Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I dedicate this post to my friend Deb for the recipe I used, and tweeked a bit to meet my lack of spices here in Japan. I also dedicate it to my friend who lives Down Under, Leanne, who encouraged me to use real pumpkin and not get scared because I did not have canned pumpkin. And finally, this is dedicated to two friends, one in Ashville and one in Tokyo, who told me how to roast a pumpkin.

I love to bake, and especially during the holiday season. It starts with pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for the month of October and November. In the US, I would enjoy my pumpkin muffin with a pumpkin spiced latte from Starbuck's, but the Starbuck's here does not market the pumpkin spice flavor. Such a tragedy. Anyways, the problem I had was the recipe I was using called for canned pumpkin, which I could not find at my local Japanese supermarket. So with a little bit of research and asking around, I decided to venture out and roast my own pumpkin. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the pumpkin before I "worked" on it, but I think we all know what a pumpkin looks like. The Japanese pumpkin I used to cook with was small and green and is actually quite sweet.

I began my process on a Friday morning by roasting my pumpkin in the oven. I did it slowly at a low temperature and let it cool throughout the day. I came home, gutted the pumpkin, took out the seeds and pureed the soft parts in the blender. The next morning, I took my pureed pumpkin and with the help of my All-purpose flour from the US, made fabulous pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. As you can see from Miyako's expression she really enjoyed them. Pumpkins are fairly inexpensive compared to other vegetables, and I really enjoyed the process of using the whole pumpkin rather than just the can. Now, do not get me wrong - when I get my gift of canned pumpkin to help make Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, I will use them. But I am not afraid to cook without the canned pumpkin. I will have to compare the muffins and see which ones taste better - the ones with canned pumpkin or my homemade pumpkin.

My next step on the pumpkin cooking ladder - I would like to make a pumpkin based warm soup. If anyone knows of a good recipe please let me know or send me a link.

Kan left for Seoul today. He has a busy couple of weeks - Seoul this week and Taiwan next week. Then his American parents come to visit! So we will have more parents around which we are looking forward to. We are blessed that both sets of American parents are getting to visit our new home this year.

Miyako is doing well, although asserting her independence more and more. I told Kan when she is 15 I will wish she is doing what she is doing at age 2, but right now it can be a bit trying. At the same time, she can be the sweetest little girl. Tonight we were singing, "The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me..." and after I sang it one time, she said, "More Bible" and did the little sign for "more." So sweet. My prayer is that at age 30 she will still want "more Bible" and cling to His Word for strength and wisdom. I think we sang the song about 30 times tonight.

More to come...