The Great Pumpkin

This past weekend, I spent some quality time with my best girlfriend's two daughters. On Friday night the girls came over while their Mom went out. We ordered Pizza & played Monopoly which I haven't played in forever. Why oh why did Mr. Mixologist beat us mercilessly ? LOL I mean it was really bad. He had property on every side of the board with Hotels on half of them. It was a whipping to remember. He talked a lot of noise while he had us all on skid row which made it worse. I was the first one to go bankrupt. The girls got a lesson on how to lose gracefully, even when its hard. LOL  He has promised to give us another opportunity to redeem ourselves.

Sunday afternoon, I went over to the their house along with another girlfriend to have our annual  Halloween Craft and Baking Day. My best friend is sooo not into crafts OR cooking so she recruited us years ago to fill in with these types of activities with the girls. Our other girlfriend always handles the pumpkin carving & I handle the pumpkin inspired baking.

Concentrating to get it just right ! 

This year I decided to let the 9 yr old make some Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting. I found the recipe on one of my favorite sites, A Taste of Home Cooking. I also located a recipe & video for a Pumpkin Cheesecake for the 13 yr old to make.

Finished Project 

I packed up the equipment from my kitchen, grabbed my laptop & hit the store & headed on over. When I arrived they were already focused on getting their pumpkins just right.

Mixing it up !

The 9 yr old got started on her cookies which were very simple & extremely tasty. The brown butter frosting was sooooo good that we were all  licking our fingers ! If you decide to  make them I promise you won't be disappointed.

Ta Da ! Ready for the Frosting

Both girls enjoy cooking and baking and I always have a good time planning cooking with them & they always appreciate it and have fun doing things in the kitchen.






                                                                                                                                                              

Getting it just right

The 13 yr old is a pretty good baker so I picked a cheesecake since it was a bit more challenging. She made her own crust from scratch using graham crackers & ginger snaps. I just delegated, reviewed the recipe with her & pretty much just supervised.

Final touch before bedtime

Cheesecakes take a long time to bake & many hours to set, usually overnight, so I didn't get to see the finished product on Monday morning, but I heard today that it was yummy.

Pumpkin Carvers Extraordinaries ! 

Beauty & Baking Skills

The Girls & their Mom

Have you had any Fall Holiday Fun ?

Got any good recipes to share ?  If so drop the links in the comments.

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?


Beautifully Complex