The Great Pumpkin Cookies

So my absolute favorite cookie out there is the chocolate chip pumpkin cookie. Growing up, my mother would traditionally make Choco-dot pumpkin cake for my birthday, seasonally appropriate for November. I still love that cake! The combination of pumpkin and chocolate is just amazing. Well, I stumbled upon a pumpkin cookie recipe about 4 years ago and I knew we were bound to become very close friends. I changed it around a bit (not something I always try to do to my friends...) so that it was healthier. The amount of butter and sugar in the original is way more than necessary, and you don't even miss it in the final product. Pumpkin itself is sweet and bakes into something soft and chewy and delectable. BUT, I had to incorporate CHOCOLATE. The original recipe with just the icing is also very good, but you can't get any better than the heavenly combination of pumpkin and chocolate. You cannot go wrong with these cookies; everyone loves them. And so I give you my recipe. While there is no truly healthy cookie out there, this is certainly a much healthier alternative to regular chocolate chip cookies, providing lower calories and more vital nutrients than their predecessor. Indulge below:

Lisa's Pumpkin Cookies

1 cup dark brown sugar

¼ - ½ cup butter

15oz canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 tbsp. grated orange peel

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 c. or more =) dark chocolate chips

Cream sugar and butter in a large bowl. Add pumpkin, egg and orange peel and mix together. Add dry ingredients slowly and mix. Drop by teaspoonful on ungreased cookie sheet and bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

Iced version, also very delicious:

Ice with frosting after they are cool. (If adding chocolate, don’t ice at all)

Frosting

1/4 cup margarine or butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

1-2 T milk

Heat margarine in med heat until light brown. Add other ingredients until smooth consistancy.

Dependence is a good thing!

I have been greatly encouraged recently through the following passage by C.H. McIntosh:

"Now nothing can be more fully blessed than the position of hanging in childlike dependence upon God, and being entirely content to wait for His time. True it will involve trial; but the renewed mind learns some of its deepest lessons, and enjoys some of its sweetest experiences, while waiting on the Lord; and the more pressing the temptation to take ourselves out ofHis hands, the richer will be the blessing of leaving ourselves whollydependent upon One who finds infinite joy in blessing us.

"How little Jacob knew, in the opening of his history, of this blessed mind!How little was he prepared to wait for God's time and God's way! ---he much preferred Jacob's time and Jacob's way He thought it much better to arrive at the blessing and the inheritance by all sorts of cunning and deception than by simple dependence upon and subjection to God, whose electing grace had promised, and whose almighty power and wisdom would assuredly accomplish all for him.

"But oh, how well one knows the opposition of the human heart to all this! Any attitude for it save that of patient waiting upon God. It is almost enough to drive nature to distraction to find itself bereft of all resources but God. This tells us in language not to be misunderstood, the true character of human nature. In order to know what nature is, I need not to travel into those scenes of vice and crime which justly shock all refined moral sense. No; all that is needful is just to try for a moment in the place of dependence, and see how it will carry itself there. It really knows nothing of God, and therefore cannot trust Him; and herein lies the secret of all misery and moral degeneration. It is truly ignorant of the true God,and can therefore be naught else but a ruined and worthless thing. The knowledge of God is the source of life---yea is itself life; and until a man has life, what is he? or what can he be?

"This is a true picture, so far as Jacob was concerned; but it only gives us one side, and that the gloomy side. Blessed be God, there is a bright side likewise, for God had to do with Jacob; and in every scene of his life, when Jacob was called to reap the fruits of his own plotting and crookedness, theGod of Jacob brought good out of evil, and caused His grace to abound over all the sin and folly of His poor servant.

"When Jacob had made all his prudent arrangements, we read, "And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." This is a turning point in the history of this very remarkable man. To be left alone with God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways. We can never get a true estimate of nature and all its actings until we have weighed them in the balance of the sanctuary, and there we ascertain their real worth. No matter what we might think of ourselves, nor yet what man may think about us; the great question is, What does God think about us? and the answer to this question can only be heard when we are "left alone with God."

"Hence, though Jacob is called to tell out his name,--to own that his nameis "Jacob," or a supplanter, he received for himself the name of "Israel,"or "prince," which was a great step in advance."

And I serve the same God Jacob served!

Christmas 2007

The entire family met in Lawrence, KS, for Christmas 2007. Words cannot describe how special a time it was to have everybody there. So fun. The snowstorm of the decade blew through early on, and so we had lots of cold and snow to make for a true Christmas.

Here we are, in all our glory and splendor! and Mom and Dad are matching again...they're so cheesy like that! =) They actually didn't plan that at all. They're just basically two versions of the same person. That's how solid they are.

Most of the festivities took place at Sarah and Charlie's house.

Stacy and Noah wait patiently for their turn to open presents =()

Pyro Pete promptly palliated the penetrating cold by building a fire.

This kid loves books. Cars and trucks were semi-entertaining, but looking at books (or playing chase) was far more fascinating for the Joshers.

See what I mean?
Babi and Dedo relishing the duties of grandparenting.

Here we are getting ready for some serious sledding. Erik is especially intent.

Brian and Jake making the climb after a run