Today's post is sponsored by Finlandia, but my love for their butter is all my own! 

Is there anything better than waking up in the morning to the smell of fresh strawberry muffins? Well there is, and it's topping those strawberry muffins with Finlandia butter! 

You may have heard of and tried Finlandia Cheese, but soon you will hear many speaking of how much they enjoy Finlandia imported butter. 

I used the unsalted in my strawberry muffin recipe and topped it off with the perfectly salted butter. I was really surprised by the rich taste, it's probably the best butter I've ever had...seriously! {No April Fool's joke here!}

The recipe called for two sticks of butter and Finlandia butter comes in 7 oz packages, just shy of two sticks, which usually measures to about 8 ounces. Despite the slight difference in the amount of butter used, the muffins turned out quite delicious! 

Fun Facts about Finlandia Butter: 

"Finlandia Butter provides authentic flavor still made the old fashioned way. With Pure fresh milk from cows cared for on small Finnish family-owned farms. Nothing artificial. No added Hormones. This creamy, delicious butter starts with the purest milk in Europe from small Finnish family-owned farms where the cows are treated humanely and not given rBST or any artificial hormones. The fresh milk is carefully churned and cooled to a perfect temperature that creates a delightfully creamy flavor and smooth texture. Chosen by the most discriminating French chefs to create their famous baked goods and croissants, Finlandia Imported Butter is the ultimate butter for baking, cooking and especially, eating!"

So before I get to the giveaway for a ShopRite® gift card so you can try Finlandia butter yourself, I'm going to share my simple strawberry muffin recipe with you, so when you pick up the butter you'll have a recipe on hand to try out! 

Simple Strawberry Muffin Recipe

{Makes about 18 muffins}

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
• 7 oz unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups diced fresh strawberries {I thawed out frozen ones}
• 1 1/2 cups sugar

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the cupcake liners in your muffin tins and sprinkle a dash of flour in them so the muffins don't stick. 
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl until combined.  In a medium bowl combine milk, eggs, and melted butter. Make a well in the the dry mixture and pour in the wet mixture. Stir until combined. There should be some lumps, so don't over mix the batter. Next, mix in the strawberries and sugar and stir to combine.
3. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups {I used an ice cream scoop}. Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, check with a toothpick and if it comes out clean your muffins are done! Let them sit for a few minutes in the tins, then place on cooling racks to sit until ready to eat! 

{Recipe modified from Food Network}

Simple...right? Do you know what else is simple...entering my ShopRite® $25 gift card giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{US entries only please. Giveaway will end on April 8th. Winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to reply. After this time a new winner will be chosen. Giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook or Twitter. Thank you and Good luck!}

What Fall Taste Like!

Who doesn't love the taste of Fall, if you don't well too bad because that's what my post is all about! Pumpkin flavor is everywhere, it started last year with pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin donuts, and pretty much pumpkin everything! So we thought we would jump on the bandwagon and make pumpkin cookies, they were okay but not the greatest. A few weeks ago I noticed we still had an unopened can of pumpkin puree sitting in the cabinet and I kept thinking, "How can I one up that cookie recipe!"

Last year I had pumpkin pancakes at an adorable country restaurant and have been dreaming of them ever since. So, I thought why not make some myself...with the help of my hubby! The recipe was a winner, which made me feel much better about baking more with pumpkin puree, I just couldn't leave that bad cookie recipe hanging over me and haunting my pumpkin dreams!

Easy Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

The pancakes only called for 3/4 cups of canned pumpkin, so what was I to do with the rest of the can? Cupcakes first came to mind, but I'm pretty cupcake'd out at the moment. Then I thought, "How amazing would a pumpkin spice muffin be in the morning with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee!" NAILED IT!! OH and do I mean, I nailed it! 

Best Pumpkin Muffin Recipe EVER!

Note the actual pumpkin in the photo is not what I used....just for looks! I knew the true test would be how well my daughters liked them, and when they said they loved them...well now Mama knows what she'll be making more of! 

It's a pretty simple recipe, however I did notice that in the ingredients it only called for baking powder and in the directions it mentioned the powder as well as baking soda. What was I to do? So I read the comments to see if it was noted and one reader mentioned that she used 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda....sometimes it's the smallest ingredient that can throw off your recipe! 

The recipe also called for pumpkin spice, which is noted in the comment section is a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. Well, mama didn't have all of those ingredients so she improvised and just added an extra teaspoon of cinnamon to the recipe, the other teaspoon of cinnamon is for sprinkling on top. Check out Smitten Kitchen, adorable blog name, for this recipe and many others. Right now she is featuring a homemade pizza...dough and all!

What recipes have you tried this Fall? What have you been dreaming of tasting, but haven't had the chance to try yet?