Hello from Long Island, Friends 👋 I'm here with my 12-year-old for a hockey tournament, and my only goal for the long weekend is to eat as many great bagels as I can. All suggestions are welcome!

This week, I had hoped to share two recipes I unintentionally found myself working on: pumpkin muffins and yeasted pumpkin bread.

A few weeks ago, on one of the September school holidays, my two youngest kids wanted to bake, so I suggested we make pumpkin bread but in muffin form. The muffins turned out really well, but I thought they could be better, so in the weeks that followed, we made many variations of them, testing out different baking temperatures, making a few ingredient substitutions, trying different leavenings, etc.

It has been a delicious experiment and so interesting, too. Look at the difference in hues of the two batches of muffins below. These are made with baking soda alone:

And these that are made with baking powder alone:

I have one more experiment to conduct, and then I'll post the recipe. They are so tasty, and I love the portability of a muffin, so easy to pack into a lunch box or take on the road.

The recipe calls for a half can of pumpkin purée, so you can either double it (and make 24 muffins) or find a use for the remaining half. I have been stirring it into bread dough and have been loving the results:

Recipe soon!

OK, roasted cauliflower. I have a roasted cauliflower recipe that I love, but often I don’t have time for it. This is how I make it most often, and my kids eat them like French fries — never does a floret remain!

Simple Roasted Cauliflower

3-pound head of cauliflower
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1.5 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or half as much Morton or fine sea salt)

Chop the cauliflower into florets. Spread onto a rimmed sheet pan. Toss with the olive oil and salt. Roast at 425ºF (convection if possible) for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring once after 30 minutes.

That's it! Addictive. Note: I often double this and use my X-large sheet pan.

Have a wonderful long weekend 🍂🍁🍃

PS: In March, I shared an overnight oat update: I had started making the oats in individual containers, which I found so helpful for quick breakfasts/snacks/lunches on the go. I had ordered these cute jars, which made the process even more enjoyable. Seven months later, the house had swallowed those jars, or most of them anyway, and I began finding the process of making individual portions so frustrating because I never had enough appropriately sized vessels. So, I started making large batches of the oats in one vessel, and I would portion out the oats as needed. It's actually much faster to make ONE large batch (as opposed to 6 to 8 individual portions). I've added this large-batch portion to the recipe box:

Review of the Week

Just-baked three seed bread on a cooling rack.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

No-Knead Three-Seed Bread

"Love this recipe. I did change the sesame seed to half white and half black sesame seed. It makes a stunning loaf. So much so that it got a score of 100 and a first place finish at the Iowa State Fair. Thanks again for great recipes!"

— Martha

PS: Two More Similar Breads to Try:

No-Knead Oatmeal Maple Bread