My first experiment of the season will be a new favorite...
Gingersnaps with Orange- Ginger Cream Filling 
These are formed into balls, rolled in sugar...
...and flattened slightly with a glass bottom.
On their own, these ginger cookies were great- soft- not the crunchy sort. The filling has a gingery flavor as well as specks of orange zest. And when the filling was given its place in between two of these cookies, it brought this cookie recipe to the next level. My husband took one bite and proclaimed them as 'restaurant quality!'I froze these on a baking sheet, then removed them to layer in a plastic tub and put them back in the freezer. They're probably not good ones for mailing, but freezing them will be fine for a few weeks.
This recipe can be found HERE.
Visit RecipeGirl.com for over 50 holiday cookie favorites HERE.
It starts with a simple saute of carrots, celery, onion & garlic. The veggies are then simmered with chicken (or turkey) broth.
The addition of milk, flour and spices make the soup slightly creamy. Mild canned chiles are added too. It's not a *heavy* creamy soup- not made with whipping cream. It's not spicy either. You could certainly make it heavy creamy (add whipping cream) or hot and spicy (add chipotles in adobo).
We liked this soup the way it was- we're not spicy kind of people. In fact, we loved this soup. Even the child in our house gobbled up every bite. It was very easy to do, and it will be a definite repeater.
After prepping the dough via a small amount of mixing, it's rolled out rectangle-style and spread with melted butter.
Then it's sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar. No nuts or raisins are crowding their way into this cinnamon roll.
It's rolled up tightly.
Ends are sealed.
1-inch slices are gently cut.
Ready for consumption (and a long hike)!
I've enjoyed many a spring roll, but never had made them myself. They're incredibly easy- just have all of the ingredients ready to go in assembly-line fashion.
Going into this spring roll: Rice noodles, roasted butternut squash, roasted pumpkin seeds and chopped fresh cilantro.
The sauce recipe given for this appetizer was a soy dipping sauce, but they also suggested a cranberry chile sauce that I thought would be wonderful to try with the butternut squash (especially it being Thanksgiving week and all).
These spring rolls were awesome. The cranberry dipping sauce was a very good call. After the first bite, my husband said, "These are good." After the second bite he said, "Yeah, these are really good." I ended up eating so many of them that I didn't want the stir-fry that I had made for dinner. The butternut/pumpkin seed choice was very different for a spring roll filling, but seasonally appropriate and unique. The butternut squash is lightly caramelized, imparting that delicious flavor, and the pumpkin seeds add earthiness and crunch. Terrific.
I love you.
I loved you in these: 
Since I have a 7 year old muffin-maniac living in my house, I'm always on the hunt for muffin recipes that are a tad bit on the healthier side. The kid can down two or three for breakfast, so they might as well be less like cake and more like a nutritious meal. While these have plenty of sugar, at least they're made with whole wheat flour and oats and minimal fat.
These muffins baked up perfectly with a nicely raised muffin top. The flavors were great... tart, sweet, and moist too. The kiddo ate his usual allotment and begged for more. I'd say they were a smashing success.
From 
Only the crust is baked. The filling is simmered in a bowl over bubbling water until hot and thickened.
I chalk this one up as a great substitute for the same-old, same-old pumpkin pie. The banana flavor is definitely evident, but it pairs well with the pumpkin and added orange zest. It was a big hit in our house. I made a smaller tart (9-inch) for the teachers at school and made three little ones for us to sample at home (which my family thanked me for!)
I've only made a few things in my lifetime with this uber-expensive spice, so I was delighted to get a fresh bottle and use a pinch of it for a 
This was one yummy soup. It had a velvety texture and a great homemade flavor. The addition of shrimp was unique for a pumpkin soup... a good pairing.
Funny... I have lavender growing in my backyard, but I've never thought to use it in a recipe. First I tried a recipe for Lavender Chocolate Chip Cookies that I found on some random site on the internet. Let me just say that lavender does not belong in chocolate chip cookies. I took one bite and threw away the entire batch of flowery-tasting cookies. Ick. I wasn't ready to give up, so I decided to try it out again in 
Much better! This was delicious (and pretty!) I think you have to have a fondness for lavender to enjoy them, but the shortbread itself was delicious and the icing was perfect. I brought these to a neighbor's house for a party and the husband called the next day to tell me that he was in love with my shortbread.
#1: Wonderful samples of 
#2: Four jars of 
Day One: I made my usual 
I then used a clean painbrush to 'paint' on the remainder of the black icing onto the hexagons... starting with the center hexagon and then coloring in alternating hexagons on the edges.
Here's the finished cookie. Amazingly enough, I didn't screw up a single cookie. I was psychotically careful about the whole process. This recipe makes exactly fifteen 6-inch-diameter cookies. You can make them any size you want, but I really wanted enough room for the hexagons to 'pop' and I also wanted them to look as realistic as possible. Since I don't have a 6-inch-round cookie cutter, I used a tupperware bowl... just turned it upside down and used the top of it as a cutter.
Day Three: After the icing had a good 24 hours to harden completely, each cookie was packaged individually with little tags for the kid's names.
I brought a basket of my finished Soccer Treats to the team party. Note to self... lay all cookies flat next time (sadly, a couple of the cookies broke in half when they were standing upright in the basket... they had softened slightly since we're having unusually warm 85 degree weather at the moment).
The concept is simple really- just spread a layer of dulce de leche (canned or 
Thankfully, this pie isn't about the crust anyways. The pumpkin filling is poured over the top.
It bakes up perfectly! I doubled the given recipe and was able to come up with three pies.
Surely you can spot that nice layer of dulce on the bottom of the pie. You get a little bit of that with every bite.
OH yeah. There it is up close. Creamy and delicious and rich... everything a Thanksgiving dessert should be.
Add whipped cream and a sprinkle of toffee bits to complete the look. The toffee bits offer a crunchy twist and pair nicely with the flavor of the caramel.
The bottom brownie layer was thick, while the cheesecake functioned as a thin layer on top. A mixture of pumpkin butter and apricot jam were swirled into the cheesecake.
The brownie itself was very fudgy- similar in texture and taste to 
The pumpkin-swirled tops of these brownies remained sticky and gooey, so a little sheet of parchment in-between layers took care of containing the mess as well as the impending disaster of glued-together treats.
This is what happens when you make your subjects sit for an extended photography session where they are poked and prodded and commanded to perform. They get sleepy and lazy and bored and... tip over.
The verdict is that these were excellent brownies... very different with the pumpkin flavor attached to the top. If you enjoy chocolate and pumpkin together, this is for you. Unlike those 
This is a really basic recipe, without a lot of fancy stuff added in. I doubled it by using two bottles of red wine that were on the cheaper side (no need to buy the high end stuff for sangria). I used 
Add sliced oranges...
and red grapes (take them off the bunch first.)
Add sliced pear (or nectarine or peach if they're in season).
Stir in honey to taste. As the recipe is written, it's not very sweet. Add more if you prefer a sweeter sangria. Place your sangria in the refrigerator for several hours for the best flavor.
Serve in glasses adorned with little bunches of green grapes- scoop fruit into glasses or serve over ice. If you want to mellow out the flavors (or extend the servings), you can add a bit of sparkling soda.
As cute as they are, definitely don't use your big, bad-boy jack-o-lantern pumpkins (should you still have them adorning your doorstep). You'll need one of those smaller-sized ones known as pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins. Peel the outside of it with a sturdy, sharp peeler, cut it in half and remove the seeds. The pumpkin is then chopped and tossed with olive oil and a few spices. It's roasted for a bit, then removed, tossed with maple syrup and then returned to the oven to caramelize.
You'll also need pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), which you'll toast in the oven. Don't skip out on these- they're yummy.
The dressing is a simple one... roasted garlic (that goes into the oven w/ the pumpkin) whisked together with lime juice, mustard, maple syrup and olive oil. Toss the dressing with your favorite greens (I used a mixed of arugula & baby greens), feta, roasted pumpkin and pepitas.
Reveal the pumpkin ingredient to your salad eaters at your own risk. I personally couldn't get my husband to stop sneaking samples of the pumpkin out the roasting pan before serving. It turns out so delicious with that roasted flavor and sweet caramelization. And if you absolutely are weirded out by the idea of eating fresh pumpkin (you shouldn't be), then go ahead and sub butternut squash and pecans. You'll still get a delicious outcome.
Last year I made a holiday cookie recipe- 
So I made my pretty, rosemary-infused cake with thick sugar crystals sprinkled on top. I even wrapped it up for myself! (Suggestion... if you do this with a little round cake, place a strip of parchment underneath the ribbon so your cake does not impart any oil onto your ribbon.) Live and learn.
This cake puffed up really tall in the oven, announcing itself to be a proud, celebratory treat. It then settled a bit and a crack was visible on top. I thought the crack added a little character to my non-frosted cake.
I enjoyed this cake plain, but you certainly could whip up some cinnamon-tainted, freshly whipped cream to accompany your slices.
Eat only the rosemary that's inside the cake. Don't eat the backyard plant placed on top. It's just there for decoration. The polenta provides a subtle crunch throughout the cake, and the top of the cake turns out to be sweet and crusty from the addition of raw sugar.
This cake has olive oil in it. I've never made a cake with olive oil in it before, but I can tell you that I believe that it made this cake extra moist. It wasn't dry in the least.
On a morning walk through my sister's neighborhood, I was able to capture a snapshot of the local autumnal color. We just don't see this sort of thing in Southern California!
The leaves in my yard at home eventually fall off the trees, but they never manage to turn beautiful shades of yellow and reds before they do so. They're just dead.
Butternut squash is abundant these days. I've been seeing it on the blogs in muffins, pasta and even pizza. There are a lot of variations on butternut squash soup too... but this one had some nice twists to it.
Apples are sauteed with wine, shallots and broth. As soon as everything is all softened up, it's blended together until pureed. The original recipe calls for straining the solids. We gave the soup a taste after blending and were perfectly happy with the texture, so we didn't bother straining.
A perfect blend of spice, sweetness and earthiness, we enjoyed our fall soup very much. Thickness of the soup can easily be adjusted by using more or less broth (and straining/not straining).
No worries... they fit in just fine. A few of them did this... just a few. I actually liked these rejects the best anyway as that pool of caramel is a crispy, tasty little treat (and if you don't like it so much it just breaks off anyways). These were a big hit at a recent playdate... with both the adults and the kids.
If you're looking for ways to use up your abundance of Halloween candy, I've got a couple of delicious ideas for you. The first involves Kit Kats. You'll need about 14 mini Kit Kats (or 5 regular-sized) for 
The Kit Kats make the crust, of course. Simply done, they're demolished in the food processor and pressed into the bottom of a square pan- no additions needed.
The lemon filling is made creamy with the addition of cream cheese, and it's topped off with a lemony crumble.
It bakes up nice and bubbly and lightly browned. You need to let it cool completely. Chilling overnight in the refrigerator is best for easier and cleaner cutting.
I put parchment in my pan and then lifted the whole thing out to cut. I find that's a better way to do it then trying to dig out individual pieces from a tight fit in the pan. And yes, these bars are as moist and caramelized looking as those edges indicate.
I give you permission to raid your children's giant bags full of Halloween candy- there are bound to be 14 Kit Kats in there! And maybe if you show your children what you can do with their Kit Kats, they might just render them willingly.
