Thursday, October 15, 2009

Pumpkin Chocolate Comfort Cookies

Some people might think that this is my glorified recipe file, but really I like to share a good thing when I find it.  And nothing is "gooder" than food.

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons.  One of the best things about autumn is the wonderful comfort food that comes with the cold weather.  Today we baked up some Pumpkin Chocolate Comfort Cookies.  I got the basic recipe from Allrecipes.com, but of course made it my own.  I'm sure that I remember there used to be a Weight Watcher recipe like this that used rasins, applesauce and sweetnlow.   What follows is the non- Weight Watcher recipe.  It is more cake-like than a traditional cookie.


INGREDIENTS 
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or whatever nut you have on hand.  I used pecans.
  • 4 drops red food coloring (optional, makes it look more pumpkin-y.
  • DIRECTIONSCombine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 13 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.  Because of our altitude, I had to leave it in longer than the directions called for.  Make sure yours are not over  baked but also not gooey in the middle.  These are autumnal perfection when served with hot cider.


Alice in the Oven

Today my girls requested Alice in the Oven. This is a recipe that is like a skillet custard baked in the oven. We love this! It is easy and uses basic ingredients. I was trying to figure out how it got it's name. There is no reference to this on the web. Because we are always looking for yummy protein based breakfasts, we use this one alot.

Alice In The Oven
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
and one stick (1/4 lb) butter

Preheat oven to 350. Put the butter in a 12" cast iron skillet and melt it in the oven. Pour batter into the pan with melted butter. Bake until the top is golden brown about 35 minutes. Can be served with maple syrup, sliced fruit or plain.

Jamberry

Have you ever read the book Jamberry? It has been a favorite for all of my children. But not all jam is made from berries.

Today I was looking at all my left over tomatoes from my summer garden. I didn't have enough to even make a decent spaghetti sauce, but I had tasted a burger at CB Potts last week that had "tomato jam" listed in the ingredients. It was a great burger. So I looked up Tomato Jam on the internet and found almost a hundred variations.

My mom had just given me my first food processor and I quickly plopped all those red, orange and green fruits into it's plastic bowl. With a quick flip of my finger, I had pureed them all up into a soup like mixture. Next, I put about 5 cups of the tomato stuff and 5 cups of sugar into a pot to boil for 20 minutes. After transferring into a bigger pot after it boiled over onto the stove, I added 2 large packages of raspberry jello. Cooked until dissolved.

It was great! It smells and tastes just like raspberry. Now I have to get some jam jars and get ready to give them away for Christmas gifts. My friend Maria made empanadas and her daughters thought that it tasted just like strawberry jam. Gotcha!

Second Time Around


Somethings are better the second time around. Have you ever had leftovers that tasted better than the first meal? What about second marriages? Well, this blog is my second attempt. I had one called Mountain and Prairie. I had grand plans but really only posted a few times. But, I can't use it any more. It was tied to an old email account and I can't remember the old password.
I will repost the few items that I wrote there and we will start over. I hope to make this blog as much like me as possible. I will post ideas, memories, inspirations, recipes, projects in process and maybe even a few completed projects.
I invite comments. It is nice to know that I am not just writing to invisible beings from the movie Contact. Please add your own ideas, recipes, and thoughts.