hungry?

I had a happy accident in the kitchen on Sunday.

Mia and her family were coming over to enjoy some Peach Pasta with us when I decided to whip up some kind of pumpkin cookies. You know, because it's less than 100 degrees at midnight here now. And when the back door is wide open in the morning and the boys complain about being freezing while eating breakfast, it's officially Fall in my book.  So something with pumpkin was in order.

But first, a word about the pasta I was making......If you don't know what Peach Pasta is, well you better get yourself educated because it's literally one of the best meals on this planet. I make it a little bit different every time depending on what I have on hand.  I omitted the asparagus and alfredo sauce, but added grilled and sliced gourmet chicken sausage this time.   Find the recipe {here}.

Back to the pumpkin craving.....I had been drooling over all sorts of pumpkin recipes on Pinterest, but one had really piqued my interest. It was a recipe for Pumpkin Sugar Cookies and one of the ingredients was powdered sugar.  My very favorite sugar cookie recipe of all time includes powdered sugar in the dough, and I believe that it's inclusion is what makes the best texture in a sugar cookie. Find the recipe {here}.

So, I started mixing the wet ingredients and had the dry stuff already measured out and in a separate bowl when I realized I didn't have any pumpkin! GASP!! Running out of pumpkin as a baker is like running out of toilet paper at home and feeling like a failure as a mother. As I was wildly fumbling through my canned goods, I found this little treasure from Trader Joes.

When I read the ingredients, I realized it was simply pumpkin puree plus a lot of other good stuff!  I had read some of the reviews for the original recipe and some girls had commented that it didn't have a lot of pumpkin flavor.  I knew the pumpkin butter would definitely add some oomph to the flavor factor, so I substituted it for the pumpkin called for in the recipe and crossed my fingers. The only other change I made was substituting some cream for some of the water in the glaze. A touch of cream is always good. And I mean always. In anything and everything. 

They were a big hit!  Mia had four, and she is not so much a dessert gal. So this means something.....

The original recipe can be found {here}, and the picture above is from Lauren, whose blog this recipe came from.  Mine looked just like hers, except that they were inhaled before a beautiful picture could be taken.

Suffice it to say I will be stocking up on pumpkin butter before I hunker down for this 80 degree weather.