Pumpkin Snickerdoodles!

So I like to bake by just throwing things that sound good into the mixer. Yesterday I was thinking cookies, I had made these chocolate chip pumpkin cookies a couple weeks ago and they were a huge hit. This is definitely what I had in mind when I started. Then about half way through dumping things into my mixer I decided not to add any chocolate.  I had also made these amazing baked pumpkin donuts, and just thinking of the cake like texture and the cinnamon sugar coating made me drool a little.

So I decided to take my cookie dough and make tiny little bite size cookies and roll them in cinnamon sugar. They turned out super tasty.

Photo Credit

1 cup butter softened
3/4 cup sugar (beat together)
add 2 eggs (beat until pale)
add 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
add 1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg
add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
gently add in 2 1/2 cups of a/p flour

scoop with your smallest scoop and roll in cinnamon sugar (I used 1 cup sugar and 3 tbs of cinnamon) place onto parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes.









I didn't take this photo, my cookies were all eaten up by kids and husband before I got to the camera part of the day. But they turned out really yummy. You could also put all the pumpkin spices into the sugar you roll the cookies in.

These were super easy, the recipe made about 50 bite size cookies. If you make a larger cookie you will want to bake a little longer.

Bites for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the holiday that I get to host. The grandparents on both sides still insist on having christmas festivities at their house. I get that but I really wish they would decide to all come over bringing their one (i can't get them to agree to this number either) gift per child on one day. Anyway I love hosting thanksgiving, it is so much nicer than toting the kids from one house to another. When we get all the families together it tends to be a pretty big event. I ask everyone to bring one side dish and end up only getting to cook a few basics, I always do the turkey and the pies and usually the potatoes and then I'm done.  I am not exactly complaining, it is really nice not being overly stressed by trying to make the huge spread. But I love to cook and I love to show off new or amazing recipes for anyone other than my kids (who refuse to try anything new).

So this year besides my tried and true basics.  I am going to make some small bites for the coffee table.  They need to be super beautiful, super delicious, and magically fit the dietary restrictions of my sister. She doesn't eat wheat, rice, or oat (it's kind of a pain) she never complains so I am always looking for a few recipes that never had these ingredients to start with. I would like to do about half sweet, and half savory.

Here are some amazing recipes I found, I will make all of them ahead of time, taste each one to make sure they are worth showing off and then store them in the freezer until the day of: Yummy, pretty and easy!

Sweet Stars

Aren't those the cutest? you can find the recipe here.

Cranberry Almond Cookies

  Not gluten free but a recipe many of my family members will love, find the recipe here.

Gingerbread Caramels

I know right. Amazing recipe here.

Fig and Olive Tapenade

Not as pretty as the others but the recipe looks super tasty, I will serve it with some crostinis and maybe some apple slices. Recipe here.

Broccoli Parmesan Fritters

I know amazing! I will definitely sub the a/p flour for some corn flour and of course fry them up just before serving. Find the recipe here.

Cucumber Cups and Salmon Salad

These should be light refreshing and super yummy. Recipe here.

I will let you know how they go over.

Bats and Neon and Vampire Pumpkins OH MY!

This weekend is the last one in September, which means at my house it's time to decorate for halloween! Yay I love this time of year, the weather is getting cold, the menus are getting full of baked goods and its time to start planning all the winter holidays.

The theme for halloween this year is Glowing! My kids are a little too young for anything spooky so the front porch light is getting a black light lightbulb and the decorations will be neon. I am also buying up tons of fun glow in the dark items from places like Target and Dollar Tree.

I found a few amazing ideas on Pinterest and here are two that made the cut, with a few minor changes to make it work for my family.

Neon and Bats

This pin was created using a bat cut out and sponging neon colors over it. I love the look. On sunday my family will be using white butcher paper (which we usually have in the house) and we will let the kids basically paint long sheets with as much neon paint as they want. Then the older kids (and those of us who still behave like kids as often as possible) will cut and paste black construction paper (which we also have on hand) bats to the background. The plan is to hang these all around the front porch to make a pretty large decoration for almost no cost. I will post pictures of our version next week.

Vampire Pumpkins

Aren't these the cutest things? I feel like I saw somewhere that this original idea came from Martha Stewart, but i am not positive, I couldn't find a link to it on her website. 

My boys helped me make a few pumpkins like this:

These are the carve able pumpkins from the dollar store. I loved the price and the fact that they won't decay but they definitely looked like the cost a dollar, so i will probably invest in some white pumpkins that are real a little closer to halloween. Anyway we sprayed them white and added glow in the dark fangs and glow in the dark mustaches that both came from Target. The eyes I had in my craft kit but I believe they are available in a huge pack at the dollar store. All told I make 6 pumpkins like this for $9. That includes a new can of white spray paint. This was easy enough for my kids to help with, but it wasn't very labor intensive so they we're happier playing with the finished project than making them.

We will also add a few big pumpkins to the front porch and maybe one of those wreaths from pinterest and the house should look fairly festive!

September Calender

Upcoming Classes:

Sept 17, 2011 PRIMARY COLORS- we are going to make our own play dough in Red, Yellow and Blue and mix them together to make Green, Orange and Purple. Children will get a tactile experience and learn how to mix the primary colors and how they are the basis of all the colors in the rainbow. We will also look at a color wheel and talk about how it works.

Sept 24, 2011 AUTUMN EXPLORATION - We are going to learn about how plants change to get ready for winter and make leaf etchings. We will also talk about chlorophyl and what makes the leaves change colors.

October 1, 2011 HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS - we are going to learn about Oragami and make Halloween bats nad pumpkins to decorate with. We will also talk about complicated oragami and different types of art made with paper.