Country Girl in the City: New Year

As we begin a new year often we reflect on the past year and look forward to what this new year will bring. As I've mentioned in the past; I'm not really one for resolutions but I do have a couple goals for this year and have already done a couple new things. So here are the 4 new things I have for you today:

1) New (to me) Recipe - For those that like to just get right to baking; the new recipe I'm sharing today is for these Vegan Pumpkin Muffins. With prices of pretty much everything on the rise, I've been looking for ways to once again cut costs yet still provide yummy, nutritious meals and snacks for our family. Eggs are outrageously expensive right now; in our area an 18 pack that was $2.99 a year ago was $8.19 last week. The reason for this extreme spike in cost is due to a major bird flu that necessitated millions of chickens being culled. Added to this is the fact that chickens just don't lay as many eggs in the winter due to decreased daylight and temperatures. So, this had me on the hunt for an eggless muffin recipe. I had a lot of pumpkin puree in the freezer and liked that this recipe uses regular pantry items. I doubled the recipe for our family. We all really liked these. They came out fluffy and had good flavor. The only thing I would change is that I would reduce the chocolate chips next time. I used about 3/4 bag of mini-chocolate chips which, even with doubling the batch seemed like too many.

2) A New Crochet Project - As many of you know, I love a good excuse to crochet things...especially baby things. These smaller projects work up quickly and are great gifts. One of the ladies in the neighborhood had a new baby girl just before Christmas. I had been waiting to find out if the baby was a girl or boy before deciding what to make. I found this adorable pattern for a Bobble Ripple Baby Blanket and knew it was the perfect project. I already had several partial skeins of 100% cotton yarn in lovely colors that would work well. I love how this blanket came out. I did not double up the strands as my yarn was a worsted weight already. The only other change I made was that I did two rows of single crochet as the border.

3) New Books to Read - A couple of these books I've already begun but look forward to finishing them in the new year. I set a goal last year of reading 15 books I ended up reading 20 books. I set the same goal of 15 books for this year. We'll see how I do. Here are the 4 non-fiction books that I'm planning to work through for the beginning of this year. I'll be reading fiction books also; right now I'm reading the 2nd in a fantasy series through the Kindle Unlimited app.