It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Finally! I've been dying to get the Christmas decorations up forever and now, the time has come! The tree is trimmed, the mantel is festive and the outside of the house is glowing! To avoid shocking the wallet, we didn't go too crazy this year and instead focused on the tree, mantle, and outside lights. I'm pleased with the outcome but I'm certainly already thinking about all of the things we can add to our collection next year!

AEM

Gingerbread Biscotti

I was dying to make some cookies and Dad just happened to request some cookies for Thanksgiving. Perfect timing and I get to try out a new recipe!  Note to self: while checking to see if your cookies are done because you forgot to set the timer, DO NOT touch your arm to the pan! Just a little burn to remember the day by!


Gingerbread Biscotti

3/4 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup molasses
3 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease two baking sheets.

2. Beat together the butter and molasses until light. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
3. In another bowl, combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, all the spices, and salt.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the molasses mixture.  
5. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 2 equal portions. Shape each portion in to a slightly flattened log about 5-inches by 8 inches.

6. Place 1 log on each of the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 25-30 minutes. 

7. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees. Remove from oven and place baking sheet in a wire rack to cool 15 minutes.

8. Using a serrated knife, cut into slices. Place the slices cut side down on the baking sheets.

9. Bake 12-15 minutes, turning biscotti over once during time. Cool on wire rack. I made about 2.5 dozen.

And just for good measure, 4 dozen pumpkin chocolate chips! The last batch of the season.



AEM

Pumpkin Pancakes

No, you can never have too much pumpkin! It's delicious and nutritious and versatile! I had a little bit of leftover pumpkin in the fridge from the pumpkin/gingerbread dessert and decided the best way to start a Saturday would be with pumpkin pancakes!

Here's how it worked for me...I plugged in my griddle and got that heated up to about 375 degrees and sprayed a bit of cooking spray on it. Then I grabbed my favorite pancake mix which calls for 1 cup of mix and 3/4 cup of water for 2 servings.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 cup pancake mix

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons sugar (that pumpkin doesn't taste good alone on a Saturday morning!)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

about 1/4 to 1/2 cup water...until it's about the consistency of pancakes

Mix all of the ingredients together and pour your favorite sized pancakes onto the griddle. I found they took a little longer to cook than normal pancakes because of the moisture added by the pumpkin.

No pictures but trust me, they are delicious. Even Mike, who's not a big pumpkin guy, said "Now THIS is how I like to eat pumpkin!"

AEM

Pumpkin Gingerbread Layered Desserts

For months I've been eyeing this Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle on Food Network and I've been dying to give it a try. One night while walking through the grocery store I had a brilliant idea and I was inspired. I decided to make mini-Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifles. LOVE this one.


Mini Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifles

1/2 cup pumpkin puree
Dash or two of cinnamon
Dash of pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup Light Cool Whip
10 Ginger Snaps
2 plastic cups

1. Put 10 gingersnaps in a plastic bag and crush. Put half in the bottom of each cup.
2. Mix pumpkin, spices, and 1/4 cup cool whip. Taste the pumpkin and if it's not quite sweet enough, ass a teaspoon of sugar.
3. Using half the pumpkin mixture, split evenly between the cups on top of the gingersnaps.
4. Using half the remaining cool whip, split between the cups and layer on top of the pumpkin.
5. Repeat layers using remaining gingersnaps, pumpkin mixture, and cool whip.
6. Refrigerate at least 6 hours. I prefer overnight which allows the gingersnaps to soften slightly and almost turn into gingersnap cake.

AEM

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

Christmas Eve Invite

It's our first Christmas in our new house and I couldn't be more excited! We invited our families to celebrate Christmas Eve with us and I whipped up some little invitations and packed up some of the pumpkin chocolate chip biscotti I made the other day. I also made some almond biscotti and threw some of those in there too. It's not too fancy because each little package has to travel across the country but I wanted to mix Christmas with fall (to prove I wasn't nuts and actually knew what time of year it is!). They should be arriving any second now!

Here is a copy of the invitation:

Almond & Pumpkin Biscotti and Invite, pre-wrapping

Invite and wrapped biscotti

All my little ducks in a row!

AEM