A Visit From Evergreeners

The breakfast table is set for our Evergreen guests.

For about ten years Dan and I have been members of the Evergreen Club.  Members host other members in their own homes for a nominal fee, and it's a great way to travel inexpensively and to meet interesting people.  We just hosted Phil and Kathy from California who had visited in New Jersey and were on their way to Florida.  Raleigh was a convenient stop along the way.  It's like having a B & B, but you serve as hosts only when it is convenient. 

I enjoy preparing breakfast for the Evergreeners when they visit.  This week we had a simple breakfast of coffee, orange juice, fresh fruit, pecan raisin bread with pumpkin cream cheese spread and homemade pumpkin muffins.

Strawberries and pineapple.

Homemade pumpkin muffins.

Pecan raisin bread with pumpkin cream cheese spread.

If we find ourselves in California, we might just stay with Phil and Kathy at their place. 

Phil and Kathy, our Evergreen guests.

You might like to check out the Evergreen Club website.

Don't Have a Trader Joe's? You Need to Move

In a review of Trader Joe's Grocery Store that I read recently someone said, "If you don't have a Trader Joe's, then you need to move."  I like Trader Joe's so much that I think I agree with this.  I noticed in the recent Consumer Reports issue that reviewed grocery stores Trader Joe's gets a very high rating.

Here are some of my favorite things from Trader Joe's:

Mandarin Orange Chicken (Voted the most favorite item by customers last year.)

Their produce is always fresh.

Sparkling clementine drink.

Sparkling lemonade.

The bon bons are delicious.

This makes great muffins. Available around Thanksgiving.

Best Greek Yogurt I've eaten.

We're glad we don't have to move.  Trader Joe's is quite near here.

Pumpkin Muffins from a Mix

These cool fall days are perfect for making pumpkin muffins.  I usually make muffins from scratch, but Sunday I decided to make some from a mix, actually I tried two different mixes, Trader Joe's and Williams-Sonoma's.

Williams-Sonoma mix.

Trader Joe's mix.

A year or so ago I bought a set of silicon muffin cups from Williams-Sonoma, and they make it so easy to get the muffin out of the tin.

Williams-Sonoma sili-cups.

Muffins cooling.

I found both mixes to be good, but Trader Joe's is much less expensive than those from Williams-Sonoma (these do have pecans as well which could add a bit to the price). 
Somewhere I saw a suggestion that for Trader Joe's mix to make a healthier muffin add a can of pumpkin to the mix instead of the water, oil and egg. I tried this, but I found those a bit too dense.

Add canned pumpkin to the mix for a healthier muffin.

The "healthier" version, but not quite as tasty for me.

We have new neighbors here on Davis Street that I hadn't met (they moved in while we were traveling) so I took them some muffins as a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift. 

Muffins for the new neighbors.