Pumpkinapalooza 2014 Part 1

I love Ned Stark.


So, since we have a hobby farm, we have a lot of manure. And by a lot, I mean tons. Literally tons of poop,

What do you do with tons of cow poop (some of it from a bull ::snicker snicker::)? You spread it on the garden, and by you, I mean your husband who wanted the stupid cows and the farm in the first place.

FYI, 36 large wheelbarrow loads of manure weigh approximately 2 tons in toto.

What does any of this have to do with my beloved Ned Stark? It's basically a longwinded explanation of why my garden, with 3 pie pumpkin plants, has produced 20+ pie pumpkins.

Last fall, I pressure canned 2 or 3 pumpkins, and it produced 9 pint jars of pretty, orange, pumpkiny goodness.

If we do the math, I'm going to have a lot of jars of pumpkin this year.

As a result, I'm searching the Devil's Website  Pinterest for as many pumpkin recipes as I can try out before either a) my family rebels, b) I run out of pumpkin or c) my pants stop fitting due to the pumpkin and cream cheese overload.

With this in mind, I bring you my first three days of Pumpkinapalooza 2014.

Day 1: Pumpkin Spice Cookies

My husband has a friend, who has a wife. She makes pumpkin cookies in the fall. It's a ritual. I though I'd try my hand at it, so I texted her to find out the recipe, since I had seen on The Devil's Website that there was a method with spice cake mix and pumpkin puree. She said that she had gotten the recipe in college from a roommate and that it involved molasses, but she would get it for me later.

Well, that sounds like too much work.

Enter the 3 ingredient recipe: Pumpkin, Spice Cake Mix, and Chocolate Chips.
Yup. Got all three (I have a slight cake mix problem. I love Duncan as much as Ned, and have to stock up when I see a sale).

So, a pint jar of home canned pumpkin (drained), a Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix, and a handful of chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate because that's what the farmer likes), 20 minutes at 350, and I had a dozen and a half big, cakey pumpkin spice cookies.

The Verdict: Pretty Good
My toddlers liked them, my husband liked them, my friend's toddlers liked them, and the friend with the recipe involving measuring and molasses? Yeah, she liked them.





Day 2: Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting


Um. Yeah. I like cupcakes.

We recently had a family tragedy, and lost the teen son of my husband's cousin. When babies are born, or people pass, I make food.

Nothing I can say can make people feel better, but never underestimate the power of Lasagna.

I spent a day making food, and as an afterthought, decided to make some cupcakes.

Pinterest spit this out at me: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/11/16/favorite-pumpkin-cupcakes/

It went together quick, it made exactly 14 perfect cupcakes, and it was easy.

I made my own version of cream cheese frosting:
Brick of cream cheese
Stick of butter
(These should be softened, but I never think about that in time, so I just throw them in my Kitchenaid with the whisk at high speed. They get soft in a hurry.)
A splash of vanilla extract (Get it at www.beanilla.com or www.spicejungle.com Seriously. Go there.)
Powdered sugar (I'm not really sure of how much I used. 2 cups, maybe? 3?)
Pinch of sugar.

Kitchenaid everything together, and stop when you have frosting that tastes right.


Verdict: MAKE THEM!

Seriously, stop what you are doing, and make them. They were amazing. People that don't like pumpkin or cream cheese thought they were amazing. The only negative comment that I got was from an 8 year old who told me I put too much frosting on them.

Whatever, kid. You're 8. I'm not going to listen to you for much of anything.

I actually considered making a second batch after dropping off the bereavement food, but after 2 hours in the car, getting home to make the farmer's dinner, and getting two toddlers ready for bed, I was done for the evening.

Day 3: Lazy Girl Pumpkin Rolls

It is socially irresponsible to throw out food.

Especially cream cheese frosting.

Yesterday's cupcakes had too much frosting, according to the 8 year old, yet we still had some extra frosting left over.

So, I created the lazy girl Pumpkin Rolls

Take a sheet of Pillsbury Recipe Creations Crescent dough (it's about time that they started selling sheets of this without the triangular scoring) and unroll it onto a piece of parchment or wax paper.

In a bowl, mix a half cup of brown sugar, a half cup of pumpkin and a healthy teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice. I also added 2 tablespoons of flour because my pumpkin seemed especially moist.

Roll up from a short end.

Use thread (or dental floss) to cut it into 6 or 7 pieces.

Place in a greased pan and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or so. Maybe start checking in at 20 minutes.

Let cool a bit and top with leftover cream cheese frosting.

Result: Worth making again.

I may have put too much spice in mine, I used a regular spoon and heaped it up pretty good. The frosting helped to cut the spice.

Even with too much spice, I intend on eating the entire pan. The filling almost has a pumpkin pie texture. It's interesting.