Pumpkin Cookies

As soon as the temperature drops below 60 degrees, I feel like homemade soup, homemade bread, and pumpkin cookies. I got this recipe from a friend. I love it. I know some recipes use allspice but I hate allspice. Another reason I will never be a professional cook. Here is the recipe. I hope you curl up with a good book when you eat them. They are so much better that way.

3 cups sugar 2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 eggs 2 teaspoons nutmeg

5 cups flour 2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda 1 large can pumpkin

2 teaspoons baking powder 1-2 bags chocolate chips

1 cup oil

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Put sugar, eggs, vanilla, oil and pumpkin in a mixing bowl. Mix on low until everything is combined. Add flour mixture and chocolate chips and mix on low until combined. I like to mix the dough with a spoon at this point so I won't over mix the dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I sometimes freeze the dough because this recipe makes at least 5 dozen cookies. You can freeze it in a container. You thaw it on the counter until it is thawed out all the way. You then scoop it out and cook it. Or, you can scoop dough out on a wax lined cookie sheet. Freeze the dough balls. Once thoroughly frozen, put them in a ziplock bag and freeze. To defrost them, put them on a cookie sheet and thaw on counter. Once thawed bake. If I freeze the cookies already baked, I leave them on a plate with no covering and let them thaw. Once you cover them they become soggy.

Cooking for Families

I stated in my profile that I love to cook and that is true. You would think that my family likes to eat. Nope! Not mine.

I was watching a commercial for Hamburger Helper. The mom says, "How about we have Hamburger Helper Cheesy Macaroni and Beef?" She shuts the pantry and they are all sitting up to the table. They have this same family filmed showing the husband and kids trying to run to the table. The dad is so excited he almost falls down the stairs. (This made me laugh)

The day after I saw this commercial, I said to my family, "Time for dinner!" I received no response. I said, "If you come to dinner now, you can dish out your own plate. If you come later, I will dish it your plate for you." (We have a rule you have to eat whatever you dish out.) I am not kidding when I say they were in there seats before I finished talking. That is how excited my kids are for my cooking. Maybe it is because I wasn't cooking Hamburger Helper. My husband works the late shift so he has an excuse for missing dinner.

Three days after that I was cooking in the kitchen. I made soup, rolls, bacon, and cookies. Through all of this preparation my dog Cooper was by my side eagerly waiting for some dropped morsel of food. This made me laugh to think that my biggest fan is my dog!

He is the funniest dog ever. He loves to sit right in the middle of the kitchen floor and watch me. He won't move out of the way. He just lays there and stares. Often, my little boy Caleb is laying on top of him. Caleb tries to convince Cooper to go downstairs with him, but Cooper won't leave. Sometimes I get busy in the house and don't get to the timer on the oven right away or I can't hear it. Cooper will stand in the kitchen and bark. I come in and he looks and me and then barks at the oven. I think he is saying, "Get it! We want it! " At least I have one fan!

Family Movies

I will admit that I am not very good at taking home movies. I want to but I feel like I am missing the moment when I am behind a camera. I was watching Ramona and Beezus recently and I realized I really connected with this family. The situations, relationships, and scenerios brought out by each other were very realistic. I thought this movie is like my family.

As I was watching it I was thinking, "So that is what is happening in Lydia's head". There is a scene where Ramona is jumping out of the new addition being built onto her house. In her mind she is jumping out of an airplane. I said, "I wish I had an imagination like that." Lydia said, "Well, it can be bad sometimes because you can scare yourself really bad. It is hard to tell what is real and what is not." Wow! Now I understand her and Caleb so much more.

Brian, my husband, told me that Caleb told him, "The reason I get scared sometimes is there are portals all over our house." I recently took him to the gym with me to work out. He was playing with a pedal on a bike. He pushed it as fast as he could and waited until it stopped moving. At first he was impressed with his strength. Within 20 minutes he was sure there was a robot ghost making it move and he was crying. Brian and I think for Lydia and him the line between reality and fantasy is very thin.

When Ramona spills paint on her neighbors car while giving it a car wash, I laughed so hard I was crying. My Lydia gets herself in fixes all the time. She is super smart and she loves to laugh. She never has to have a game or joke explained. She just gets it. That is why I have decided if I buy Ramona and Beezus I will have some home videos to add to my collection.

Mexican Lasagna

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1 can chili's, chopped & drained

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 onion, processed

1 c shredded cheese

2 chicken breasts

1-2 cans chicken broth

8-10 tortillas

1 can green enchilada

3 cups shredded cheese

Boil chicken breasts in chicken broth and 1 teaspoon cumin. 5-10 minutes on medium high heat. You will know it is shreddable when you can put a fork in the center and the chicken breaks. Remove chicken from broth mixture and shred onto a plate. Mix cream cheese, chili's, cumin, onion, 1 cup cheese, and meat. Spray 9x13 pan. Layer ripped tortilla on the bottom. 1/3 cheese mixture, 1/3 enchilada sauce. Repeat twice. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Add remaining 2 cups of cheese and cook 5 minutes.

My brother-in-law Brent invented this recipe. It is so creamy and yummy. It makes great leftovers and you can make it ahead and cook later.

Blogging

My husband and both my girls have decided to start blogging. I love reading their blogs and learning more about them. I decided that maybe my blog could add humorous stories and other insights about my life. I am a stay at home Mom and my life on the whole is pretty boring. It is the little things said and done around here that make my life so interesting.

Caleb is my 4 year old boy. We recently had two of his boy cousins over for a couple of days. One of them is 3 and one is 5. Caleb was in heaven. I took them the Air Force Museum at Hill AFB. I was laughing the whole time. They wanted to know the name of each plane, how did they get it in the museum. Couldn't they pick a more awesomer car to pull it in like a transformer? Hey isn't that a deceptagon? I want to sit in that chair. I'm scared! I need to get down. Oh! Those are seat belts. Ok. Take my picture Mom!