Weeds in the Garden

Spring is here finally.  We've had a very wintry winter to say the least. It's been a while since we've had so much snow and I personally enjoyed it.  Well, once I got back into town.  The boys and I were in Florida the day it snowed and I wondered how soon we could get back due to the road conditions in South Carolina.  Thankfully the roads were passable the day we planned to head back. One of the first things I did in late February was cover my garden beds with black plastic.  The idea was to heat and cook the seeds that laid in them over the winter.  This way they wouldn't sprout into seedlings later.  For the most part it seemed to work in the beds.

But as you can see my mulch areas are full of weeds and the beds seem to be clear for the most part.  I think maybe next spring I should just cover the whole thing. You never know it might save a lot of back breaking work pulling weeds.  Oh true I'd rather pull weeds than do the dishes any day, but when you have so many it seems never ending.

This year I took out the pole beans and I'm trying Pumpkins instead.  Oh don't worry I have beans in there. I always do bush beans in my garden, long before I started doing pole beans.  Anyway I thought I'd let the pumpkins trail over the edge of the bed onto the mulch area.  Can't wait to see how they turn out.  Who knows maybe the boys will be craving our own pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns this year.

Aunt B's Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Happy New Year Everyone.  I know it's late for that, but I've been so busy with the holiday break with the boys that I haven't had much time to think about creating anything new.  Then on top of that they no sooner get back to school and we have school delayed 2 days in a roll due to the usually cold arctic air we had here.  Thankfully today was an uneventful day with it only in the 20's this morning, so everyone went to school time.

This is a recipe I was working on right around Halloween and I wasn't able to test it one more time until now.  The first time I made it there seemed to be something missing.  It just wasn't spicy enough, so I turned to my Facebook family and I had several suggestions that were really great ideas. One was from my oldest sons elementary teacher he had years ago. She said Apple Butter and I thought now that's a good idea.  Thanks Laura!

Aunt B's Pumpkin Spice Muffins

WET INGREDIENTS :

                      

1/2 c Light brown Sugar

2 Lg Eggs at room temperature

1/2 c Almond Milk

2 tbls Oil

1 tsp Vanilla

1/3 c Pumpkin

2 tbls Apple Butter

DRY INGREDIENTS :

3/4 c Brown Rice Flour (119 grams)

3/4 c Potato Starch (144 grams)

1/2 c Tapioca Starch (60 grams)

1 tbls Baking Powder

1 tsp Xanthan Gum

1/4 tsp Sea Salt

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Pumpkin Spice

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 c Chopped Walnuts (plus extra walnuts chopped fine for topping)

Directions:

Preheated the oven to 350° and grease the muffin tin. In a separate bowl blend together all of the dry ingredients and set that to the side. In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs, then add the rest of the wet ingredients one at a time. Once the wet ingredients are all mixed together slowly add the dry ingredient that you blended together earlier. Last add the walnuts. Scoop the muffin mix into the muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes. Allow it to cool just enough for you to remove them from the muffin tin. Don't let them sit too long in the tin, because the longer they do the more moisture builds up on the bottom of the muffins.

Remember all wet ingredients should be at room temperature when baking.