Spiced Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

The rest of our pumpkins came in.  I had a hard time not eating them all.  We have actually discussed having an entire garden just for pumpkins next year, and adding a few other varieties.  I am all for it.  I love pumpkin.

So, in the spirit of the pumpkin season, here is a recipe for spiced pumpkin oatmeal cookies.

Ingredients:

-          ½ c butter/margarine, softened

-          ½ c cinnamon applesauce

-          ¾ c brown sugar, packed

-          ¾ c sugar

-          1 tsp vanilla extract

-          1 c canned pumpkin puree

-          1 egg

-          2 c flour

-          1 ¼ c rolled oats

-          1 tsp baking soda

-          1 TBSP pumpkin pie spice mix

-          1 c golden raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat margarine, applesauce, sugars and vanilla together until light and fluffy.  Add pumpkin and egg and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix flour, oats, baking soda, spices and ¼ tsp salt together.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in raisins.  Drop batter by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased shiny cookie sheets.  Bake 11-13 minutes or until firm to the touch and lightly brown on the bottom.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.  

No Snow Before Thanksgiving!

Once again it's been awhile since I've posted anything.  Life has still been happening.  A two-week migraine kept me busy for awhile.  It finally went away.  And then I got another really bad one; the kind where I don't drive anywhere for the safety of myself and others and spend the day sleeping.  And so I woke up in the middle of the afternoon, looked outside, and saw snow falling from the sky!  I thought I was hallucinating.  I actually went outside to check.  Thankfully I was not imagining things in my migraine-world, it was actually snowing.  Not that we haven't had snow in southern PA before Thanksgiving before; it's just unusual.  And the weather people had predicted a week of sun and no clouds.  Go figure. They are not on my list of favorite people.

In other news, I got my husband to pet an alpaca.  I have been asking for either llamas or alpacas practically since we got married.  For our 5-year anniversary we went to the Shenandoah Fiber Festival in Berryville, VA.  The weather was beautiful, the drive through the mountains was gorgeous, the fall foliage was awesome.  It was just a lovely time.  Also, I have to say that I prefer it to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  I do not like large seething crowds of people.  While I understand that, as a vendor, one might prefer larger crowds, as a fair-goer, I prefer the intimacy of the smaller setting.  We were actually able to speak with several of the vendors for more than just a transaction's worth of time, and were not constantly pushed around by other people attending the fair.

Chad petting an alpaca at the Shenandoah Fiber Festival.

Now I just have to keep working on getting my own alpacas. They are so soft and cute! And they hum! How could you not want some??

Five years together.  Toby also wanted to be in the picture.

And now for some random pictures: sunrise and sunset.

I woke up to this one Saturday morning and enjoyed watching the sun looming over the trees.  Rudolph (the goat) seems concerned about having her picture taken.
 

Chad and I were out, waiting for the rocket launch that never happened (since it blew up).  I decided to take some pictures as the evening light faded.