Pumpkin Recipe #3

Today's recipe is Pumpkin Pie Bars. They are exactly what they say: like pumpkin pie, but in bar form. Yummy and easy to make.

1 1/3 c. flour
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 c. sugar, divided
3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter
1 c. oats
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 15-oz. can pumpkin
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 13x9 baking pan with foil, leaving extra on the ends to make handles. Mix flour, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup of sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oats and pecans. Reserve 1 cup of oat mixture. Press remaining mixture into bottom of pan. Bake 15 minutes. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, eggs, pumpkin, and spice in small bowl until well blended. Pour over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake 25 minutes. Lift from pan using foil handles. Cool completely.
Cut into 24 bars.

And that's another recipe from Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly

Pumpkin Recipe #2

Whenever I think about October, one of the first things that comes to mind is this recipe for pumpkin cookies! Note: I am not taking credit for this one (nor any of them, really, I am a recipe follower and by no means a recipe creator). My mom gave this to me quite a while ago and it has been a favorite for years. The last recipe I posted, for pumpkin bread, was all about the spice. This one is all about the frosting. I highly recommend that you double the amount of frosting you make. I always run out (maybe because I eat so much before actually putting it ON the cookies?) that I end up having to go back and make more.

Cookie ingredients:
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. solid pack pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Glaze ingredients:
2 c. sifted confectioner's sugar
2-3 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients except sugar, set aside. In large mixer bowl, combine egg, sugar, pumpkin, margarine, and vanilla. Beat until light and creamy. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. Smooth tops of cookies. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Drizzle with glaze.

DEFINITELY worth the mess in the kitchen!

And that's what's happening on Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly

All Things Pumpkin

I LOVE fall. I love everything about fall. Well, with one exception. I don't like it when it gets dark at 5:00! But outside of that, I love it. Love it, love it, love it! As a child, I loved back to school. New clothes, new notebooks, brand new boxes of unused, sharp, pointy crayons. As a high schooler, it was the return of football games and marching band. And as an adult, it's the cool weather, the return of jeans and sweaters, the colors of the changing leaves, and above all, the PUMPKINS.

First of all, just LOOKING at pumpkins makes me happy. Big ones, little ones. Plain ones, decorated ones. Orange, white, green, yellow. I even saw some the other day that looked like geese! But even better than looking at and decorating with pumpkins is, of course, EATING them.

Some of you may know that there was a recent pumpkin shortage. Something bad with the crop, I guess. A few weeks ago, I put out a call to all my Facebook friends asking if anyone could find some for me, because the stores I had checked didn't have any. Sure enough, 2 people each brought me 10 cans, and my amazing friend Carolyn actually bought pumpkins and cooked them up for me. So I am well stocked with 20 cans and 3 freezer bags of pumpkin. Of course, now it is readily available in my local grocery store. :)

Today I began on my adventure into pumpkin happiness. First up, pumpkin bread. I had Alex help me whip some up this morning. I planned to take a picture of the bread, and I remembered after it was too late -- as soon as I cut it a little bit to taste it, I quickly wrapped most of it up to freeze and share with friends, because it is THAT good that if it sat around in my kitchen, it would be gone by tonight for sure.

The best thing about this particular bread would have to be the spices. It's not the cinnamon, I think it's the cloves. Or the clove/nutmeg combination. It's AMAZING. It's spicy in that perfect way that just makes me want to cozy up in a blanket and pair it with a cup of spiced chai. So here it is, I share with you #1 of many delectable pumpkin recipes to come.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 16-oz. can solid pack pumpkin

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine dry ingredients, stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Stir in pumpkin. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

And that's what's happening on Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly