PUMPKIN COOKIES WITH CARMEL FROSTING

I ate these cookies at Trina's last weekend when we were visiting.  I am not a real pumpkin lover but these were delicious.  I have several children that are pumpkin lovers and wanted to share before Thanksgiving was over.  She found these on Pinterest and they are from www.letsdishrecipes.com.  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Frosting
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in pumpkin. In a medium bowl, sift together the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

To make frosting: In a medium saucepan, combine butter, cream, and brown sugar over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture just begins to boil; remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool then stir in confectioner's sugar. Spread frosting over cooled cookies.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So these cookies are from the magazine Chocolate Desserts which are from the TV Show Cook's Country which is on PBS.  They are pretty yummy cookies.  When we made them they were gone pretty fast.

2 cups plus 2 Tbl. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 Tbl. unsalted butter, melted and cooled.  (I usually leave out the salt and just use regular butter and call it good.)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsps. vanilla
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Heat over to 325.  Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl and set aside.  Using a mixer, mix butter and sugars on medium speed until thoroughly blended.  Beat egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat on low speed just until combined.  Stir in chips.

Spoon onto baking sheets.  I use a cookie scoop and also use parchment or silpat on my pans.  Bake until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft about 10-12 minutes.  Let cookies cool on pans before removing.

Chicken, Squash, & Apple Hash

I found this recipe on a coupon blog (weird, I know) months ago and we eat this probably twice a month, we all (with only one exception) love it.  I've changed several things, I'm going to list the recipe as we make it, but there is lots of room for your changes.   Original recipe from Collin at Hip2Save.com.

1 acorn squash, peeled, cleaned and cubed
1/2 - 1 medium onion chopped
1 - 2 apples diced
1 large chicken breast, cut into small chunks and pan-fried (you may want to add more chicken)
1/4 tsp smoked paprika for a bacon flavor
chopped walnuts
salt & pepper to taste

Set your oven to broil, then throw the cubed butternut squash on a sprayed cookie sheet. I spray my squash with olive oil as well. Let broil for about 8 minutes. Make sure to stir every couple of minutes. I take them out before they look done, I don't like them mushy.
While the squash is cooking,  heat some oil in a skillet over medium heat. Throw in the chopped onions and stir occasionally until they are softened and starting to brown a little and add the paprika.
Now add the apples into the skillet with the onions. Stir for a minute and then add everything else (cooked chicken, broiled squash and chopped nuts). Season with salt and pepper.

Orzo with Parmesan and Basil

The recipe is from tastykitchen.com and it is by Jen of My Tiny Oven. We all loved it. 

3 tbs butter
1 1/2 cups Orzo
3 cups chicken broth
6 tbs fresh chopped basil
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the orzo and saute for a few minutes, until it turns a golden brown. Add the broth and cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until all broth has been absorbed. Removed from heat, add the cheese and basil and salt and pepper to taste.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I haven't posted for a long time but I am going to try to do better.  It isn't that I am not trying new recipes, it just seems like a long ways to go and get the camera to take a picture of what I have made.  I have become addicted to watching a cooking show on TV and now have some of their magazines and recipe books.  My next few posts will be from these.  This bread is from the show Cooks Country and also published in a Cooks Illustrated magazine.  It is a show on PBS.  I know that the recipe seems long and complicated but not really when you get to the end and you taste the best wheat bread in your life.  It is so light and soft and moist.  So take a little time and try it.  I will add a few comments of a few changes that I made to the recipe.

Biga

2 cups bread flour

1 cup warm water

½ tsp. instant yeast

 

Soaker

3-5 cups whole wheat flour(It calls for 3 and use 3 if you are using store bought whole wheat flour but if you have just ground your own it might take more.  You want this to form a stiff ball, when you knead it.  They probably used store bought flour and  I grind my own flour and found that it needed about 5 cups to get it to this stage.)

½ cup wheat germ

2 cups milk

 

Dough

 

¼ cup honey (I like my bread a little sweeter so I added a little extra honey, maybe a tablespoon)

4 tsp. table salt

2 Tbl. Instant yeast

6 Tbl. Butter

2 Tbl. Vegetable oil

 

For the biga:  Combine bread flour, water and yeast in large bowl and stir until completely mixed.  Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temp. overnight. (8 – 24 hours)

For the soaker:  Combine whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and milk in large bowl and stir until it is stiff.  Turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth.  Return to bowl and cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge overnight – same as the biga.

For the dough:  Tear soaker apart into 1 inch pieces and place in bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook.  Add biga, honey, salt, yeast, butter and oil.  Mix on low speed until it starts to mix together.  Increase speed and knead until dough is smooth and elastic.  At this point I usually have to add an extra cup of bread flour because of the extra honey that I add.  Be your own judge of how you want your dough but mine is not real stiff.  Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and shape into ball and place in greased container.  Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes.

Gently press down on center of dough to deflate.  Holding edge of dough with fingertips, fold partially raised dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle.  Turn bowl 90 degrees and fold again.  Do this 6 more times.  Cover and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.

Spray two bread pans with nonstick cooking spray.  Turn dough out onto floured surface and divide into 2 pieces.  Pat each piece into an 8 by 17 inch rectangle.  With short side facing you, roll dough toward you into firm cylinder, keeping dough tights.  Pinch the dough together.  Place the seam side down into loaf pan.  Repeat with second piece of dough.  Cover loaves and allow to rise at room temperature until double in size. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees with baking stone on shelf.  Place a pan on the next rack down under the baking stone and fill with boiling water.  Place bread pans on baking stone and turn the oven temp. down to 350.  Bake the bread for 40-50 minutes until the internal temperature of the bread is 200 degrees.  (It is important to use a thermometer. I thought it looked done after about 25 minutes, but when I used a thermometer it really took about 40-50 minutes and the bread was perfect.)  Let cool in pans for 5 minutes and then remove to cooling racks.