Pumpkin Patch 2010 In Review

Ian and I visited the All Seasons Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch in Woodstock, IL. The patch is about an hour and half away from Chicago, and it brought all the wonderful things you would expect from rural Illinois. We shared apple cider and apple doughnuts, picked our own pumpkins and walked through the corn maze. It was a perfect day.

Pumpkin Mini Muffins

With copious amounts of time on my side, I have been scouring food blogs and found a new goodie: girlversusdough. She makes some excellent baked goods, so I gave her pumpkin pecan muffins a go with some tweaks of my own. I halved the recipe, added more pumpkin and made mini muffins instead. I also added walnuts instead of pecans because pecans are sick. UPDATE: pumpkin is still delicious.

Pumpkin Shortage 2010

It seems as though the weather waited to change until exactly the first day of fall this year. This past weekend brought clouds and cold, and the air felt crisp. This weather prompted us to take a weekend pilgrimage to Whole Foods to pick up some dinner items and fall baking ingredients. I opted for the Pumpkin Walnut Bread, which included pureed pumpkin. We found all of our ingredients except for the pumpkin. I asked the Whole Foods helper where it was, and she said she didn't think they had any because of a pumpkin shortage. This news sent me into a tailspin. What? No Pumpkin!? How can this be? What about all the pies, breads, cookies and custards? Heart broken. I thought about giving up, but didn't. I couldn't. I went to four stores that day on the hunt for pumpkin puree, and alas, in the fourth store found a whole display of Libby's pumpkin products. Hooray! There were only a few measly cans left, but I snatched up two 29 ouncers. You won't find me without pumpkin this year.
Apparently the pumpkin shortage is over. Last year's rains caused the pumpkin shortage throughout the holiday season which dragged into the year, but this year there will be a wealth of pumpkin puree goodness. With one of my 29 oz cans, I made the bread seen above and a healthy pumpkin oatmeal cookie. I still have some pumpkin left over, but something tells me I may be making any one of these.