Week 47: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week I chose to bake pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  I wanted to make a cookie with a fall or Halloween theme.  I also knew I wanted to use pumpkin, so I searched my cookbooks and found this recipe.  I've only had pumpkin chocolate chip cookies once in my life and I liked them, so I decided to try my hand at baking them.  I found the recipe in a cookbook titled "Sweet and Simple" published by Gooseberry Patch.  As I mentioned last week, I have dozens of their cookbooks, and I LOVE this one as it is all about desserts.  The recipe was really easy to follow, but I did make a few substitutions.  Per usual, I used a combination of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour, and I substituted "Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks" for the margarine.  Also, I cut the sugar by 1/4 cup, omitted the nuts, and added an extra 2 ounces of chocolate chips.  Additionally, I had to bake the cookies longer than my recipe indicated.  My recipe said to bake the cookies for 8 minutes, but I baked them for about 12-15 minutes as they were not done. The resulting cookies are cake like, and didn't expand a lot during baking. They taste yummy, and my family liked them.  Like last week, this recipe was from a community style cookbook, so I cannot post the exact recipe.  However, I did find a recipe online that is exactly the same, and that has the correct baking time listed.  Here is the link to that recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies-i/detail.aspx

From L to R  Amy, Victoria, Dan, Ryan
Yvonne, and Ian at "pears gone wild"☺

As I mentioned above I have only had pumpkin chocolate chip cookies once in my life.  It was last year at "my brother from another mother" Jim's house.  He and Kimmy hosted a party, and someone brought pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to share.  I hadn't begun this project yet, but when I began thinking about the cookie for this week,  I remembered those cookies and decided to try and make them.  Jim and Kim over the last weekend hosted their second annual "pears gone wild" party, and it was tons of fun. See picture on the left. They have a HUGE pear tree on their property, and cannot possibly use all the pears it produces, so they invited "the fam" to pick some.  In addition to picking pears, we played games, ate yummy food, and watched my Spartans beat Wisconsin (GO STATE!!!) It was a great time.  "Pears gone wild" has become an annual event and I cannot wait for next year!  I am going to try  and incorporate pears into my cookie recipe for next week...stay tuned to see how it turns out. ☺

In thinking about this week's cookie, I wanted to have a fall/Halloween theme.  I love love love Halloween, and I get really excited for it every year. I also LOVE pumpkin and wanted to incorporate it into this week's recipe.  We have 80 acres of farm field behind our property.  The farmer rotated crops every year, and this year he grew pumpkins.  About 15 vines grew over onto our property so BONUS free pumpkins for us! Right before we went to "pears gone wild" we went and picked pumpkins.  I loved it, and it was pretty cool to only have to go to the back of our property to pick them.  See picture on the right.  I have loved Halloween since I was a child.  I remember most of my childhood Halloweens, but I think the most memorable year was when I couldn't go out "trick or treating."  I had just come home from the hospital and couldn't go out for Halloween.  So my sister Amy, who was only 2 at the time, collected candy for me.  Despite my inability to "trick or treat" with my sister, my parents made sure that I had a good night complete with Halloween music, movies, and cupcakes!

Victoria's 1st Halloween.

My children love Halloween too.  Well, actually Ryan loves Halloween, and Victoria tolerates it.  She absolutely hates anything scary, gory, or too "Halloweenish"... ha I think I made up another word! ☺ She won't even go down the Halloween aisle at Kroger for fear that there are scary costumes, decorations or trinkets down there.  She reminds me so much of my Mom...she hated scary and gory things too.  My  poor Victoria would never have survived her childhood if she grew up with my Dad as a father. One of his greatest joys in life was to scare the living daylights out of me, my sister, my "brothers from another mother", or my Mom.  I loved it, and hated it all at the same time.  This dark gift was passed to my sister Amy as well.  She has laughed her head off multiple times recanting a story in which she scared my brother in law or my niece or nephew.  I do have to admit that I also possess this devilish sense of humor as I think it's hilarious to scare people.  In thinking about the Halloweens of my younger years, I miss "being scared in that you know it's not really going to hurt you" sort of way. The type of scared that you get from going through a haunted house.  In high school we went to a lot of haunted houses. Dan, Tracey (Alter) Joseph, and I went to a ton of them. Tracey and I were ridiculous in haunted houses.  So ridiculous in fact, that once while we were going through a haunted mall, the demented tribal king cannibal that was chasing us, literally came out of character and said "...okay I am done scaring you...you can get up, stop screaming and leave now."  Too funny.☺

I love all the Halloween traditions. I love carving pumpkins, making pumpkin seeds, getting the kids costumes ready, and then taking Victoria and Ryan "trick or treating."  My favorite thing about Halloween is seeing all the little "trick or treaters" in their costumes.  To be honest that's one of the only thing I miss about living in the city...passing out candy to all the little "trick or

Ryan's 1st Halloween.

treaters."  Out here in the sticks we don't have "trick or treating" as the dirt roads have neither sidewalks or street lights.  When our children "trick or treat" we have to take them into the village, or over to my in-laws' subdivision. This year Ryan is going to be "Robin the Boy Wonder", and Victoria is dressing up as our cat "Abby."  I can't wait to take them out and watch their excitement.  I also love to watch them barter with each other when they trade candy, and debate that "...a bag of chips is so worth at least 2 candy bars."  I love it all.  Most of all, I love just being with them and watching them have a good time.  Happy Halloween everyone!♥

Victoria as Dorothy and
Ryan as Optimus Prime ~ 2009

Ryan as Ironman ~ 2010

Victoria as a fairy ~ 2010