Pumpkin Goodness

It has been a rough week for me. I've been suffering relentlessly from crazy back pain and have been feeling generally crummy as well as stressed out. I wanted to break my pitiful sore back routine of sitting in the only chair that makes my back feel semi normal while endlessly watching wedding shows by baking something. I wasn't sure how it would play out because standing for long periods of time is proving to be painful. Why I have the back of an octogenarian at the ripe young age of 22, I cannot seem to understand. I'm starting to feel like one of the people on the show Mystery Diagnosis since a trip to the doctor has proved worthless, unless you call muscle relaxers a permanent solution (which I don't). The search for a decent chiropractor is now on... Let's just hope that I am partially improved by Saturday, because I'm supposed to run a half marathon.

Anyway, since I am a cripple my boyfriend (who I will refer to by his name, Tom, from now on because "my boyfriend" is starting to sound awkward and disrespectful) had to do the usual shopping trip without me and I asked him to pick up some cream cheese with every intention of making red velvet cake cookies with some kind of cream cheese swirl/frosting/filling. Being generally more creative than I, Tom picked up some pumpkin as well. When he arrived at home and I discovered the pumpkin, I decided that making pumpkin cookies sounded like a much better idea. So that is exactly what I did. I am going to be completely honest here, generally I think that my cookies are fairly tasty, but these are fucking delicious (yes, the expletive is necessary... because they are that good).

A general Google search seemed to be all I needed. After all, it is the pumpkin-y time of the year! I found a couple of different recipes, including one from the Food Network which had been uploaded less than 24 hours prior to my search. Since that particular recipe already had a good amount of positive reviews, I went with it. Boy am I happy with my decision! These cookies have the perfect inner fluffy/outer slightly crunchy consistency that I had hoped for.

I am admittedly one of the worst food photographers ever... but you get the idea!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1+ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 cups chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Combine sugars and butter and beat until creamy, then add the remaining ingredients in order.  After I added all of the ingredients, I mixed the dough for a long time, probably 5+ minutes. These cookies bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. (Can you tell that I think directions for baking cookies are pointless? I mean really, who can't figure out how to combine the ingredients? It's pretty idiot-proof.)

Because these cookies bake a little longer than your standard chocolate chip, I decided to kill some time by taking photos with our dog on photo booth that you might find amusing:

Can you tell that Tikishla was really enjoying it? I mean, I practically had to strangle her. What fun!

You can see the pure joy in her eyes!

Aahhh! It's a dog! With elbows!

 In retrospect, if you have now lost any desire to continue reading my blog, I understand. So, here's another picture of cookies to help my cause:

Seriously, these things are delicious. I wish there were more people in my household to prevent me from eating all of them... or maybe not.