Pumpkin Snickerdoodle

Why is it when fall comes around all I want to do bake with pumpkin.

Made these this week.  They are heavenly.  Either make some for yourself or come on over.
I made plenty.

Recipe from A Bitchin' Kitchen

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
For the cookies:

3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Dash of allspice

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Whisk together to blend.  In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars on medium speed until well combined.  Next, still on medium speed, beat in pumpkin.  Then, add the egg and vanilla extract.  Lastly, add in the dry ingredients.  Beat until combined, but do not over mix.  Cover the dough, and refrigerate for one hour, until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and spices for the sugar coating.  Scoop dough and roll into a ball.  Roll the dough ball in the sugar mixture, and place on the lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie.  Take a drinking glass with a flat bottom and moisten with water.  Dip the glass in the sugar mixture, and use it to flatten the dough balls.  Re-sugar the glass as needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes.  Remove when the centers of the cookies have set.  Let cool on the baking pan for approximately 5 minutes, and then transfer to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

Salsa

Our friends have a rockin garden and since I was too lazy to dig up the weeds in our front yard they are graciously giving us some of their produce.  We had so many tomatoes and what not that we decided to make salsa.  Being the incredible friends that they were, not only did they give us the vegetables, they also let us borrow all of their canning equipment so we could can some salsa. We left their house with grocery sacks full of food.  The next morning we got to canning.  It really wasn't hard and the salsa is so very good.  I've never liked canning but now I see why people do it.  After this, I also want a garden.  I just need to man up and deal with the weeds in order to plant one next year.  We'll see if I actually do it.  

Making the salsa.  It is better than it looks.

Sal had to get in on the action.

The finished product.  Oh so good.

"Sitting Pretty" aka begging-Just hoping she could snag a bite.

Birthday

For my birthday I got my present a few days early from Randal.  He surprised me with this camera.

 A Canon Rebel T3i.  It's pretty frustrating to learn, but rewarding when I figure something out.  After just a week I can already tell a difference in the quality of my pictures.  Not that I am good by any means, but it is fun.  

I was not expecting a camera at all.  I had been telling Randal that someday when we have kids I want a nice camera but I didn't think we would get a nice one for awhile.  Oh that Randal, he did good.

My very first picture.  So terrible.  Now I know better than to use flash.

On my actual birthday, I woke up with a huge swollen eye, and I was peeing blood (tmi).  So I spent the morning at the doctors office with a UTI while Randal went to his morning class.  Not a real great start.  Also, I had to work all afternoon/night, but we were able to get a little celebration time in and we got breakfast at Awful Waffle.  Who knew they moved!?  I certainly didn't.  I got to their old store front and I was ticked.  Luckily their new location is pretty awesome.  If I was single (and rich) those are the apartments I would want to live in!

Awful Waffle

Oh this guy...

My coworkers let me off work an hour early so Randal picked me up and we headed to our friends house to watch the BYU game for the remainder of my big day.  Swollen eye, doctor visits and work aside, it was a great birthday.  

That time I lost my shorts at Seven Peaks.

We decided to get the "Pass of All Passes" and have loved going to Seven Peaks, especially since it is so close to our house.  Earlier in the summer some of the  highest rides weren't open yet so we knew when we saw them open we had to go give them a try.  We decided on the orange tall slide.  If you have been, you know what I mean.  It drops you straight down. I tried looking for a pic on their website, but no luck.  Anyway, you have the option of either head first on a mat or feet first on your back with no mat.  It was my turn and I marched up to the slide determined to go head first like Randal had done before me and then got way too scared, wimped out and threw my mat aside and went on my back.  I knew the risk of a wedgie was high.  I was not expecting the opposite.  Somehow going down my shorts fell off of my rump and my top flipped up revealing my whole backside and my entire stomach.  Luckily the built in bra part kept my suit from exposing my entire chest, but all of Seven Peaks, or at least those watching me go down the orange slide were lucky enough to see me moon them.  I frantically adjusted my swim bottoms and was met with Randal doubled over in laughter.  It's a good thing I don't get embarrassed to easily...