A Little Fall Love

Yes, it's been about a week since my last post. Not that I think anyone has lost any sleep over this, I've just been tired, lazy, consumed with trying my best to have everything ready for these babies, slightly in denial that it could be right around the corner, and a little burned out on following/creating blog posts lately. Don't worry. I'm sure this is only temporary. I also may forget what a blog is altogether once S & C arrive. However, what is the one thing that can always inspire me? F.O.O.D. I somewhat feel like a newborn lately in that all I do is eat, sleep, nap, and pee. I don't feel guilty about this at all since I will probably not have time to do any of those things in several more weeks. I've also been slightly saddened seeing all of these cute fall decorating posts lately since I have no front porch of my own to don with pumpkins, no front door for a fall wreath, and no living room of my own to burn a pumpkin-scented candle. My mom does a great job with her fall decor, but I definitely have fall decorating envy. Yes, I do realize I will have a fabulous house of my own all too soon to seasonaly decorate as I wish (update and pics on this soon to come).
Ok, back to food. So this morning I was blessed with this insanely delicious-sounding recipe to reignite my love of fall (Thanks, Mary!). I am super excited to make and eat this entire batch. Especially since my sweet mom just bought some decaf pumpkin spice coffee for me. These two together might be heaven. If you venture to make this amazing recipe, I'd love to hear your reviews!

**Update: I made these yesterday, and they are delicious. Word of warning: they are a labor of love. It took about an hour and a half to make these start to finish. I'll let you decide if it's worth it. For what it's worth, we started out with 24 muffins at the Ball House and are down to about 6!


Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Muffins

8 ounce(s) cream cheese

3 eggs

2 1/2 cup(s) sugar

2 1/2 cup(s) flour

1/4 cup(s) pecans, roughly chopped

3 tablespoon(s) butter, melted

2 1/2 teaspoon(s) cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon(s) salt

2 teaspoon(s) baking powder

1/4 teaspoon(s) baking soda

1 1/4 cup(s) solid-packed pumpkin

1/3 cup(s) vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat two 12-cup standard muffin tins with oil and set aside.

Mix the cream cheese, 1 egg, and 3 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl and set aside. Toss 5 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 cup flour, pecans, butter, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine the remaining sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and remaining cinnamon in a large bowl. Lightly beat the remaining eggs, pumpkin, oil, and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, pour the pumpkin mixture into the well, and mix with a fork just until moistened. Evenly divide half of the batter among the muffin cups. Place two teaspoonfuls of cream cheese filling in the center of each cup and fill with the remaining batter. Sprinkle some of the pecan mixture over the top of each muffin and bake until golden and a tester, inserted into the muffin center, comes out clean -- 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.