Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Yay fall! The colors and the cool(er) weather and pumpkins and apples and soups and, and, and... Sigh.

Can you tell I like fall?

So on this crisp fallish afternoon, with a blue sky and sunshine...I am inside working on the website (grrrr). To make it a somewhat enjoyable day, I decided we needed something from pumpkin. This way I could have the house smelling like thanksgiving while slaving away over the keyboard and mouse.

PUMPKIN COOKIES! YES!

Easy, have all the ingredients (yes we keep canned pumpkin in the pantry, you know, just in case), and I get to experiment. *evil laugh*

Here is what you need...

• 2 sticks butter
• sugar
• pumpkin
• flour
• baking soda
• baking powder
• package of pudding mix (pumpkin pie works best, but butterscotch or vanilla are good too)
• pumpkin pie spice
• orange
• vanilla
• eggs
• salt

If you want to glaze the cookies then you need some powdered sugar too.

Soften the butter by either planning ahead (like that ever happens when you make cookies!) or nuke in microwave for 10-20 seconds.

Dump butter and sugar into bowl or mixer. Mix until creamy. While mixing, put 4 c flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 t pumpkin pie spice, and 1 tsp salt into another bowl and mix with fork.Add 2 c pumpkin and pudding mix. When blended add eggs one at a time, mixing after each.

Zest 1 large orange. I use the cheese graters small grate part to do this. If you have a zester, more power to you. Keep orange as we will use juice for the glaze later.

Mix zest and vanilla into the batter. Add flour mix slowly, mixing well after each cup.

Take your butter wrappers and grease the baking sheet or line with waxed paper. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet.

Throw pans into the oven for 10 minutes. Exactly 10 minutes. Less and they are gooey, more and they are brown on the bottom and dry. DO not worry. They are supposed to be fluffish. I tried using 2 teaspoons each of powder and soda and got more of a bread-like cookie. They were yummy, just not what I was expecting.

 So, hint, hint.., to make bread or muffins, just increase the baking soda and powder to 2 teaspoons each and reduce by 1/2c of flour.

Let the cookies set on their pan for a few minutes before moving to cooling rack and wait until they are cool before adding glaze.

Oh yeah! The glaze! Mix 1 part squeezed OJ to 4 parts powdered sugar. You should get a thick liquid...drizzle over tops of cookies when cool. If you are feeling decorative, you could even zest part of another orange and put orange zesty sprinkles OR if you have a citrus peeler make little curls to put on top!

This recipe should make about 3 dozen cookies. I didn't end up with that many by the time they were done.

Damn gnomes.

________________________________________________________________________

Pumpkin Cookies________________________________________________

Cookies

2 sticks of butter, softened

1c sugar

2c pumpkin

4 c flour

1 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp baking soda

2 t pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp salt

1 pkg butterscotch, vanilla or pumpkin pie pudding

2 eggs

1 lg orange, zested

1 tsp vanilla

Glaze

1/2c powdered sugar

1-2Tbs orange juice

Pumpkin Pie Spice 

4 Tbs cinnamon

4 t nutmeg

4 t ginger

3 t allspice

Mix together and store for pumpkin time.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix dry ingredients into separate bowl. Add pumpkin, vanilla and zest to butter mix. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add dry mix slowly allowing to mix well between each add. 

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-10 mins.

Mix glaze ingredients and when cookies are cool, glaze tops. 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Tonight is soup night. When the weather turns chilly and the leaves start drifting down quietly from the trees...when the wind blows a little colder, the sun sets a little earlier, the light is more golden, the acrid smell of burning wood melds with the sweet smell of damp leaves... it's fall. And fall means Thursday soup nights, my son's favorites.

This was actually, despite my deep love of mushrooms, my first attempt at cream of mushroom soup. No resource altered or guidance used. This is 100% me.

Ok, I know, the picture is terrible. My camera's battery decided to die right as I was being a genius, and ye old smart phone has only 8 megapixels. My bad. 

This is in no way, shape, or form fat free. It is lower in fat that the crap in the can and much yummier. 

Start with a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms. I used something like close to 2 pounds. 

See, mushroom-a-holic. 

I used Oyster, button, crimini and shittake. These were what was available at the local produce market. It's not mushroom season till March, so I make do.

You will also need:

1/2 and 1/2

Chicken stock or Better than Bouillon

Onion

Celery

Carrot

Garlic

Bay Leaf

Rosemary

Salt and Pepper

Butter

White wine

Milk 

Cut the onions into tiny bits, shred the carrots, chop the celery, rough chop the garlic, rough chop the mushrooms. 

Melt 2 Tbs of butter into the bottom of your stock pot (10 qt) on medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Add carrot and celery and cook for a few minutes. Add mushrooms mix gently so butter coats them. Add 1/2 c white wine, 4 cups of chicken stock, and 2 c milk. Add 1/2t rosemary and  2 bay leaves, Reduce heat to medium and watch carefully so the milk doesn't separate. Add 1 quart of 1/2 and 1/2. Heat through. Salt as needed (I used a lot). Soup should fill the stock pot about 3/4. 

Serve warm with bread and butter or a salad. 

And that's it. Super easy. Moderately healthy. Deliciously yummy. 

Apple Crisp

We went on a trip to Olympia to the only reasonably close orchard that was supposed to be a U-pick place. It wasn't. But the trip was fun anyway and we got a snot-load of apples for super cheap. AND the BEST apple cider I have ever tasted. Holy bananas was it good.

Hang on. Something is bouncing at the bottom of my screen and driving me nuts.

Ok. Back. Why the email needs my password every time it sends something, I don't know.

Olympia is gorgeous in the fall. But then the PNW is in general.

Anyway, we had a snot load of apples to deal with. What to do, what to do.

Apple pie, baked apples, apple bread, apple muffins, applesauce, applebutter, apple...crisp. Oooooh apple crisp. 

We ended up making applesauce too, but apple crisp was a start.

I decided to entice you first. *enter evil laugh here* Mwahahahahaha. 

Slice a bunch of apples. 

I dunno. A few. I think I did 3 of those monsters at the top. 

Put them in a deep dish GLASS pie pan or a 9x9 baking dish.

Cut up 2 tbs of butter into cubes, more or less. Or just pinch it into bits. That works too. Put on top of apples here and there.

Cover in 1/4c brown sugar, 2 Tbs cinnamon, 2 Tbs white sugar

The picture is actually from the applesauce but it shows what it needs to.

Cover with buttered foil...

Yes, butter the foil. Or spray with cooking spray. It keeps the foil from sticking to the sugars.

Trust me on this. This is one of the best tricks in the book.

Cook at 250 for 20-30 mins.

Meanwhile, get out your oats. 

Pour 1 c of oats in a bowl. Cut up another 2 Tbs of butter. Throw in 1 Tbs cinnamon and 1/4 c of brown sugar. 

Use a fork to squish together. 

Stop eating it. 

I said stop.

There won't be enough for the top!

Ok fine. Make some more if you must.

When apples are all happy...

Happy=tender but not squishy

When they are happy, pull out and cover with oat mixture, if there is any left.

Pop back in oven for a few minutes and let the oats get brownish. 

Don't let it cool! Dish it out now and eat while warm. I like mine with a touch of cream or vanilla ice cream... oooh then the ice cream gets all melty with the heat of the apples and it becomes one creamy, caramelly, cinnamony, gooey yummy mess. MMMMMM