pumpkin chocolate chip cookies: hello fall.

I've really been craving a bit of fall in my life ever since I got back from visiting my family in Utah. The weather was just getting gorgeous and I'll openly admit, I miss having a real fall living in Texas. It's kind of summer until the middle to the end of October and then the winter is, admitedly beautifully mild.

But there is no sweatshirt crispness in the air or beautiful splash of fall leaves during the fall months even though I live in a forest.
So I try and substitute other fall staples like gourds and sunflowers and pinecones all over my house and every dish I can think of with squash or pumpkin in it... and I pretend I could wear a sweatshirt.


When I needed to make a treat for a activity with the 14-15 year old girls I get to work with in my church congregation earlier this week, it gave me a perfect excuse to make my first pumpkin treat of the "season".

One of the easiest cookie recipes I know and completely delicious, this was the pumpkin cookie recipe I grew up with in my house.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 c shortening
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 c pumpkin filling
1 c nuts (optional: I never add the nuts, still a kid at heart when it comes to nuts in cookies)
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 (my oven is a bit cold so I did 380)
2. Combine sugar, eggs, shortening, pumpkin and vanilla, mix.
3. Add add all the dry ingredients but the flour and chips, mix.
4. Add flour gradually, mix.
5. Mix in chocolate chips.

I use parchment paper on my cookies sheets to cut out clean up.
Use a spoon to place dollops of the cookie dough on the cookie sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.
Let cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

baked acorn squash+orzo pasta=autumn heaven

Last year, when we were living near my sister, she'd often come to visit us and cook with Kevin. (the two of them are cooking enthusiasts, I'm an eating enthusiast...yep, my kitchen with the two of them is a pretty good place to be for a person like me.)

Well one day last autumn she shared a roommate's family recipe for a DELICIOUS and SIMPLE way to eat acorn squash. And now I'm sort of obsessed.
I decided to make it for us to eat before we headed out to take the boys trick-or-treating this year and it completely hit the spot.

 Ingredients:
1 acorn squash (per 2 people, this is generous depending on the size of the acorn squash but I like to have leftovers the next day)
1 cup uncooked Orzo pasta (again per 2 people)
butter
salt
pepper

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
*Cut the squash in half.
(this is BY FAR the hardest part, I had to have Kevin do it the night before and I Saran wrapped it and kept it in the fridge until I was ready for it...)
*Put about 1/4" of water in a 9x13 pan and place squash halves RIGHT side up in the pan. 
(use a bigger pan if you are cooking more and they won't fit)
*Poke the inside of the squash halves with a fork and put a little slice of butter into each squash half to keep it moist while baking.
*Place the pan in the oven and lightly cover with aluminum foil.
*Bake for 1.5 hours or until a fork glides through the squash.
(you want it to mash up without hardly any effort with a fork)

*Cook the pasta about 20 minutes before the squash is done.
(I just brought some unmeasured water to a boil and added the pasta, stirring occasionally until it was tender.)
*Drain all the water then butter, salt and pepper to taste.  

*Remove the baked squash from the outer shell with a spoon or mash it right in the shell and mix the pasta in. ENJOY!
(again add butter and salt and pepper to taste)