Baking Again

What do you do when you are feeling angsty for some unknown reason?

I bake. Today I made a sour cherry pie. I bought sour cherries at Trader Joe's. I made a lattice crust, although it looks very amateur. I also made pumpkin muffins. I was short an ingredient for the muffins, which I only realized after starting to make them. I then improvised this recipe. I plan on making them more when fall comes.

Pumpkin Muffins

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1 egg
1/2 c. pumpkin puree
1/2 c. oil or melted butter (I used oil)
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/2 c. golden raisins
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix flours, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Mix egg, pumpkin puree, oil, and maple syrup in a smaller bowl. Add to flour, along with raisins and pecans. Stir quickly, and divide among 12 oiled or lined muffin cups. Bake 15-20 min.

So long ...

... since my last post. I guess I have been busy! My garden is doing good - very overgrown and it was too hot for a long time to deal with it. Nevertheless, I have gotten some delicious tomatoes (green zebra, black krim, and rutgers). Today, I made dinner with tomatoes and basil from the garden. I boiled some mini potatoes. When they were done, I drained them and tossed with a lemon vinaigrette (1 clove garlic, grated; zest from 1/2 lemon; juice from 1 lemon; salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste). I let that marinate while I made the rest. For the basil sauce, ~3 cups packed basil blended with 1 clove garlic (I grated first), zest from 1 lemon, juice from 1-2 lemons, and a splash of olive oil. Then, I sauteed up some peppers in garlic and olive oil. The peppers were small sweet peppers, so I just cut them in half (very pretty!). Then, I arranged the sliced tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers on a plate, and drizzled with the sauce. It isn't in the picture, but we ate it with a wedge of goat brie. The only thing missing was a piece of good bread!
The garlic I used was from my parent's garden. My sister made us a garlic braid. The garlic is very delicious and also very strong.