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. 

Penne with Marinara and Meatballs, Orange-feta salad.

A simple italian-esque meal for a weeknight. Mildly healthy, very yummy, and kid approved. I like kid approved and easy. 

Start with noodles. I picked penne this round. Get your pot of water boiling with a little salt and oil added to it.

Because it keeps noodles from sticking, makes the water boil faster and adds an little something extra.

Geez! So many questions!

Ok. So while the water is getting all bubblyish, chop one onion, 2-3 mushrooms, 1/2 bell pepper and 1/2 a summer squash into chunks. You can add whatever veggies you have in bits and pieces. 

You know the ones. There is not enough to make a side, but too much to just pitch.

This is one of those later in the week meals to get rid of the bits and pieces of other stuff you made.

Throw the veggies into a skillet with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

The water should be close to ready now, so add in your noodles.

Un-bag some meatballs too and get those in a pot or in the nuker. Add a little sauce to them to keep them form getting dry on the edges.

Meatballs you ask?

Costco carries in giant bags. You can also get them from a normal grocer. I like the big bags because we use them for all sorts of meals.

Next add a red sauce of choice. This one was the 3 cheese by Ragu.

Remember that blue cheese and garlic butter you made waaaaaaay back when?

Probably shoved in the back of a drawer in the fridge completely forgotten. 

Ya. I do it too. 

Fish it out and throw in the sauce mix. May as well use it for a good purpose right?

By now it smells yummy and you need a snack.

Have a snack.

If you haven't had this before, you must. It's crack in popcorn form. Don't get out the whole bag. Trust e. You won't eat dinner.

Now you cut up the veggies and stuff for the salad.

I generally use, for the 5 of us, 1/2 head of romaine, 1/4 onion, 1/2 bell pepper, some sort of fruit  (in this case and orange) and a sprinkle of a salty cheese like gorgonzola, bleu cheese or feta. In this case, it's feta.

Oranges

Oh. Tomato and cucumber too. 1/2 of each. If you have them. 

Assemble to make this gorgeous salad.

Have another bite of popcorn.

The noodles should be done by now, so drain them.

Put a few in a dish, top with meatballs and sauce. Get your salad on there too. A vinaigrette works the best IMO. But if you are a hard-core ranch person, I won't tell.

Now go sit down and watch some Big Bang Theory. Try not to snort sauce out your nose. Trust me, it hurts.