pour batter on in.  

Bake at 375 for 18-20 min.  

Slather on the butter or coconut oil.  

My two littles ate all their borscht so they could dive into these.   

A Muffin Morning

 We woke up to some wet ground this morning....so of course, in order to celebrate what could potentially be the onset of fall, I lit some candles and made some muffins...after searching long and hard online (and on Pinterest), I finally found a recipe that looked worth converting to gluten free.   

(revised from Joy the Baker)

Brown Butter Maple Raspberry GF Muffins

7 Tbsp butter

1/3 C milk 

1 large egg

1 egg yolk 

1 tsp Mapleine (I was out of vanilla)

3/4 C sugar (I used a bit less)

1 C GF Flour blend **

1/4 C Flax meal

1/4 Sorghum flour*

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder 

3/4 tsp sea salt

2 C berries (recipe called for blueberries which I love with browned butter but when I opened the freezer the blues were almost gone and all I had was raspberries...they still tasted amazing in here!)

Brown the butter in a small skillet by melting then after it foams it turns nutty and brown very quickly...don't walk away!  Remove skillet from heat and let cool while you mix the other ingredients. 

Whisk together the milk, eggs, maple or vanilla, and sugar in a bowl.  

In a seperate bowl whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, and sea salt.  

Slowly pour the browned butter into the liquid ingredients, whisking all the while.  

Add the wet to the dry ingredients, then stir in the berries.  

Spoon into greased muffin pans and bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes.  

*Sorghum is a sweeter GF flour and works well in baked goods.  If you don't have it, just sub in a GF flour blend.  The original recipe did not call for the sorghum, but I think it makes a lighter crumb on a GF muffin to add it in.  Neither did the original recipe call for flax meal...I just like it.

**I use a very easy and inexpensive GF flour blend.  Here is the recipe:

3 C brown rice flour

1 C potato or corn starch 

1/2 C tapioca flour 

Blend well with a whisk then a spoon to make sure it incorporates fully.  Store in an airtight container (some people store in the fridge, and I probably should, but don't...)

Beach Vacay 2013

 We gather at Cannon each summer for some good times with family from B.C. 

 Ava blowing some bubbles at Arcadia State Beach

 Jonah with Auntie Heather

 This was the second time it landed on Abram's birthday.  He turned 4!

 Helping Batman cross the street

 Sweet sisters

 Abram tells Jon "Hey Bubble MAN!  Blow! Your! Bubbles!"

 These little cousins had an instant connection.  Princess games will do that for you!

 Photo by Jonah (12)

 Astoria, Oregon...and this is how our family photos go these days

 Poppops burying Ava in the sand on a hot day at Arcadia Beach

 Uncle Greg & Auntie Dawn with Nana & Poppop

 Erin sharing her salt water taffy

 After everyone left Cannon our little (big) family headed 20 minutes north to Astoria...this is before the wooden airplane debacle...you don't want to know.

 The next day we went south to Tillamook and visited the cheese factory for the first time ever!  Yum!

 Okay, so these photos got mixed up...but here we are waiting for the trolley in Astoria.  It was about an hour guided tour and only cost $1 each.  So fun & time for everyone to veg out for a bit.

 Bathroom break made fun at a fort somewhere in Washington...check out Ava in this photo!

Vacation wears you out...and sometimes you sleep with one eye open.

Kitchen Dreamin'...

Loving these kitchen images today and dreaming about incorporating different 

aspects into our redesign  hopefully taking place in 2013...

These are just two of a million images I've pinned....

Ah, Pinterest, what did we do without you?  

I love kitchens that are clean and bright but warm and have a sense of history.  

Dark countertops and a farm sink combined with subway tile and some open cabinets...

Wood floors and white cabinets with dark latches...

His 38th Year

 So thankful for this incredible man...

He is patient and generous, hard-working and funny. 

I feel so blessed to call him mine! 

Happy (late) Birthday Jon!

Blog Guilt

Well, my friends....It's been a while.  A year?  Nearly?  I'd say that's long enough, wouldn't you?
I thought I'd break my silence with these cute things Abram (3) has been doing/saying lately:

-I've been singing songs to the two little kids to help them learn to spell their names (Boo already knows but won't be left out).  Here's Gooey's:  "A-B-R-A-M that spells Aaaaaabram with no ham."  But I caught him singing "B-R-Y-N-N-E that spells Boo-Boo with no ham."

-Mom, I'm big...and you're cute (that one's my fav)

Here's a pic of the little guy to get your heart good and melty.  

A Little Jam

With your toast...?

A Hike

A little family outing on an urban hike. It was fun and the kids did great. We got to the top then Jonah, Ava, and I (Elisabeth) ran 2.5 miles back to the car to drive up and get the other three. The big kids were troopers and I was thinking the entire time as we ran about how fun it is to have older kids as well as young ones. How fun it is to laugh with and raise kids I enjoy being around. How I, like Mary, will treasure up all these things in my heart. How it's days like this one that make the hard ones worth having.
It's true: children are a blessing.