Sorry- I just can't post pictures of the pears because, as I discovered, I have not a smidgen of talent for food photography.

However, I will post a picture of the pumpkin cream cheese muffins I made. They were delicious. I ate 3 jumbo muffins and one regular-sized muffin yesterday (for the sake of the blog, of course, so it can live up to it's name).














I was thinking of making pumpkin muffins, then I remembered the delicious pumpkin cake roll with cream cheese that we had last year at thanksgiving, and I was inspired to make a cream cheese filling. I think I did the right thing.

I made one and a half batches of the following recipe, and it made 12 jumbo muffins plus 4 regular sized muffins.

Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling
Adapted from Letters, Gourmet,
November 2006 which was dapted from the American club, in Kohler, Wisconsin

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned
solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15-oz can)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
1¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
½
teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt1 teaspoon cinnamon

Filling:
beat together the following:
1 8-oz brick of cream cheese
1/3 C
sugar

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put
liners in muffin cups. Whisk together flour and baking powder.Whisk together
pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, 1¼ cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a
large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined. Stir
together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.
Put a
spoonful of batter in each muffin cup. Add a spoonful of cream cheese mixture
and top that with batter until each cup is 2/3 full. Sprinkle tops with
cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or
skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and
cool to warm or room temperature.

Last night Ryan and I enjoyed what is possibly THE perfect dessert.
Surprisingly, for those who know me, it doesn't involve massive amounts of
chocolate. It doesn't involve chocolate at all. How, then, can this possibly be the most perfect dessert? The virtues of this luscious dessert are many. It is easy and comes together quickly-- you might even have all 6 ingredients on hand. It is healthier than the average dessert, and even low-fat if you don't scrape up every last bit of the sauce (like I did last night). It has a rustic beauty worthy of company. The spices evoke cozy fall-like feelings, and the aroma fills the kitchen as you bake these delicious pears. I can't say enough about these pears. I am going to make them again tonight, and then I will post a picture. This recipe is from "Anna Rose's Pears" at Cooks.com

Creamy Baked Pears
2T butter
1T Sugar
dash of nutmeg
dash of
cinnamon
2 pears
1/2 C whipping cream

preheat oven to 400
degrees farenheight. wash core, and half 2 pears. Don't peel. Melt 1 T butter in
dish. Sprinkle with 1 T white sugar, dash of nutmeg, and dash of cinnamon. Place
pears face down on top of butter mixture and dot the pear peels with the
remaining 1 T butter. bake for 5 minutes. Pour 1/2 C cream over the pears. Bake
for 10-20 minutes, or until pears are tender.

By the way- welcome to my new blog. Inspired by pears. Powered by gluttony.