Pumpkin Patch Muffins

Ben and Melissa gave us a beautiful pan that makes little pumpkin-shaped cakes/muffins last year. This is the recipe that came with it from Williams and Sonoma...adapted quite a bit - the sugar is cut way down.

3 1/3 C. flour ( can use half whole wheat)
1/2 C ground flax
1 Tb bk powder
1 tsp bk soda
2  tsp salt
3 tsp cinnamon (can use more!)
1 3/4 tsp nutmeg
14 Tb softened unsalted butter (can use salted)
1/2 C. br sugar
3/4  C. sugar
4 eggs
1 C plain, unsweetened yogurt
2 C. pumpkin or squash  puree (fresh, frozen and thawed, or canned)
Raisins - handful

-Beat butter and sugars until fluffy.
-Add in eggs and mix well. Add squash and yogurt, mix gently.
-Mix dry ingreds together.
-Add wet to dry ingredients. Add raisins and mix just til combined.
-Bake at 350 in sprayed muffin pans or mini cake pans for ~18-22 min til golden brown.

Yield: 24+ muffins + 12 mini-muffins

Craisin Rhubarb Quick Bread

Every spring I love tinkering around with rhubarb recipes. This one is pretty simple and versatile. Most recipes I could find have gobs of sugar in them. I think this one is plenty sweet and hope you like it! Here's to prolific rhubarb! ;)

2 C. Brown Sugar
3/4 C. Olive Oil
1/2 C Applesauce
2 Large Eggs or 3 medium eggs
2 C. Buttermilk (used 2 Tb. lemon juice with 2 C. milk as substitute)
2 tsp Bk Soda
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
2 C. Flour
2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1 C. Quick Oats
3 C. diced rhubarb
Optional mix-ins: Craisins, Cinnamon

-Mix first five ingredients.
-Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Add in rhubarb.
-Combine til just mixed.
-Split batch and add a handful of Craisins to half of the batch and 2 tsp Cinnamon to the other half of batch for variety. I liked it both ways, although my boys preferred the Craisin loaves.
-Bake at 325 for approximately 40 minutes in lightly greased loaf pans, or until loaf is firm in middle and does not sink in when pressed lightly.

Yield: 3 (large) - 4 (medium) loaves (I used two standard loaf pans and 4 mini-loaf pans).