Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Thanksgiving gift to my blog readers is my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. This recipe was given to me several years back by my friend Annie. These are one of my favorite cookies, they are cake/muffin like in texture and are simply divine! The recipe suggests storing the cookies in the fridge. Don't worry, they won't harden up if you store them this way. They stay fresher longer and taste delicious warm or cold.

I recently made a batch of these for a church function in which they were devoured and the recipe was requested of me by several ladies. I am making a batch to take to my Dad and Polly's for Thanksgiving as well. Happy Baking!

INGREDIENTS

DRY
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

WET
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 15oz can pure pumpkin
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla

MIX INS
1 12 oz bag semi sweet chocolate chips
1 c. chopped walnuts (optional..I don't use them)

GLAZE
1 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your baking sheet or stone with non stick spray, wipe off excess. You want a slightly greased surface for these cake like cookies. This needs to be done for the first batch only.

Combine DRY ingredients, stir to mix.

Cream together the butter and sugar with mixer.

Add remaining WET ingredients.

Gradually add in the mixed DRY ingredients, beating until you have a thick cake like batter. Stir in your ADD INS.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop onto your greased baking pan or stone. Your dough will be thick, sticky and cake batter like. Bake 18-20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Your cookies will be cake/muffin like in texture. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 3-5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Meanwhile, combine GLAZE ingredients. Stir until a smooth glaze forms.

Spoon or pour the glaze into a sandwich baggie, squeezing it all down into one point. Snip the point with scissors and use as a decorator bag to zig zag glaze across cooled cookies. (or you can spread the glaze on with a knife) Glaze will set within 30 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies. Enjoy!

Exploring Wine Country

One of the true blessings about living here is how close we are to the fabulous wine country. Less than 5 miles from our home is close to 40 different wineries and field after field of fabulous grape vines to behold. As can be seen above, the grape leaves are turning gold and burnt orange as they prepare to fall away to the earth below.

Every other weekend or so since moving here we drive out to the wine country and explore 2-3 wineries. Today we chose 2 different wineries to visit. We started out having lunch at one of the larger wineries and had a wonderful lunch over looking the rows and rows of grapes. After lunch we saw the tasting room, gift shop and walked around the grounds and picnic areas. This particular winery has weddings often. What a perfect spot to be married!

After spending close to 2 hours at the first winery we moved on to a smaller, boutique winery that is known for its red wines. The pictures posted were all taken at this winery. Kevin tasted 5 of their vintage reds and loved every one! The best part of visiting this winery was talking to the owners. They opened the winery the year Kyle was born and have found great success. From Italy, they brought their love of wine and knowledge of old world style wine making to their little winery here.

The weather here has been perfect for weeks now. The average daily temp has been 70 and with cool mornings and evenings and endless blue skies, it just doesn't get any better than this.

Salute!

*I'm still waiting for several family and friends to become a friend on Facebook! I post twice daily what is going on in our lives and give details like the names of the places we go (like the wineries today) Since Facebook is private vs this blog which is public...I can be more specific. Go to Facebook.Com and it will walk you through the sign up, look me up and request me as a friend and we can chat live, post messages, leave private notes etc..I love keeping up with my friends on Facebook. I have re connected with many old high school friends. I spend approx. 5 t0 10 min a day on Facebook. It will NOT take up a lot of your time.

Stamp club projects

After being in a stamp club in Vegas for over 3 years I decided to become a Stampin Up! demonstrator last spring. The main reason for this was to bring in extra income with Kevin losing his job many months prior. However, soon after becoming a demonstrator the wheels began to be in motion for us to move and for Kevin to start his new job. With preparing to move and all that entails, I did exactly one workshop! Moving here ended up being a huge adjustment for Kyle, and due to that I was unable to truly get plugged in to a church, a bible study and a couples bible study. It is only in the past 3 weeks that I have finally been able to meet and get to know new friends and acquaintances. So when my deadline for $400 in sales arrived on October 31., I had ZERO sales to turn in. Not wanting to fork out $400 to order and stay active, I chose to let my demonstratorship go for now. However, I have really missed being in a stamp club and getting together with a group of women to stamp cards and other projects. So I decided to research and find a demonstrator in our city. It did not take long to find 2 ladies who are demonstrators and who both had openings in their stamp clubs. After talking to both ladies and visiting their websites, I went with my gut and chose to be a part of Julie B's stamp club. She has been a demonstrator for 15 years and lives a few blocks from me.

Tonight was my first club meeting with 11 other women. I had A BLAST!! First of all, Julie was wonderful and secondly the other ladies all welcomed me into their group. Each month when they meet the ladies do a swap which is where you make 11 cards and then bring them to club. You then "swap" with the other ladies and end up going home with 12 gorgeous cards, one from each lady in the club. I did not participate in the swap this month but will next month. The cards and goodies that were brought to swap were GORGEOUS. I can hardly wait to swap next month.

At club we get to make 3 projects. The above pictures is what I made tonight! I am totally in love with the stamp set we used which is called DELIGHTFUL DECORATIONS. What I love the most is that there is a punch that is shaped like an ornament that you use to punch out the ornaments after you stamp them! How cool is that? I love the two cards we made and I especially love the gift card holder. I plan on making several of these to use this Christmas.

I had such a wonderful evening stamping and getting to know some new women. I especially hit it off with the demonstrator Julie. She was a doll and her home was gorgeous. She made me feel so welcome and really made a point of introducing me to all the women in the club. I'm super excited to be stamping again in a stamp club!

Roses in bloom

When we moved in to our house, the many rose bushes were very neglected. So my Dad came down and pruned them all and showed me how to prune them. Since that time back in Sept., I've been pruning them weekly and watching them grow and flower. There is just something really special about having roses in your back yard.

Finally, the weather has cooled down considerably here. The past two weeks have been in the late 60's to early 70's most days with a few 80 degree days sprinkled in. I think we are officially done with 90 degree plus weather for a while. As if to say "it's finally fall!" our little apricot tree in our back yard's leaves are turning and falling. I love this little tree.

Garden Gate mini book

This garden gate mini book is the result of a class I took at a nearby Scrap book store. The teacher had pre-designed the cover and a few of the elements on the inside, but for the most part, we were encouraged to use our on creativity for the inside pages. I was taught a technique for this book that I have never tried called Glimmer Mist. What a fun technique! I chose to use pics in this book that I have had for 5 years, but had not scrap booked yet. One afternoon in our backyard in Vegas back yard, Kate and I decided to snap black and white shots of each other. Kate is only 13 here. Exactly the age Kyle is now in fact. (nearly 14) I hope you enjoy the mini book! (remember to click on a picture to see a larger version) *note: I tried to upload these pics in order, but blogger was not cooperating with me. So the pics are in random order.

Thanksgiving Decor

Here are my Thanksgiving decorations for you to enjoy. It's officially November, which means my favorite time of year is ticking down to Thanksgiving. It won't be long before we are all gathered around the table eating Turkey with all the trimmings. As usual I have decorated for yet another holiday. Since I already have had fall decor out since September, I simply put away my Halloween decorations in exchange for Thanksgiving decor.

This pilgrim family was left to me by my Mom. I absolutely love and cherish these early American figurines. They have great detail and really bring out the Thanksgiving feeling sitting here on our kitchen bar.

Isn't this little pilgrim girl sweet?

The other day I went into Kirklands and found that all their mirrors were drastically marked down. I bought this beautiful new mirror over the fireplace for $29 marked down from $89. Now that's a bargain. We've been wanting a mirror for over the fireplace since moving here, but were waiting for the right one to come along and at the right price. Hanging on the mantle is the THANKFUL banner that I made 2 years ago out of a chipboard kit from Stampin Up! I love this banner and enjoy putting it out each year. For a closer look at the mirror and banner, click on the picture for a larger image.

My favorite things displayed here are the cup and saucer with a turkey on the saucer and a squirrel on the outside of the cup. I also adore the praying pilgrim figurines. Both these items belonged to my Mom.

This pillow was purchased one afternoon while out with Beverly a few years back...she bought one too.