King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: Harvest Pumpkin Bars

I finally got a chance to use my AMAZING new cookie recipe book.There was a bake sale friday to raise money for Children's Literacy and pumpkin bars seemed like the perfect thing two days before Halloween. I quadrupled the recipe from 16 bars to 64 bars, and it was definitely less than I expected; I guess those 64 bars are pretty small. Scaling up the recipe also gave me an excuse to use less oil, which I am always trying to do.

Quadrupled Harvest Pumpkin Bars
(makes 64 bars)

Ingredients
1 cup canola oil
8 large eggs
2 15 oz cans pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
5 cups AP Flour
Pecans, for topping

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oil,  eggs, pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl and use a mixer to combine. Stir in flour gradually and mix. Pour batter into several pans and bake for 30 minutes, taking them out half-way in between to spread pecans on top.

Taste Explosion!

Today, we turned pureed pumpkin into a Gourmet meal. Here's how:

J & A's Pumpkin Sausage Ziti 

Ingredients

Ziti, or any other tubular pasta 

Andouille Italian Sausage (1 link per person)

2 Tbsp olive oil

Garlic, 1 clove

White Wine, a splash

1/2 cup vegetable broth

10-15 oz pumpkin (1 small can)

3/4 cup 2% milk

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/8 tsp Cinnamon

Coarse Salt and Pepper, to taste

Parsley, a pinch

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a deep saucepan until hot, add garlic

2. Add white wine and simmer

3. Add some vegetable broth and all of pureed pumpkin into pan

4. Allow sauce to reduce, stirring occasionally, and slowly add in more broth

5. When it starts to bubble, add in the milk

6. Add spices and seasonings

7. Allow sauce to simmer and reduce

8. Saute sausage links in a separate pan and heat water for pasta

9. Cut sausage into bite size pieces and cook pasta as directed

10. When the sausage is cooked, the sauce reduced, and the pasta is al dente, everyone serve themselves a gourmet treat!

It seems like I have been sick so long, Halloween is quickly approaching! My roommates and I are planning a "classy" Halloween party to be held on October 30. Something very relaxed, and well-planned with lots of food with which to impress our few select guests. We have to plan out what we need way in advance since it is right around exam time of course. So I thought I would use this space to do some preliminary planning.

1. There must be a punch bowl with jello eyes or a frozen hand (I saw an idea to make and ice cube with a latex glove)

2. There must be some kind of dip - there are so many good ones and we can either make it really healthy with veggies, or go in the opposite direction with chips. (We do have an unhealthy obsession with spinach artichoke dip)

3. Something with pumpkin, be it pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, or pumpkin cookies

4. Caramel apples are a fall classic - our guests can even help make them and add toppings like nuts or sprinkles (Peanut Butter Crunch Caramel Apples)

5. Little cute hor d'ouevres, like little cucumber sandwiches or crostinis or a cheese plate with little cubes of cheese and gourmet crackers

6. Bowls of Candy - Candy Corn, Marshmellow Pumpkins and lots of chocolate!