Batlle Pumpkin

I've had a can of pumpkin in my cupboard staring at me waiting to be used for a while now. So, I finally pulled it out and decided I was going to make some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I have always been a big fan of these cookies, but never made them. In looking up recipes to make them, I discovered that a can of pumpkin would make a couple batches. So, instead of just making a double batch of one I would make two different recipes and have a battle to see which is the winner.Recipe one:This one is from AllRecipes.com

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Recipe 2
This is from FoodNetwork.com

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
• Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

I headed off to work with lots of cookies! After lunch was battle time. I went around the office making everyone eat one of each and tell me which they liked best.

And the results...

Recipe 1: 7 votes and.... Recipe 2: 16 votes!

Congrats to the Food Network people! :) There was a consensus that both were good, but the Food Network recipe edged out the win. (It's the butter, does it every time)

The thoughts were: Recipe 1 was more dense, and had more intense pumpkin flavor. Recipe 2 was more light and fluffy and had a better spice mixture. I'd also like to note that recipe 2 made a lot more cookies than 1 did.

Dressin it up

A few weeks ago I needed to wear an official Girl Scout uniform. Well, I couldn't find a blue dress that I loved. What is a girl to do? Make one!
I made this wrap dress, and it turned out great! Its See & Sew pattern 5166.
Here I am with my work wife in the dress. This is a pattern that I think that I'll use again.

Cheater Pie

I love pie.
Actually, I should be more clear I love pies that don't have baked fruit. So, fresh peach pie - Yum! Baked peach pie - won't touch it. And basically all cream pies are good to go in my book!
When T or I are wanting some pie, and I don't want to put a lot of work into it this is what I make.This is a banana cream pie, with strawberries and a chocolate crust. Yep...YUM!
This is a cheaters pie, because I just get a pre-made chocolate crust, slice up some strawberries on the bottom.Then make a banana pudding mix, and use the instructions for pie filling and pour it over the top.Let that set, and top with whip cream. And we are doing a cheaters pie, so the whip cream is from the can! :)

Vegas baby (But not really...)

Just spent about a week in the Vegas area with the family (minus one sister and bro in law :( We missed you H&J!) We had a fun time hanging out, not doing Vegasy stuff. We did make it to the strip, but not for long. We hit up M&M world and Coke world and were about done there.
I love the wall of M&Ms in every color you could possibly want.The rest of the time was spent at the park, bowling, Hoover Dam, and just hanging out together. There was a bit of crafting that occurred while there. I have an adorable niece, and I'd seen this great simple idea for a no sew tutu, so of course my little sis and I had to make it for her! I don't have any pictures of it at the moment, but will post some soon. I found a similar one on ehow.com, ours was pink though.The method was really simple. We cut the tulle into strips, and then took a piece of ribbon, and simply tied the tulle onto it. Yep, that simple. We centered the tulle and did an overhand knot, we bunched all the tulle really close so it would be a big, full tutu.