Are you a fan of pumpkin?  I’m a fan of pumpkin.  Pumpkin bars, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie – you name it, I’ll eat it.  Last fall, in my quest to find a new way to infuse pumpkin into my seasonal baking frenzy, I discovered a recipe that will forevermore go down as one of my absolute favorites.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies.

You can thank me later.

Cookie dough
2.5 c. all purpose flour (don’t even try substituting with whole wheat flour – I can assure you it doesn’t work)
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. softened butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

Icing
2 c. powdered sugar
3 T. milk
1 T. melted butter
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and salt in a mixing bowl and stir to combine.  Set aside.  In medium bowl, cream the 1/2 c. butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to mutter mixture and beat until creamy.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly (or don’t it still works just fine).  Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven.  Cool cookies and then drizzle glaze with a fork.

For real.  These are dee-vine.

For more works for me Wednesday tips, suggestions and recipes, visit That Family!

I dare you to say your mouth isn’t watering.

Yes, this is how I spent one of my precious free hours this morning.  Baking a fresh strawberry pie for my family to devour after dinner.  This, and freshly laundered sheets on the beds that every single one of them will crawl into tonight.  And they have the nerve to ask me what I did all day.

Okay, enough with the pity party.  On to the recipe that will change the way you look at a strawberry.  You can thank me after you’ve whipped up one of your own.

Crust:
1.5 c. crushed shortbread cookie crumbs
1.4 c. chopped blanched almonds
1.3 c. melted butter (don’t even think about using margarine).

Filling:
6 c. hulled strawberries
1 c. sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1.3 c. water
1.4 t. salt
1.2 t. almond extract (althoug vanilla will work in a pinch)

So you start by preheating the oven to 350.  Mix the crust ingredients together in a bowl and then press on the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch pie plate.  Bake for 8 minutes and then let it cool completely. 

While that cools, mash enough strawberries to equal 1 cup.  In a medium saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch.  Stir in mashed strawberries and water. 

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (no cheating, the e-mail can wait), until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil.  Boil one minute.  Remove from heat.  Let cool ten minutes.  Then stir in salt and extract.  While it cools, arrange remaining strawberries in cooled crust. 

Once the strawberry/sugar mixture has cooled, pour it over the pretty strawberries in the crust.  Stick the whole shebang in the fridge and let it chill for at least 3 hours.  Garnish with whipped cream and you won’t. be. sorry.  Promise.

     Last week, I told Nicole that over the weekend I would post a few recipes for meals that the whole family would gladly eat.  Well, the weekend got away from me and here I am finally composing this post.  Here’s the thing though: what follows aren’t exactly recipes, they’re more like methods.  The only time I ever follow recipes are when I’m baking or when I’m trying something for the first time.  Once I’ve made a dish a time or two I sort of learn to finagle it and customize it to our tastes.  You guys do that too right?

Pretzel Crusted Chicken Nuggets

What ya need:
1 bag of pretzels (sticks, twisted, whatever)
Worcestershire sauce
butter (the real thing not that nasty margarine crap)
boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces
dipping sauce

What ya do:
Pour about half a bag of pretzels into a big ‘ol Ziploc bag and smash ‘em to smithereens with the smooth end of a meat tenderizer.  Or the back of a skillet, whatever you have handy.  Melt a few tablespoons of butter in the micro.  Add a teaspoon or two (I warned you that I don’t follow recipes, sorry) of Worcestershire sauce and mix well.  Put the chicken peices into the butter mixture and make sure they get all gooed up.  Once they are properly gooed, drop them all into the bag of pretzel crumbs and toss to coat.  Spread in one layer onto a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.  We always serve them with french fries and a salad and they are a big hit with the whole family.

Chicken Salad Pita Sandwiches

What ya need:
2 or more pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts
Red seedless grapes
Miracle Whip
Dijonaise mustard
Almonds
Paprika
Chopped parsley
Whole wheat pita pockets
Red leaf lettuce

What ya do:
Boil the chicken and then chop it up nice and fine (with your Pampered Chef food chopper if you’re lucky enough to have one).  Slice the grapes in half and chop the almonds.  In a small bowl, mix together some Miracle Whip (you decide how much depending on whether or not you like a mustard based sauce or a mayo based one) and dijonaise mustard.  Mix the mustard/mayo mix into the chicken and add the grapes, parsley and almonds.  Cut the pitas in half and put a couple leaves of lettuce in each one.  Add the chicken salad by the scoopful.  Sprinkle some paprika on the top and enjoy! 
*I think this one is best when the chicken salad has had time to chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Okay, this one sounds weird but I’ve never heard anybody say they didn’t love it.  You’ve been warned.

Chicken Stacky Uppy

What ya need:
Cooked brown rice
2 Cooked and chopped boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (do you see a theme here?)
A can of cream of chicken soup
Celery
Red Pepper
Pineapple (canned or fresh but I prefer the latter)
Tomatoes
Colby Jack cheese
Lo Mein Noodles
Coconut
Chopped Almonds

What ya do:
Prepare the brown rice (or white if you aren’t into health.  Your loss.)  Prepare the soup according to directions.  Add the chopped chicken to the soup.  Wipe your brow and complain about the difficulty of this recipe.  Moving right along now…
Cut the celery into thin slices, dice the red pepper, chop the pineapple and tomatoes.  Put all of those things as well as the cheese, noodles, coconut, and almonds into individual bowls and put them on the table.  To serve: add a scoopful of rice into a cereal bowl and then put a ladleful or two of the soup/chicken mixture on top of it.  Let everybody sprinkle their own “toppings” on it at the table.  Whambamthankyoumam you are done!

I told you this one sounds weird.  It really is quite good though, and makes for a light summer meal.  And it’s nice because it is customizable to please picky eaters. 

Note to self:

Grilled chicken tostadas = big hit with the family

Homemade Tres Leches Cake = eh, not so much

     Three of my four children are heinously opposed to eating foods that contain any traces of vitamins or minerals.  It’s not for a lack of trying though; I make valiant efforts to fill them up with the good stuff.  I credit Dr. Oz for my conscientiousness.  He’s totally HQP (high quality person) material in my book.  It wasn’t until he came along and broke it down for me that I began to pay serious attention to what we were eating.  And those aforementioned three children of mine aren’t lining up to shake his hand for his contributions either. 

     I think they’ve learned something though, whether they’ll admit it or not.  Nowadays, when we go to the grocery store, they check the first five ingredients of a food before they ask me to buy it.  They know that if they see the words, “enriched, sugar, salt, or hydrogenated” within those first five listings, I’m going to turn them down so fast they’ll forget what a Twinkie even is.

     So, as you might imagine, when I find a way to make the foods they will actually let pass through the thrones that are their lips even more nutritionally sound, I’m all over it.  And, friends, let me just say that pizza is one of the few things they love that won’t transform their arteries into marshmallowy conglomerates through which nothing can pass.  At least not the way I make it.  Check out how easy it is to pimp out a pie.

     The best way – make that the only way - to build a proper pizza is to start with a homemade crust.  It’s easier than it sounds.  For real.  I use Bob’s Red Mill flour.  It’s readily available even in everyday grocery stores.  You may have to look for it in the organic section though.  I use the recipe on the side of the package, only I sub in some whole wheat flour.  See there?  I’m makin’ it healthy peeps.  You take 1 T. of yeast and toss it into your Kitchen Aid (or whatever) with 1 c. warm water.  Use the dough hook attachment and stir it up real nice.  While that’s mixing away, combine the 1.5 cups of the Bob’s Red Mill bread flour and 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat flour with 1 t. each of sugar and salt.  Stir it up.  Add 2. T of EVOO (shout out to Rach - but for the rest of you it’s olive oil), to the yeast that is mixing away.  Pour in the flour combo and turn that bad boy mixer up till it’s all doughy.  Then you’re going to let it rise for about 30 minutes or so.  No biggie.  Here’s what it looks like after it’s all rolled out and slathered up with some homemade pizza sauce. 

     As for that homemade pizza sauce, don’t sweat it.  If you dig the store brand go for it.  Heck, you could even use spaghetti sauce.  But since I’ve been Dr. Ozzified I make my own.  It’s one of those teensy cans of tomato paste mixed with one can of water.  Toss in about a palm full of dried or fresh oregano, and basil.  Add a pinch of Kosher salt, a squirt or two of honey, some EVOO again (maybe a teaspoon), a clove of garlic, and batta bing batta boom – you’re good to go.

     Who could forget the cheese?  I just buy the pre-shredded bagged pizza cheese.  Cheese is cheese, know what I mean?  And if you want to protect those arteries (and thighs) go light on it.  Then comes the fun part: the toppings.  Be creative here.  This is where I add in some veggies not only for my tastebuds, but for the sake of the children.  What are they gonna do, turn down pizza?  I think not.

      These are my personal favorites.  To me, a pizza just isn’t the same without roasted red peppers, sweet pineapple, salty green olives, tangy artichoke hearts, and flavorful Roma tomatoes.  And in case you’re wondering, no: I don’t do meat.  Not so much as a matter of health.  Not a matter of cruelty to animals either.  I’m not into PETA.  It’s just something I did a long time ago and it would be too weird to go back now.

     I bake my pizzas on stones that I’ve left in the oven while it’s preheating (450).  I dust them with corn meal before I lay out my crust and start piling on the toppings.  Depending upon how you like your pie, it will take about 15-25 minutes to bake.  Oh, and friends, the smell that will waft through your house as it bakes makes all that time spent waiting excruciating.  But once you pull your concoction from the oven, you will thank me.  Yes.  You will.