Tag Archives: halloween

Halloween Cookies- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Posted on by

I love fall. I love the weather turning chilly. I love sweaters. I love changing leaves. I love cinnamon. And I love pumpkin.

I was thinking about cinnamon which led me to thinking about snickerdoodles. (recipe here). I really associate those cookies with Christmas, though, so I started thinking about how to fallify them. And landed on pumpkin.

So, here are my pumpkin snickerdoodles.

For this recipe you will need:

  • 2 sticks salted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • plus more cinnamon and sugar for rolling

This dough is really easy to make. Just keep in mind it needs to be refrigerated for 1 hour before you roll and bake your cookies.

To make the dough, start by creaming two sticks of butter.

img_6222

When the butter is fluffy, add sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and egg and stir to combine.

img_6223

In a separate bowl, mix your remaining ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon) and slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet.

img_6224

Stir until combined

img_6225

At this point, the dough needs to go into the fridge for at least one hour.

…Time lapse…

Preheat the oven to 350, grease two cookie sheets and take your dough out of the fridge. in a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar. I tend to a 2:1 sugar : cinnamon ration, but mix to your taste.

img_6226

Let’s start making cookies! I made roughly ping pong size balls of dough and wound up with 6 dozen cookies.

Roll the dough into a ball

img_6227

Roll the dough ball into the cinnamon and sugar and place on the cookie sheet.

img_6228

When your cookie sheet is full, lightly press down on the dough balls to flatten them. These cookies don’t spread, so flattening them is necessary.

img_6230

Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes.

img_6235

The best part? The house smells like pumpkin pie. The bestest part? You get to eat cookies that taste like pumpkin pie. And who doesn’t love a cookie?

And the bestest bestest part? You’ll have 72 cookies to share with friends or coworkers.

Happy Halloween!

Spaghetti Squash

Posted on by

Have you had a pasta overload?

I know. Silly question.

You can never have too much pasta!

But every once in a while, you can have a feeling that maybe you should lay off the bread and the spaghetti and the french fries for a day or so.

It may have something to do with the Halloween parties you went to this weekend. And the french fries and the snacks and the drunk pizza that happened before during and after said party.

But hey. Who am I to judge?

All I’m saying is, I get it. Sometimes you just need to give your stomach a break and give it something light and healthy.

But that doesn’t mean your stuck with a cold bowl of lettuce and tomatoes. No, sir. It’s too cold for that.

You need something warm and comforting and healthy.

And that, my friends, is where spaghetti squash comes in.

It’s a squash that when cooked shreds apart like spaghetti. So you feel like you’re getting the comforting bowl of spaghetti, but really you’re getting a bowl packed with the vitamins and nutrients your body needs after the boozy weekend.

Bonus?

It’s ridiculously easy to make.

This is a spaghetti squash.

IMG_1266

One of those bad boys is enough to serve two people.

So here’s how you make it. Even in your hungover state, you got this. I promise.

Preheat the oven to 425.

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place on a foil lined cookie sheet.

IMG_1268

 

Drizzle the squash with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

IMG_1270

Flip the squash over so it’s cut side down and pop it in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. The squash is done when you can easily pierce the skin with a fork.

IMG_1271

Remove from the oven, flip the squash halves over and let them cool slightly.

IMG_1277

Take a fork and start scarping at the squash flesh. It will come away in strands like spaghetti. Hence, spaghetti squash.

IMG_1278

Scoop out the flesh from each half into a bowl.

IMG_1279

You can top it with parmesan cheese and it would be delicious, or, if in your hungover state you can handle one more step, you can make a quick marinara sauce to top it with.

While the squash cools, before you spaghettify it, sautee a chopped small white onion and two cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil.

IMG_1275

Add a can of diced tomatoes and season with lots of black pepper.

IMG_1276

While the sauce simmers, spaghettify the squash and scoop into bowls. Top with the sauce.

IMG_1280

Drink lots of water. Tell yourself you will never do that again.

Repeat next weekend.