november 26th.

since i didn't have to be at work until 9am today (and zoe still gets up before dawn), i decided to make some pre-thanksgiving muffins for the folks at the office..yesterday, the wonderful heather smith jones posted this recipe on her blog, and it sounded almost -perfect-...i decided to substitute dried cranberries for the raisins and/or pecans, and to top them off with a sprinkle of almond brickle before baking.
so, here is the modified version of heather's wonderful recipe:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (you can be fancy and use whole pumpkin and a food processor..but it was 6am, and i don't do fancy at 6am.)
  
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
  
• 1/4 cup almond brickle
  

combine brown sugar, butter, and molasses; beat well. add egg & pumpkin, beating until smooth. stir together the dry ingredients and add to the pumpkin mixture. stir just until moistened. fill lightly greased muffin pans, a little over half-full. (this made exactly twenty-one muffins...if i had only filled the cups half-full, i could have probably made a full two dozen.) sprinkle almond brickle over the top of the batter before baking in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean). remove from oven, let cool for one minute before removing muffins from pan.

once i got to the office, i warmed them up in our little convection oven for about two minutes, with a spot of butter....sooooooo good.

(and, on a side note---next time i plan on taking a bunch of pictures of my hands, i will try to not have ugly chipped nail polish..heh.)