Gluten Free Pecan Apple Pancakes

My husband thinks that there is something wrong with me because I love mornings. I pop out of bed and am ready to start my day. While most people take a while to wake-up, as soon as I open my eyes I am awake. My oldest son is just like me. He wakes up early and reads books until the rest of the house starts their day. My youngest son on the other hand is just like my husband. He takes hours to fully be awake and is grumpy most of the morning. Since our mornings are so vastly different I try to make breakfast foods that everyone will love. The one food that everyone in my house can agree on is pancakes. My boys love them and so do I. Since going gluten free it has been hit or miss with finding suitable gluten free pancake recipes. Some have turned out great, while others have been flat and lacking any flavor. This week I tried a new recipe for Pecan Apple Pancakes from the December issue of Taste of Home magazine, which looked like a great breakfast recipe to make gluten free.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of cooking per batch, 15 minutes of prep and makes 18 pancakes. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did make a few changes. First off since I don't use mace often and don't like buying spices that I will not use I left it out of this recipe. I fully intended to make these pancakes with apples and even bought them at the grocery store. However, by the time I made the recipe my two boys had eaten all the apples so I left them out. Finally, since I eat gluten free I used gluten free all-purpose flour. I found that since I made these gluten free and left out the apples I had to increase the amount of flour by 1/2 cup. The pancakes were still runny, but worked well when made on the griddle. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My youngest son and I loved these pancakes. They turned out sweet and almost crisp. With maple syrup and toasted pecans as a topping they were delicious. I was happy that they were easy to convert to gluten free and my kids didn't even notice that I had changed anything. I would definitely make these again.

For the recipe go to Gluten Free Pecan Apple Pancakes.

Slowcooker Pumpkin Harvest Beef Stew

Everyone knows how much I love my crockpot. If there is one kitchen appliance that I don't think that I could live without that would be the one. I love it and it makes my life so much easier, especially with two very active boys. While some people use their crockpot only in the colder months, I love mine year round. It's just as great to not heat up my kitchen in the humid and horribly hot summer months as it is to have a great meal of chili or stew waiting in the slowcooker at dinner time in the winter. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love that the weather cools down, without being too hot or too cold. One of my favorite things about fall is the food. I absolutely love pumpkins and winter squash. They are delicious in so many recipes and dishes. Last week I tried a new recipe for Pumpkin Harvest Beef Stew from the October/November issue of Taste of Home magazine, which looked full of fall flavors and a perfect crockpot recipe.

This recipe has 17 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of prep and 6 1/2 hours of cook time and makes 6 servings. I chose to use sweet potatoes instead of the pumpkin. I didn't want to take the extra step of peeling and cutting the pumpkin. I find sweet potatoes easier to deal with and make the substitution frequently. I chose to leave out the beef granules. The all natural beef broth that I chose to use is naturally lower in sodium and I preferred to salt at the table instead of adding the beef granules. Finally, instead of using flour I substituted cornstarch since it is gluten free. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love beef stew and making it in the crockpot is a great way to save time. It also works well on lower quality cuts of meat. This recipe does a great job of combining beef stew and fall flavors. My oldest son really loved this dish. He is a big fan of beef stew and ate all of the beef out of his serving. I like that this recipe uses multiple types of fall squash. Overall, a great fall crockpot recipe.

For the recipe go to Pumpkin Harvest Beef Stew.

Slow Cooker Cochinita Pibil

As you all know I absolutely love my slowcooker. There is nothing better than prepping food on a busy weekday morning and having it all done when you get home. Recently, my youngest has been very clingy and my dinner time prep has turned to chaos. His attachment seemed to have started when my oldest started back at school, so I have been trying to find ways to save time at dinner in order to spend more time with him during the day. So far it seems to be working well and he is slowly acting like his normal happy self again. One of the new crockpot recipes I tried recently came from an unlikely source, a coupon insert from Kroger which came to my mailbox. I love coupons and as I was looking through them I came across a recipe for Slow Cooker Cochinita Pibil, which looked delicious and perfect for a busy weeknight meal.

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, plus 1 tsp. sauce
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. annato powder or paste
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano
• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper 
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground clove
• 1 boneless pork but (about 4 lbs.)

Cilantro, onions, tortillas, and lime wedges for serving.

In a blender or food processor, puree the first 14 ingredients until smooth. Brown the pork butt in a small amount of oil. Add to slow cooker and pour the seasoning mix over. Cover and cook on high for 8 hours.

I did make a few changes to this recipe. The original recipe did not brown the meat before placing it in the crockpot. Any meat going into a slowcooker needs to be braised in order to remain moist. If you miss this step your meat will be far less flavorful and oftentimes turn out very tough. My family really enjoyed this recipe and I like that it came from an unlucky source. Sometimes the best recipes can be found in unlikely sources! If you end up trying this recipe tell me how it turns out!

Recipe adapted from Kroger Corporation home coupon mailer.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

My husband likes to tease me that I eat a lot of carbs. He's right, I would be a horrible person on a low-carb diet, I just can't live without bread, muffins, pretty much baked goods in general. I know that I have my dad to blame for this love of all things bread related. Growing up when my mom was out doing her tupperware parties my dad would take me to the donut shop down the street and we would literally eat a dozen donuts between the two of us. I was also so thin that the doctors put me on ensure to gain weight, which did nothing except make me hate the taste of vanilla drinks for the rest of my life. Needless to say I have been lucky most of my life that eating a large amount of carbs has never had the effect that my husband claims they have had on his waistline. However, now that I am in my thirties I have been trying to find ways to modify my favorite carb snacks into healthier versions. This week I had an abundance of garden veggies and thought that the Chocolate Zucchini Muffin recipe on Allrecipes.com would be a good starting point for a healthier muffin.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of prep and cook time and makes 2 dozen muffins. I made a number of ingredient modifications to this recipe. First I never have cardamon in my house, it's not a spice that I use frequently. Given that I didn't have the spice and I had no desire to run to the store in 100 degree heat I left it out completely. Second, the thought of using 1 whole cup of oil made me cringe. Instead I substituted 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce. The original recipe only uses cocoa powder. I also added 1/2 package of mixed bittersweet and milk chocolate all natural chocolate chips. Finally I ended up with 18 muffins total since I like my muffins on the larger size. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys ate the majority of this batch of muffins and had no idea that they were eating zucchini or that I substituted the fat with applesauce. I was very happy with how moist the muffins were with the applesauce and the taste was delicious. It was definitely a great way to use an overabundance of garden vegetables and is a recipe that I would use again in the future.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Zucchini Muffins.

Moroccan Ribs

I have two very food adventurous children. They will normally at least try anything that I put in front of them. I have had a lot of people over the years tell me that I am lucky to have kids that are so open to new things. This is partially true. I am very happy that my kids will try almost anything, but a lot of groundwork was put into place for this to happen. First and foremost I don't keep snacks in my house. If you look into my cupboards you will find ingredients, not packaged snacks. My fridge is full of fruit, vegetables and low-fat diary. All this is part of my food plan with my kids. They will always at least try their dinner knowing that if they don't eat it mommy will not be catering to making another meal. Kids and adults eat the same meals in our house. I also don't force food in my house, if they don't eat their serving for dinner, it goes into the fridge for when they are hungry later. This doesn't mean that they don't get special treats occasionally. The emphasis is on the word 'treat'. This summer if my oldest finishes one of his workbooks, he gets gelato from the restaurant down the street.  `He knows that if he doesn't do something to earn it no gelato will be coming his way. All of this food foundation became apparent yesterday at the park. My oldest had befriended a little girl around his same age. He started talking about how much he loved all the stir-fry that his mommy made and that I was making Kung Pao Chicken for dinner. The little girl told my son that she had never eaten Chinese food and that they only ate 'American'. My son looked at the girl confused for a couple of minutes not understanding at all what she was talking about. I had to tell my son later that not everyone eats the large variety of food that we do, he told me that was 'weird'. Love the things that come out of kids mouths! Given that I attempt to expose my kids to new flavors and spices a recipe for Moroccan Ribs from the June issue of Family Circle caught my attention, and I decided to try it when I discovered it was prepared in the crockpot.

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of prep and 6 hours on high in the crockpot and makes 4 servings. I did have to make a few modifications to the ingredients. I have never had great success with finding cheesecloth in my area and I have never seen all-spice berries, so I changed the spices. Instead of whole allspice berries and whole cloves I substituted 1/4 tsp each of ground allspice and cloves. I added the spices to the chicken broth mixture before pouring over the chicken. I always make my own chicken broth and this recipe was no exception. Since I don't salt my stock I added an extra 1/2 of salt to the recipe ingredients. For the orange juice I squeezed fresh oranges. The prices during the summer are very low on oranges and fresh squeezed tastes significantly better in recipes. My ribs were falling off the bone when they came out of the slow-cooker, so don't let the magazine photo be deceiving, your ribs will not be nicely held together like that. Mine were more chunks of ribs, which actually worked very well with the vegetable/fruit medley when spooned over the rice. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys were very impressed with this recipe. They loved the taste of the apricots and prunes and didn't even notice that I served the dish with brown rice since I had run out of couscous. I have been trying to transition my family over to brown rice and significantly reduce the amount of white rice that we consume. So far it has been going well and this dish was perfect over brown rice. My husband liked this recipe much better than the crockpot bbq ribs I tried last week. He thought the flavors on this dish were delicious and that the ribs were fall off the bone tender. I liked that this recipe was different from your run of the mill crockpot rib recipe. It's nice trying a change of pace to my normal recipe routine. Overall, an interesting new spin on a crockpot rib recipe.

For the recipe go to Moroccan Ribs. (registration required)

Cincinnati Chili

Growing up my father was a huge red meat fan. My mother tried for years to integrate more vegetarian dishes and to eliminate red meat from our family diet. She would make great peanut noodles, which my dad decided were too spicy and complained had no meat. Then she tried stir-fry, which my dad thought was great, after he added ground beef. After a couple of years my mom thought she had succeeded in getting my father to stop eating red meat, I knew better. He would sneak out to McDonald's and buy their cheap hamburgers and eat two on the way home. My mother was successful in turning one person into a vegetarian, me. I was a vegetarian starting my freshman year of high-school until my junior year of college. Then I slowly added back fish and chicken. Then I met my husband. My husband and two boys have been known to eat an entire pack of bacon in one sitting. The men in my family are definitely big red meat fans. Since I am more a once a week at most red meat eater, I have slowly been able to convince the rest of my family to follow my lead. One dish that my husband absolutely loves though is Cincinnati chili. He can go on a twenty minute tangent on the various difference and qualities between the various Cincinnati chili brands. I have made Cincinnati chili at home a number of times, but never in the crockpot so I was interested when I saw a recipe in the February issue of Family Circle for Cincinnati Chili done completely in the slow-cooker.

This recipe has 16 ingredients (plus 3 optional). It takes 15 minutes of prep and 8 hours on low in the crock-pot and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Like I almost always do I ground my own Angus beef. I find that when I grind my own meat the texture and flavor is much better. Plus the attachment for the KitchenAid is inexpensive and very easy to use. I would normally make my own beef stock, but my normal grocery store was out of beef bones, so I bought 100% natural beef stock instead. For the toppings I added cheddar cheese on the plate. Normally my husband also likes chopped onions and occasionally beans (a five-way), but chose to play it simple with just cheese (a three-way). I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

For people unfamiliar with Cincinnati chili this is a very accessible recipe. The chili is on the mild side similar to Dixie chili, a smaller chain in Northern Kentucky. My kids really liked this recipe, they even had seconds. Make sure to taste and salt this recipe before serving. I had to add a couple of teaspoons of salt to make the flavor right before serving. I love that this recipe uses the crockpot and the flavor is still the same. Most Cincinnati chili recipes use garlic and onion powder so I was skeptical when the recipe used fresh ingredients. However, the finished result was perfect, so my assumption was misplaced. Overall, a very easy way to make Cincinnati style chili recipe.

For the recipe go to Cincinnati Chili.

Matzo Ball Soup

If you've read my blog for any amount of time you know that I love soup. I'm not one of those soup lovers that only enjoy soup in the fall and winter, I absolutely love soup year round. However, it wasn't always that way. Growing up my mom's idea of soup came from a can and was almost always condensed chicken noodle. Don't get me wrong there is something comforting about canned chicken noodle soup, but it pales in comparison to homemade. When I moved out on my own in college I ate a lot of soup, and I mean a lot. My favorites were cream of asparagus and cream of broccoli. Soup was cheap and I had very little money after paying my tuition, rent, and household expenses. I think I probably ate soup at least twice a week for four years. After meeting my husband in graduate school I still ate a lot of canned soup. This didn't change until approximately six years ago when my oldest was born. I decided that I needed to start cooking from scratch after my mother passed away from cancer nine days after my son was born. Given that my grandmother also passed away from cancer I decided to take my future into my own hands and completely change my diet. I basically taught myself to cook through cookbooks, the internet and the knowledge that my mom had given me growing up. And I feel in love with soup. Over the last six years I have made a large amount of homemade soup and gotten very adept at it. As I was looking through the April issue of the Food Network Magazine I came across a recipe for Matzo Ball Soup, which looked delicious and full of fresh herbs and flavor.

This recipe has 11 ingredients in the broth and 9 in the matzo balls. It takes 4 hours and 20 minutes of total time, 35 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did forget to buy coriander seeds, so I left them out of the broth completely. I would suggest making the broth the night before. I let my broth cool in the fridge for 3 hours and while a large amount of fat congealed on the surface there was still a large amount that could still use the extra cooling time and another skim. Additionally, I would recommend straining the broth to further reduce the fat. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys loved this soup, so much so that my oldest son drank all of it out of his bowl and then moved onto his younger brothers. I thought the flavor of the broth was delicious. It had a more distinct flavor than regular chicken broth and made a great base for the matzo balls. The matzo balls themselves needed a little more salt, but other than that were delicious. I liked the addition of the ginger and onion, it really made the taste more distinct. Overall, a flavorful soup recipe that makes lots of delicious leftovers!

For the recipe go to Matzo Ball Soup.

All You Classic Carrot Layer Cake

I love cake! Growing up birthdays and holidays were my favorite times of the year because it ensured that I would be enjoying cake. When I was little my mom baked delicious cakes every year until I hit about ten. Then we discovered the bakery that to this day made the best buttercream frosting that I have every tasted. It was an Italian bakery in a not great part of town that made sheet cakes that people raved about. They really were that great. So from that year forward every year our cakes were ordered from that same delicious Italian bakery, and they were the best. When I first started baking in my early teens I never felt the need to learn to bake cakes since the bakery cakes were always so delicious. However, when I moved 2500 miles away from my favorite bakery I quickly learned that making a delicious cake was a major fete. The first 50 cakes I tried from scratch ended up lopsided or lacking taste. Then I discovered homemade carrot cake and fell in love. I absolutely love carrot cake and it is one of my favorite types of cakes to make or buy. The March issue of All You magazine had a recipe for Classic Carrot Layer Cake which looked delicious and perfect for Easter.

This recipe has 12 ingredients in the cake and 6 ingredients in the frosting. It takes 20 minutes of prep and 45 minutes of baking and makes 12 servings. All the ingredients I either already had or were easy to find at my local grocery store. I did make two modifications. First off since I was making the cake for Easter I chose to save time and bought pre-shredded carrots. I was worried at first that they might be too thick and not fully cook, but they worked perfectly. Secondly, I used roasted cinnamon, which creates a nice flavor. The most important change I made to the recipe was to the cooking time. The recipe states to bake the cake for 45 minutes. My cake was fully cooked at 25 minutes and if I had left them in the full 45 minutes they would have been severely overcooked. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Everyone that tried this cake loved it. I served it for Easter and it was gone by the next day it was so popular. The best part of the recipe was the frosting. I loved the taste from the brown sugar and it was my favorite part of the recipe. The combination of the frosting and the cake worked perfectly together. This is definitely a recipe I will keep.

For the recipe go to Classic Carrot Layer Cake.

Family Circle Moroccan Beef Stew

I love stew. There is something extremely comforting about sitting down with a warm bowl of homemade stew. Plus, there are normally delicious leftovers to heat up the next day to enjoy the dish all over again. My two sons are both in stages where they decide that they hate all the foods they used to love. Last week cheese was my youngest sons favorite food, this week he told me at lunch that he hates cheese. Luckily stew is one of their favorite foods and that hasn't changed even with their varied food choices. My favorite meat to use in stew is beef. I love how tender beef becomes after sitting on the stove for hours. The February issue of Family Circle Magazine had a recipe for Moroccan Beef Stew, which looked full of flavorful ingredients and perfect for my stew loving family.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and approximately 2 hours of cook time and makes 6 servings. The biggest modification I made to the recipe was to make my own beef stock. Homemade beef stock is actually very easy and has a great impact of the flavor of homemade stock and stew. Roasting the beef bone before adding the vegetables and water brings out a great flavor to the stock. For the beef I made sure to buy a high quality cut of beef chuck, I have tried buying cheap cuts in the past and even after extensive cooking time they still were tough and full of tendons. I chose to serve the stew over pearl couscous. This was the first time that I had served this type of couscous to my family and my kids thought it was great and loved the shape. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The combination of the fruit and beef blended well together and the stew came out very tender. I liked the inclusion of spinach in this recipe, it provides great nutrition and brings all the flavors together nicely. My two kids loved the pearl couscous and it will be something that I serve more of in the future. Overall, an easy and delicious tasting stew recipe.

For the recipe go to Moroccan Beef Stew.

Womans Day Open-Faced Orange and Cumin-Spiced Pork Sandwiches

With two growing and rambunctious boys, I oftentimes find myself short on time around dinner. I will start something to serve and within a couple of minutes my two boys will have total pre-dinner meltdowns. Thus, dinner turns into disarray as I scramble to find something that we can possibly eat. To the rescue comes my slowcooker. I love how easy it is to start something in the crockpot in the morning and by dinner everything is done. This way even if my two boys start melting down it doesn't matter since the food is already ready to serve. The October issue of Woman's Day magazine had a recipe for Open-Faced Orange and Cumin-Pork Sandwiches, which looked delicious and full of great spices.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total of 8 hours and 15 minutes, 15 minutes of which is active, and makes 4 servings. All the ingredients were easy to find at my local grocery store. I did make some major modifications to the original recipe. First, I prefer for pulled pork to keep my pork butt whole during the crockpot time. I salt and pepper the butt, pan sear on all sides, and then add fat side up to the crockpot. The flavor from the bone makes for a rich, delicious flavor. I chose to add the whole cloves, just make sure to take them out before serving. Finally, I forgot to make fresh country bread, so I served the sandwiches on Naan, since I already had it on hand. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

This recipe is very easy to prepare and has a great flavor from all the spices. The modification to the bread, made a delicious compliment to the flavors. My two boys loved this recipe and ate their whole servings, plus leftovers the next day. During the fall and winter months, crockpot recipes can be a great way to prepare dinner without much effort, and this recipe is no exception. Overall a great blend of spices in a quick, pork recipe.

For the recipe got to Open-Faced Orange and Cumin-Spiced Pork Sandwiches.

Saveur Barbecued Baked Beans

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that my family loves pulled pork and chicken. I tend to make pulled meats at least once a month and it's one dish that I can guarantee that the leftovers will be eaten. Since I make so many pulled pork and chicken recipes, I am always looking for new sides. I can only make cornbread or corn so many times before I long for something different. I have tried a number of baked bean recipes over the last couple of years, some have been great, some less than stellar. As I was flipping through a recent issue of Saveur magazine I came across a recipe for Barbecued Baked Beans, which looked delicious and perfect as a side with pulled pork sandwiches.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It makes 6-8 servings and takes approximately 2 and a half hours to prepare and bake. There are a number of ingredients in this recipe, but they were all very easy to find at my local grocery store. Normally I would have used leftover pulled pork that I had made myself, but this was a week that I took the easy road out and bought pre-made pulled pork. I prefer homemade, but there are actually some decent brand of pulled pork available at our local grocery stores, which I buy when I run out of time (or don't feel like cooking all day). To crush the tomatoes, I use a ziploc bag, seal and then crush by hand. It saves the mess and makes clean-up a snap. It's also a great way to crush graham crackers or saltines for recipes. I would have used dried beans, instead of canned, except I have never been able to find dried navy beans at any of the grocery stores in my area. Since most people use pinto beans, they are the most readily and abundant beans available. Make sure to wait until the beans have cooled for 15-20 minutes before serving. The recipe suggests waiting 10 minutes, but I found waiting 20 minutes helped for the beans to completely thicken after standing. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I hadn't made homemade baked beans in a long time and this was a big hit with my family. My two boys liked the sweetness and thought they tasted like 'candy beans'. The only complaint I received was from my husband, who wasn't a fan of the texture of the bacon. That's to be expected from him though, he has to have his bacon almost burned to get it crispy enough for him to eat. The leftovers heated well for a dinner later in the week, and my boys ate multiple bowls as snacks. This recipe makes a large amount of beans, more than enough to take to a potluck or to have plenty of leftovers for future meals. Overall, a delicious baked beans recipe.

For the recipe go to Barbecued Baked Beans.

USA Weekend Pumpkin Bread

Growing up the fall season was always a big deal. My mom had eleven brothers and sisters and since she was the oldest our house was always busy. There was always baking or cooking of some sort being done and it was by helping my mom get ready for parties that I learned to really cook. One of my favorite baking ingredients was pumpkin. My mom would make pumpkin pies and breads that were delicious and it was the one time of year that my mother allowed me to have pie for breakfast (since it had pumpkin in it I was able to argue that it was somewhat nutritious :). I seem to have passed on my love of pumpkin to my two boys, anything pumpkin related that I make they gobble up every last bite. Recently, I pureed a number of pumpkins that I found at a farmer's market in our area and have been baking recipes using the puree in the last month. While reading the Sunday paper I came across a recipe for Pumpkin Bread in the USA Weekend insert, using ginger instead of nutmeg, which looked delicious and different than my normal pumpkin bread recipe.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It makes 24 servings and takes approximately an hour to prepare and bake. All the ingredients are very basic and I already had all of them in my pantry cupboard or fridge. Instead of using canned pumpkin I used frozen puree that I had prepared a few weeks back. I found the baking temp to be a little too high since I was using dark coated pans, so I turned the oven down to 325 and baked about 10 minutes longer than the recipe suggested. I did notice that the sides of the bread browned quickly, so I tented the bread to cook the last 20 minutes or so. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

If you like the taste of ginger and pumpkin, you will like this recipe. It has a very strong spice flavor and works well with melted butter. I wasn't sure if my sons would like this recipe due to the ginger, but my family ate both loves in about 3 days, so it was very popular. I love finding recipes that are different than the run of the mill traditional cookbook recipe and this recipe definitely fits the bill. A great lower sugar way to make pumpkin bread, which can also be modified to use applesauce instead of half the amount of butter. Overall, a delicious fall bread recipe.

For the recipe go to Pumpkin Bread.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you haven't guessed from previous blog posts, I absolutely love pumpkin. Fall is my favorite time of year and I do a ton of baking during the fall and winter months. There is something very comforting about the smell of baked goods during the colder months which makes me feel very warm and homey. My husband and kids just love that they get all kinds of delicious food and sweets to try. A couple of years back I started making my own pumpkin puree due to my total inability to find any type of canned pure pumpkin. With so many freezer bags full of homemade puree I set out to find various recipes utilitizing the ingredient. I found a number of chocolate-chip cookie recipes that I was less than excited with and my family half-heartidly ate them. This year I tried a new recipe from the Food Network website and I was pleased with the result (and so were the rest of my household, who ate almost 60 of these cookies last week).

This recipe has 14 ingredients and yields approximately 60 cookies. The total time is 32 minutes, with 15 minutes of cooking time. The ingredients are very basic, I had every spice and dry good already in my pantry cupboard. Instead of using store-bought pumpkin puree I used the homemade pumpkin puree I made last month. This recipe would work just as well however, with the canned variety. Be very careful with the baking time for these cookies. My oven tends to run hot, so I turned my pans half-way through the baking. These cookies brown a little quickly, but if you take them out too soon they will be very cake-like in texture. If you prefer a less soft texture, I would flatten out the cookies with a cup or spoon before baking. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written, with no modifications.

These were a much bigger hit in my household than the previous chocolate-chip pumpkin cookie recipes that I have tried. This recipe does make a lot of cookies, so would be perfect for a party or a bake sale. However, the cookies are pretty small, so if you prefer you could make larger cookies or bake the batter in a 13 by 9 inch pan and bake them as bar cookies (with an adjusted cooking time). Overall, a delicious way to use fall flavors that takes very little time to prepare and cook, and would be a perfect baking activity with kids (my five-year-old was able to help with no problems).

For the recipe go to Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Pumpkin Scones

As I've stated numerous times recently, fall is my favorite time of the year. The weather cools down, but isn't too cool yet, the leaves turn beautiful colors, and best of all the food. I have a slight pumpkin obsession and make just about anything possible using pumpkin puree. For whatever reason, pumpkin puree is impossible to find in my area except for the few months leading up to Thanksgiving. Therefore, I make my own pumpkin puree, which is very quick and easy to do. With a freezer full of puree I have been making numerous recipes, with one of my favorite being Pumpkin Scones. The recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 7 tablespoons Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg 
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 6 tablespoons Cold Butter
• 1/2 cup canned or homemade pureed Pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons Half and Half
• 1 large Egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a bowl.  Cut butter into mixture (either using a pasty cutter or a food processor, sometimes I even use a fork). Mixture should be crumbly, but not full of butter lumps.

In another bowl combine pumpkin, half and half and egg. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Form a ball with the dough, add more flour if dough is too sticky. Form dough into a circle approximately 1 inch thick, cut into either 8 or 12 scones, depending on the size preferred. Place on a greased baking sheet. If desired brush with heavy whipping cream and sugar (I almost always do this step, but some people prefer scones without this step). Bake for 14-16 minutes.

These scones are very easy to make and have a great fall flavor. The original recipe included two types of glaze, I chose to bake the scones without the glaze, I try to avoid additional sugar when possible. My two boys really enjoyed these scones and ate almost the whole batch before my husband arrived home from work. A great way to use fall spices and makes a delicious breakfast or snack.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my chocolate-chip pumpkin cookie recipe!

This recipe was adapted from here. It contains the recipe for the two glazes, if you would prefer to add them to the recipe.
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