Muffin Tin Monday: Pumpkins



Whoa, I have never posted my Muffin Tin Monday post so late before.  What can I say, I had a busy day and a slow computer.  So with out further ado, here is, not only our muffin tin meal, but the making of the muffin tin meal.

We made our pumpkin muffin tin this week because we don't celebrate Halloween, which is what the theme was supposed to be.  And because we made a Columbus Day themed tin a couple of week's ago when we were supposed to be making the Pumpkin one I figured this would be a good compromise.

So, this morning we made Old Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies.  We made these while we were on the letter P, but I figured they went well with the tin.

First we focused on a little bit of math.  I asked how many of the 1/2 cup measures it would take to fill the 1 cup measure.  Tabitha wasn't sure, so we worked it out and found out that it takes 2. (We needed 2 1/2 cups of flour)

So I reinforced this concept as we used a 1/2 teaspoon to measure out all of our ingredients that needed 1 teaspoon (baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon)

And I made sure they knew we only needed one half teaspoon measure to make 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and salt)

The dry ingredients got stirred together and set aside.

The girls were excited as they moved their stools over to the side counter to help mix with the mixer.

We beat together 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup butter.  Then we added 1 cup of pumpkin, 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla.  When that was combined we slowly added the flour mixture.  In the next two pictures the children were enjoying the flour as it blew upward, though it didn't show in the picture.

Moving the stools back.

We had our lesson time while the cookies baked.  Then it was time to make the pumpkin soup.

I peeled and cut up 1 apple into small pieces.  Then the girls helped me add it to the pan with 2 Tbs of butter.

I cooked the apple over medium heat for 5 minutes.

While it cooked we stired the following together:

2 cups pumpkin

1 Tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Then I added it to the apple:

Next I slowly added 2 cups (actually a 14 oz can) of vegetable broth and 1 cup of apple juice.

After it heated thoroughly (but didn't boil) I added 1/2 cup half and half.

Stirred

And served in the muffin tin:

From the bottom up clockwise:

pumpkin soup

grilled cheese sandwich cut with a pumpkin cookie cutter

pumpkin cookie

3 pumpkin candies

green bean pumpkin vines

carrots to represent pumpkins

And look what hubby had found:

Tabitha ate hers really well.  Even though she was disappointed we didn't have tomato soup to dunk the grilled cheese sandwich into.

Amelia on the other hand was not happy with the soup and it took a lot of persuassion for her to even eat the other veges.  She didn't seem to like the candies either.  At least she ate her sandwich.