Tuesday around 9 a.m.

Just looked over the P.A. paper online. I usually just scan the obits, see what crime happened overnight and then head to the comics page to read Pickles.  Nothing much else interests me. Never used to be that way but it is what it is. Priorities as you age.

I bought a can of pumpkin a couple days ago and thought I'd look online to find a good muffin recipe. I did find one that looked fairly easy.


PUMPKIN MUFFINS
Crumb topping:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
scant 1/2 cup all purpose flour
Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour see note
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup canola, vegetable or melted coconut oil
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon icing:
5 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
For the crumb topping:
In a medium bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, salt, and melted butter. Whisk until combined. Add flour, and stir until the flour is combined. Set aside.
For the muffins:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon/spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk eggs, brown sugar, oil, pumpkin puree and vanilla, until combined. Add flour mixture, and stir until combined (I use a rubber spatula), being careful not to over-mix.
Divide the batter between 12 muffin cups. Pinch off small pieces of the crumb topping and scatter them over the tops of each muffin. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For the icing:
Whisk all ingredients until smooth. Use a small spoon to drizzle icing over the tops of the cooled muffins.

BUT...... then I decided I'd do that another day and this morning, I'll just fall back on this pumpkin/apple bread recipe in my cookbook that is much faster.

As I sat sipping morning coffee, I compiled a 'to-do list' for today. One of the chores (and the one I like the best) is to clean up my picture files (again) on my computer.  They always get away from me so fast. I joined some new groups on Facebook and have contributed pictures to some of them...

ABANDONED WASHINGTON (I've already received a lot of comments on the pics I posted)

HISTORIC OLYMPIC PENINSULA (another fun site to see old photos & I did have a few to share)

LOST & FOUND VINTAGE PICTURES

ANCESTRY HELPERS

RANDOM ACTS OF GENEALOGY KINDNESS

I'm hoping this last group can help me find my brick wall in my family tree-- Charlie Blankenship, younger brother of my grandpa Lew Gene. Got my fingers crossed on that one as I refuse to give up.

I finished sewing my quarter-inch quilt squares together but and since I didn't feel like making a tote bag out of it, I think I'm going to line the back, put a small hem around, and see if it won't work as a table top cover.  Or something?  Gotta do something with it since it took me so long to put together.

I've got a baby blanket to put together for my cousin Linda's daughter in Kentucky as her son just had a baby.  And I'm determined to get started on the craft kit I got for my birthday.  It's going to take a while on that project as there are 26 pages of directions!

Before I do anything, though, I have got to get a pan of beans cooking. Gonna'  throw in a couple of ham hocks. Remember when ham hocks was considered inferior pieces of meat and you could get them for pennies? No more.  So far the only thing supermarkets give away is parking space out front so they can rob you once you walk in the door.  ha ha

And here's three that my daughter shared on her FB page of an outing her and Jake took when he had the day off from school.  Been years and years since I've been to the Seattle Center. I'll have to do that someday.

 He lost his second tooth this week and just pulled it out himself while watching tv.

And here's a shot Andy took of Poppy & Jake walking on Licorice Fern Trail.

And on a sad note, I lost two classmates recently. Three weeks apart and they both lived here in Port Angeles. Virginia Anglin Tomlinson and Lewis Morello. Both friends of mine.  They were the 23rd & 24th to go from our class of 67. Or was it 68? I forget.  That's not counting the 17 other folks that were in our class but didn't actually graduate with us. We still considered them classmates.

                                           Virginia with her mom in Port Townsend

                      Lewie with "his girls" when we met for lunch here in P.A. a few years back

I stayed up until midnight again last night hooked on this show on Hulu called "60 Days In".  About these people who volunteer to go to county jail for two months to try and see why the system is so broken.  Absoutely fascinating. And of course, I found four of the people terribly annoying.  Really annoying!  My favorite was Ali's daughter. Yep. Mohammed Ali. Loved her.  Now I have to go to IMDB and see if other viewers made comments about the participants.