'Tis the season for pumpkin.

Soooooo much pumpkin.

My husband likes to remind me every fall that he's not on the "pumpkin spice fan train," but I always respond with:

What is wrong with you?

If you're like him, and you're not a HUGE fan of pumpkin but you like curry so you thought you'd check this out-- you've mad a wise decision.

Every year I stick this on our little food planner on the refrigerator at some point, every year my husband groans, and then when he comes home for dinner, he's awe-stricken.

This soup is amazing whether you're a pumpkin fan or not.

Pumpkin Curry Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

- 1-2 T Olive Oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped (I usually use white)
- 3 C Vegetable or chicken stock
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1-2 cans of black beans, drained
- 15 oz can pumpkin puree
- 1 C heavy cream (I have used anything from coconut milk to half & half to the actual cream and all taste good to me!)
- 1 Tbsp curry
- 1.5 tsp cumin (I usually reduce this to 1 tsp of the kiddos are partaking!)
- 1/2 tsp cayenne (I usually only add this if I know the kiddos won't be eating it, but 9/10 they do.)
salt to taste
chives for garnish, if desired


Directions:

- Using a large pot, sauté the onions in the olive oil until nearly clear and oil is not visible.
- Add your broth/stock, tomatoes, black beans, and pumpkin. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add your cream/milk and spices.
- Bring to a slow boil again before reducing heat to low. Option to serve immediately or sit, with random stirrings, as long as needed.
- Garnish with green onions (so yummy, just not pictured) and enjoy!

I don't think Michael and I made enough pumpkin recipes this fall, do you? More specifically, I definitely don't think we made enough pumpkin recipes.

Yes. I am being sarcastic.

Now whenever we go down the baking aisle at the grocery store Michael insists we get a can of pumpkin. When I ask him why, he always responds, "Because it's yummy!"

Can't argue with that, can I?

This is, thus far, my favorite pumpkin cookie recipe from this fall. It is SO GOOD. I'm allowed to say that, right? The only thing I think I might change to it (and it's suggested in the ingredients) is to use white chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips (or as well as). I mean, who can fight with white chocolate and cranberry? Anyone?


Ingredients:

- 2 heaping cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour (I did 1 C white, 1 C whole wheat)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 C oats
- 1 C butter (2 sticks), melted
- 1/4 C molasses
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 3/4 C pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/3 to 1/2 C dried cranberries
- 1/3 to 1/2 C chocolate chips
- 1/3 to 1/2 c white chocolate chips
*Note: You will notice that pictures is only dried cranberries and chocolate chips. Feel free to use a combination of any add-ins, including adding pecans if you like! Just make sure you have between 1 to 1.5 C of the good stuff!*

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper or coat with cooking spray.
- Melt the butter on the stove or in the microwave. Whisk in the molasses, brown sugar, and sugar.
- Next mix in your egg, pumpkin, and vanilla.
- You can pre-mix your dry ingredients (except the oats/chips/cranberries) before adding them to your current mix. Otherwise, add them gradually and not all at once to well combine them.
- Fold in your oats, and then your additional add-ins.

- Scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheet(s).This makes a few dozen cookies, so either cook multiple sheets at once or be prepared! The dough should keep in the fridge (uncooked) for a day or so after initially mixing it.

- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until lightly browned around the edges. Allow the cookies to cool for AT LEAST five minutes on the baking sheets, but preferably longer, before moving to a cooling rack.


Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction.

Confession: I have never baked with white chocolate chips until this year. And I have no idea why.

I am in love.

I've always liked white chocolate, but when it came to baking I just kind of avoided it. I keep regular chocolate chips in the house on a daily basis, but white chocolate? I mean, who really craves white chocolate chip cookies?

Well, Michael has decided he likes "white chips" much better than "chocolate chips" (ha), and I must confess that lately they've been teasing my taste buds as well.

Enter, white chocolate chip pumpkin blondies. AKA dance party in your mouth.


Ingredients:

- 6 tbsp butter, softened
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup pumpkin
- 3/4 C + 2 Tbsp unbleached, all purpose flour
- /2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 C white chocolate chips

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350 and spray an 8x8 baking dish.
- Using a handheld or standing mixer, cream your butter until fluffy. Add the sugar, vanilla, and egg (separately). Then mix in the pumpkin.
- Add your dry ingredients (pre-combined in a smaller bowl or not is up to you, I like to save dishes!).
- Fold in your white chocolate chips. The mixture may be really thick, and that's perfectly fine!
- Spread the mix as evenly as possible into your 8x8 dish.
- Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
Note: The recipe I took this from said 15 to 20 minutes, but mine took A LOT longer to be done. This could just be my oven, so if you want to start with caution set your timer for 15 minutes and go from there. My oven is old and slow.
- Set whole pan on cooling rack and leave it there for a good 10 minutes before cutting into the bars. Whether you serve them warm or at room temperature, they are positively delicious.


This recipe was molded from Lauren's Latest.

How is it the last week of October already? I'm having a hard time believing it.


Michael and I had a fun time making these cookies and sharing them with two lovely ladies for a dinner get together. They went pretty quickly... as in we all devoured them.

Ingredients:

- 2.5 C all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 C butter, softened
- 1 C brown sugar
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
- 1/4 C softened butter
- 1/4 C softened cream cheese
- 1 to 1.5 C powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare your cookie sheet (spray or parchment paper).
- Cream together your butter and sugars. Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to the mixture, beat until well combined.

- Mix in your dry ingredients. Drop on the cookie sheet with a cookie scoop or around 1 to 2 tablespoons per cookie. If desired, flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass (slightly wet with water).
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Frosting:

- Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar (in 1/2 C increments or so) and mix with an electric mixer until thick.
- Add vanilla and cinnamon.
- When cookies are completely cool, spread the frosting on top. Add sprinkles if desired, the definitely make them more seasonally-friendly in my opinion!

These cookies really taste like fall to me.

This original recipe was for cookies, and I imagine because we made so many changes they ended up being more like crackers. Michael absolutely loved them, which makes them a win in my book and worth sharing!

Ingredients:

- 1 3/4 C flour (I used all-purpose, unbleached but I do think you could use whole wheat)
- 2 tbsp Coconut Oil (melted)
- 2 tbsp agave syrup or honey
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 2 1/2 tbsp pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp sea salt

*Optional*
- Melted Butter
- Cinnamon/Sugar mix

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350. Prepare your cookie sheet with parchment/wax paper or cooking oil.
- Mix together your melted coconut oil, syrup/honey, vanilla, and pumpkin.
- Add your flour and spices to your mix. Kneed the dough until well formed.
- On a lightly floured, roll your dough out very thinly. Use cookie cutters (or pie crust cutters-- mine are here, just a little different since they're a couple years old) to cut the dough into desired shapes. Move to your prepared cookie sheet.

*Optional: If you want to give the crackers more flavor (which I did), lightly brush with butter and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top of them.

- Bake for 5-10 minutes (until slightly golden) and remove immediately to a cooling rack.


These are easy and especially fun for kids to help make!

Do your remember my Cara Box reveal? Jacquie (from Jacquie Here) gifted me a fabulous Vegan cookbook due to all my vegan goodies she found on my site. I finally put it to some use! There are definitely a few fall-themed recipes I want to use from it, and this was my first try!

While these cookies are delicious, they weren't exactly what I was expecting. The recipe says they are thin pumpkin cookies. Do they look thin to you? Me, either! Still... if they come with Michael's approval, I am likely to make them again (and try to mess with it some more to make them thinner!).


Ingredients:

- 1/3 C canned pumpkin
- 1/3 C canola oil
- 1/3 C sugar
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp molasses
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1.5 C flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
*optional*: 1/3 to 1/2 C chocolate chips


Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350. Prepare cookie sheet.
- Mix together your pumpkin, oil, sugars, vanilla, molasses, and powdered sugar.
- Add your flour, baking soda, salt, and spices to the pumpkin mix. If the mix is really sticky, add some more flour.
- Fold in your *optional* chocolate chips.

- Using a cookie scooper or 1 to 2 tablespoons per cookie, put them on your baking sheet.
*Note: Now, my cookies may not have been "flat and chewy" because the recipe says to flatten them, and I just used a cookie scooper. However, they were incredibly fluffy... so I'm not sure how, exactly, they would have been even if I had tried to flatten them. If you try this, please let me know how it goes!*


- Bake for 11 to 13 minutes


Transfer to a cooling rack and let them sit for two to five minutes, or so, until you gobble them up.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN!

Here I go. Please don't roll your eyes or laugh at me.

FALL IS MY FAVORITE SEASON!

Whew. Glad that's out of the way.

Something about this year feels so wonderful. I'm hoping for a crisp fall, full of adventures and glorious weather. While these may be high hopes, we've already had a few days where it's been hinting that it's finally cooling down. I mean, a high of 63? That was ah-mazing. And check out these leaves!


This fall I have a long list of things I want to do with Michael and Clark. Probably because Michael is a year older and promises to be even more fun during the process. OK... maybe not ALWAYS. We checked one of the list around his birthday and went apple picking. Golden Delicious and Gala apples were (are?) in season, so I wanted to go early. Doesn't he look happy?

A longer post about Apple Picking will be posted Tuesday!

Still, I have a feeling playing in the leaves and enjoying some new pumpkin recipes will make him happy. He certainly enjoyed these vegan pumpkin cookies.

Recipe to be posted tomorrow!

OK... I will stop shoving pictures at you and getting overly excited. Here's our bucket list!

Michael during our pumpkin picking adventure, October, 2012.
1. Go apple picking. (CHECK!)
2. Come up with 3 to 4 new pumpkin recipes.
3. Make warm butterbeer Check out last year's butterbeer recipe here.
3. Visit a pumpkin patch.
4. Carve a pumpkin.
5. Go for (at least) one good hike with the camera.
6. Play in the leaves.
7. Fall family picnic.
8. Take family pictures.
9. Go trick-or-treating with Michael.
10. Introduce Michael to "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"


I shortened it for your sake! What's on your fall bucket list?

As you may recall, I'm trying to make my sweets a little less sweet. This is very hard to do during the holidays. I mean, come on. Usually I tried to lose all my weight BEFORE the holidays plus some so I had room to gain a couple of pounds. Seriously. I'm like a bear hibernating this time of year... only I'm not going into hibernation, so the fat tends to... well... ya get the picture.

Since that's not the case this year, this scone recipe was part of my "cutting back". I knew there was no way I was going to part with these babies.

I. Love. Scones.

Oh, and I love pumpkin.

Double ut-oh.

So, here's my healthier version... and might I just say, they were just enough to keep other sweet-cravings at bay... for now.


Ingredients:

- 1 C all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 1 C whole wheat flour
- 1/3 C sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 C pumpkin puree
- 3 tbsp half & half (low fat)
- 1 egg
- 6 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 425. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper if you have it. Spraying with cooking spray is not necessary if you have a non-stick sheet.
- Whisk together your half&half, egg, and pumpkin. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together your flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, and spices. Add your cut-up butter.
- Use a pastry cutter to mix your butter in. There should be no pieces larger than tiny peas left. It really just feels like course crumbs or a thicker mix.
- Next, add your pumpkin mix into your dry mix. You may have to use your hands to really get it together nicely.
- Now you want to put some flour down. DO NOT put down as much flour as I did. This caused the bottom of the scones to be... well... VERY flour-y. Put a good amount down, but certainly not this much. I was half asleep when I did this... that's my excuse.
Now, roll out your dough until it's about 12 inches long and somewhere between four to six inches wide. Then you want to cut it into three sections, and cut those sections in halves or thirds. Halves will get you some funky-looking scones (note mine)... so I ended up cutting some of them into fourths just to make them look a little more "normal". But... normal is SO overrated.


- Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Let cool, drool, and enjoy.


For an icing recipe, and the original that inspired this one, check out The Shoe Box Kitchen.

Clark isn't a huge fan of pumpkin. I'm not sure why, since I think it's one of the best things EVER (especially in autumn), but I've definitely been winning him over these past couple of months. His favorite? These babies. Clark LOVES gingersnaps.

These are soft. They're not exactly "snappy"... I'm still working on legitimate gingersnaps. So, for now, enjoy these fabulously delicious soft pumpkin gingersnaps!

Ingredients:

- 1/2 C butter, at room temperature
- 1 C sugar
- 1/2 C pumpkin puree (I used canned)
- 1/8 C Molasses
- 1/8 C honey
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 2 1/3 C all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp ginger
- 3/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Raw or Granulated sugar, for rolling

Directions:

- Mix together your butter, sugar, pumpkin, molasses, honey, vanilla, and egg.

- Add your dry ingredients (premixed or not) in sections until you need to switch to a spoon or spatula.
- Let the dough sit in the fridge for at least an hour. I let mine sit for longer.
If you need to add a little extra flour so it's not super sticky, that's OK-- but don't go overboard!
- Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare your cookie sheet as needed.
- Use about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Roll the cookie in raw or granulated sugar and place on your cookie sheet.
- Bake for 11 to 13 minutes. Let cookies sit for a minute before transferring to a wire cooling rack.


This recipe makes around three dozen cookies, more or less depending on how big you make them. It was adapted from: Two Peas & Their Pod.

Here it is. My confession...

I. Love. Harry. Potter.

Perhaps it's because I grew up with Harry. Perhaps it's because I initially wasn't allowed to read the books. Maybe it's because J.K. Rowling is awesome. Who knows. All I know is, I love Harry Potter.

So much that October this year became Harry Potter month. It just hasn't been the same since the movies ended. There's nothing to look forward to with the series. It's truly over. Ended. So sad. Anyway, October became Harry Potter month. I made a schedule of what I was going to cook and when we were going to watch each movie. I spaced it out over the month so we would finish right before Halloween (saving that day for It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!, of course).

My senior year of high school is when the last book came out. Clark likes to tease me because I made him go to the midnight release of the book. He also makes fun of me because I dressed up. He always seems to exaggerate my "costume". Truly all I did was put on some jeans, a button down, and tie. However, with my hair, he always said I was a Hermione. Just to come clean... here's the one piece of evidence.


Now that that's out of the way, let's move on to the recipes, shall we?

How do you celebrate Harry Potter? By making butterbeer and pumpkin pasties, of course! While there are plenty of other sweets that could be made, these two stand out the most to me. So, here you are. Celebrate all the awesomeness that is Harry Potter with your very own butterbeer and pumpkin pasty!

Butterbeer

Ingredients:
This recipe is for four servings of butterbeer.

- 4 12oz bottles of cream soda (or just 48 oz of cream soda, a two liter works just fine)
- 2 tsp of imitation butter PER serving (I actually used "Butter Buds" because I was unable to find legitimate imitation butter, which should be a liquid.)
Optional: 1 shot of gold rum per serving

For the foam:

- 1.5 C heavy whipping cream
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp imitation butter (or butter buds)

Directions:

- Make sure your cream soda is nice and cold! In the bottom of your glass, put your butterbuds/imitation butter and your rum if you're making this adult-butterbeer. Pour your cream soda over it and make sure it mixes well.
- For the foam, whip your heavy cream on medium speed for three to four minutes.
Note: Because Michael was sleeping when I was making this, I just whisked it to death for four minutes. Had I used an electric mixer, my foam probably would have been a bit more "firm".
- Add the sugar and whip for another two minutes or so, until soft peaks begin to form.
- Add your vanilla and butter and mix for another 30 seconds or so, until soft peaks can be seen again.
- Add your foam to the top of your cream soda mix.
To make the foam mix in a little bit, I saved some cream soda and pour it on top of the foam as well so it was foamy throughout rather than just on top.
If you like, sprinkle some raw sugar, sprinkles, or whatever you like on top of your butterbeer!

WARNING: You will have a mustache, especially if you have one already...


And if you don't make enough for seconds, people can get violent.

Now on to the...


Pumpkin Pasties


Ingredients:
(For the dough)
- 1/2 C butter, cold, cut into pieces
- 3/4 tsp sugar
- 1.5 C all purpose, unbleached flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 oz cream cheese (low or fat free), cut into pieces

Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 350.
- Mix your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add the butter and use a pastry cutter (like you do for blackberry scones) to blend it in until it looks like you have course crumbs.


- Add the cream cheese and use the pastry cutter until you no longer can, switching over to a spatula or spoon until you get a nice mess.


- Add some flour to a surface or the bowl and knead the dough until you get it nice and round. Divide into two (if you don't want to make the whole recipe) and freeze or refrigerate half (if you want to).
I would suggest putting it in the fridge while you make the filling as well.


Ingredients:
(For the filling)
- 3/4 C pureed pumpkin
*Note: I only used half of the dough recipe, but made the whole filling recipe. Needless to say I had quite a bit left over. If you only intend to make half, make sure to cut the filling recipe in half as well.*
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1 egg
- 1/3 C sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:

- In a small saucepan, heat your pumpkin and spices until warm (over low to medium-low heat).
- Whisk in your egg, vanilla, sugar, and salt. Let cool for a few minutes before proceeding.

BRING IT ALL TOGETHER NOW!

- Roll out your dough and use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut into circles. I am not blessed with either of these, so I used the fabulous Boogie Wipes container and a knife.

- After you cut them, roll them out to make the dough thinner (note how they're not perfectly round, which is totally fine).
- Use a heaping teaspoon to put filling in them. Make sure you put it closer to an edge, rather than right in the middle.

- Fold them over and roll or pinch the edges with your fingers (or I believe you could use a fork).

Now you need: (optional)
- 1 egg, scrambled
- raw sugar

- Use a basting brush and lightly go over the tops of them with your scrambled egg. Next, sprinkle sugar on top.
A half recipe makes about seven pasties (but may make more if you have a standard biscuit cutter for the dough)!

- Put them in the oven and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until they're nice and golden on top (or just about to be golden, which is what I prefer).



Enjoy with your butterbeer or all on their own! These things go fast!

Have a Harry-Potter-Filled-Happy Halloween!




Butterbeer recipe inspired by: Bakingdom.com.

Pumpkin Pastie recipe adapted from: BrownieBites.com.