Last Thrusday’s Full and By Farm share pickup included baking pumpkins and carrots. Fall fare. There was plenty more in the share, but these two struck a Saturday morning brunch chord while speaking with Sarah Kurak. So mentioned a recipe she’d used for baking pumpkin carrot muffins. “Delicious,” she said.
I imagined them into existence during my short drive back the house.
“Guess what,” I teased my bride.
“You want to feed Griffin dinner?” she asked, raising her eyebrows optimistically?
“I will,” I said. “But that’s not the mystery.”
I told her that I was going to bake gluten free pumpkin carrot muffins on Saturday morning. “We can sleep in,” I tempted. “And then I’ll make homemade muffins. From scratch. The who house will smell like a pumpkin pie tango-ing with a carrot cake!”
She laughed. And probably forgot. Until Saturday. When the whole house smelled like pumpkin pie tango-ing with a carrot cake. No. Better.
A quick dip into the interwebs introduced me to Nicole Hunn (@gfshoestring). She must have dropped off a batch of her Pumpkin Carrot Muffins in Mountain View, California for the search doctors to gobble up for breakfast because Google loves her!
And I’m not surprised, because a dozen delicious gluten free pumpkin carrot muffins later my bride and I are now BIG fans. Maybe it’s because her recipe is really for cupcakes, not muffins, but what’s the difference. Carrots, pumpkin, eggs from the local CSA? That’s healthy! That more than qualified these delicious breakfast treats for muffin status.
And then this serendipitous tweet inspired me to take the plunge
Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm. ~ Earl Nightingale #creativity #quote
— anita bondi (@anitabondi) November 10, 2012
I love that! The best aphorisms are those we might have coined ourselves.
“Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.” ~ Earl Nightingale
It reminds me of the decidedly unclever but honest way I describe my dancing: what I lack in skill I make up with enthusiasm. I love to dance. But I’ll never be on Dancing with the Stars. Some day I’ll share a few of my moves. A few because that’s all there are! Or better yet, I’ll tell you the story my first dance experience. In middle school. Embarrassing. Scarring. But that juicy morsel for another day.
For now, the world’s most delicious (and healthy) gluten free pumpkin carrot muffins.
Before proceeding, I should mention a few deviations from Ms. Hunn’s recipe. I skipped the raisins and the chocolate chips. My bride dislikes the former and experiences life threatening allergies to the latter. I also opted for organic canola oil in place of all oil/butter, and I replaced half of the sugar with stevia.
En route to homemade gluten free pumpkin carrot muffins… Yum or yuck? We'll soon find out! @ Rosslyn http://t.co/msYZ1u21
— virtualDavis (@virtualDavis) November 10, 2012
We ate our first muffins hot out of the oven. I melted a bit of butter inside. Hot tea. Birds at the bird feeder. Bluebird skies. Late morning, but still in pajamas and bath robes. In short, the odds were stacked. And yet, I feel comfortable saying that the muffins were delicious. It wasn’t just that the moment was ripe. The muffins were amazing!
We had seconds. Thirds. Fourths.
Really.
I’m not exaggerating. They were that good. You might want to give Ms. Hunn’s recipe a try. After all, culinary creativity is a natural (and inevitable) extension of our enthusiasm. Which reminds me, you may want to try a few funky 1980’s dance moves while you’re running the blender…
What do you think?