Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ah yes, this is what I wait for all year, large quantities of my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. About 3 years ago I came across a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and I believe this was the beginning of my pumpkin obsession. Baker beware, these "cookies" are very moist and fluffy and more like a muffin top than a cookie. I think they are best when kept in the fridge. Also, all those times your mom told you to be careful of the lid on a freshly opened can...yea, I should have listened. Bumped that little lid with my finger and you would have thought I hit an artery! Luckily no blood got into the butternut squash soup or the cookies! These cookies are the highlight of my fall and I change the recipe a smidge every time I've made them. Here's this year's version. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup applesauce (you could also use vegetable oil)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 
  
• 1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, applesauce, vanilla, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

2. Add chocolate chips.

• 3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet. The cookies won't spread or change shape as they bake so if you drop a big sloppy blob on the tray, that's what you'll get when you pull it out of the oven! Also, I kind of drop the entire tray of batter on the counter before baking. Bake at 365 degrees for 12 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

I made a double batch and got exactly 6 dozen.

Mike's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. "Mmmmmmm"

Original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-III/Detail.aspx

AEM

Butternut Squash Soup

Our journey through fall continues with butternut squash soup. We were looking for something interesting and different for dinner but I was feeling lazy and didn't want anything complicated so we settled on giving butternut squash soup a try...even though we don't like soup! As usual, this was an interesting experience...one of the squashes was crying or something as I cut it and started sweating squash juice. No matter how many times I washed my hand, it was coated in a layer of squash tears which made it hard to moved my fingers right! I had to take a scrub brush to my hand, twice!


Butternut Squash Soup
1 butternut squash
1 apple
1 yellow onion
2 cups chicken stock
cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic to taste
olive oil
salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut sqaush, apples, and onions into about 1-inche cubes. Toss in olive oil and some salt & pepper. Put onto sheet pans (I used 2 pans and covered them with foil and a bit of cooking spray). Cook for about 40 minutes or until soft.

2. Once veggies are tender, puree in food processor with chicken stock. I did 1 tray of veggies and about 1 cup or so of stock at a time. Once done mashing, place in pot to heat it back up, add the remaining chicken stock and salt & pepper to taste.

Mike's Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars. "That was good, I could do that again. I'm not sure what it takes to get to a 5 but that was pretty close."


AEM