I hope everyone out there has had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I don’t think I realized how much I needed a couple of days off. Then, an unfortunately-timed cold decided to show up on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So I’m resting for the holiday and to get rid of a cold, but thankfully that hasn’t stopped too many of my holiday plans.

We’ve had a wonderful weekend with get-togethers with friends on several occasions and tons of great cooking opportunities. We’ve spent plenty of time playing video games and watching Westworld (if you haven’t already, GET ON IT PEOPLE!). We did some very fun volunteer work. And my favorite – we took Black Friday morning to stay in our PJs, put on the Christmas music and decorate for the holiday season.

I have been so busy with work the past couple of weeks that it’s been hard to really rest, and totally put down the job stuff for the night. Not to mention to keep up with my blog. I am very happy to be at the end of that phase! And I think putting up our tree was a great calming point for me. Our home is so beautiful and special – but even more so when the Christmas decor is up. I went right from the tree to detailing my kitchen – cleaning the dirtiest shelves and even the cooktop! – which I haven’t done in FOREVER, but gosh it is just so great to be able to focus on my house for a few hours. And I even started a new knitting project! It feels good to be completing home and craft projects.

I’m looking forward to a much quieter December, and seeing lots of my family. And – more BAKING.

Having lots of weekend commitments recently has also meant less of one of my favorite things- Dave and I baking something delicious for breakfast in the morning. But not anymore! On Thanksgiving morning, I whipped up these perfect pumpkin muffins with a swirl of cranberry sauce (it’s a perfect way to use leftovers! I had some canned from last year). And if you don’t have any left, some berry jam will do just fine.

Pumpkin Cranberry Swirl Muffins

Ingredients

• 7 oz flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 can 100% pure pumpkin
• 2 large eggs lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup 2 percent or higher Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup cranberry sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400.
2. In one bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices with a fork. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, oil and yogurt until they are well-mixed.
3. In as few strokes as you can, fold the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture until it is entirely worked in. Spray or grease a muffin tin and scoop the batter in – it should make exactly 12 muffins.
4. Add about 1 tsp of cranberry sauce to each muffin. Using a chopstick, swirl once or twice around each muffin to incorporate into the batter.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick, chopstick, whathaveyou comes out clean.