Pumpkin x 2

I love fall. I love the scent in the cool air. I love the falling leaves. I love the foods of fall. Specifically, pumpkin. Now, I have recently found that some people do not like pumpkin (sinners!), and I do not understand that concept. Does not compute. At this time of year, I live on pumpkin pie. I have an IV of pureed pumpkin hooked up to my arm as we speak (type, whatever). I kid, of course, but I do really, really love pumpkin. Last week we had our monthly office birthday party, and we decided to have a potluck and cake. I always bring a dessert, because if I don't, there won't be any celebrating for me, the lone vegan. I don't care if there is nothing else for me to eat, just so long as I have the sweets in my mouth. Incidentally, there was plenty of veggie-friendly food, as a good friend of mine made vegetarian chili and there were plenty of vegetables and fruits to eat as well. I ate like a king. And I had dessert too, because I made it. I bought a jumbo can of pumpkin and did not want any to go to waste. So I made a pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie brownies. Both were a hit.


Not the best photo. I experienced a wee bit of panic when I realized about 15 minutes before party time that I had not taken pictures of my food. So I hauled ass into the break room to conduct an impromptu photo shoot.

By golly, these are some of the bestest brownies ever. Very fudgy and pumpkiny. A pumpkin-hater deemed these brownies, "just okay." Everyone else was too busy chewing and moaning with pleasure to give their opinion. See our ugly-ass wallpaper in the background? The whole kitchen is like a fruit bowl exploded.

Oh, and I stayed perfectly faithful to both recipes. Why modify a good thing?

Bread & a Bike

Last Sunday night, I got a bug up my ass to make something. Anything. Earlier in the day, I had unsuccessfully made mini-blonde bites. I mean they exploded in the oven. Now, the bits that had overspilled onto the sheet actually didn't taste bad. They just weren't visually appealing and they were disgustingly greasy. I used a recipe I got off the interwebs, but I won't point any fingers. That's what lead to the brilliant idea I had to make bread at 8 o'clock at night. Which may not be late to some people, but I have to be up at 4 am for work. So it's a wee bit late for me. I pretty much had none of the ingredients for anything I wanted to make. I had very little margarine, so cookies were out of the question. I wanted to make pumpkin muffins, but had no pumpkin. I was going to make this Banana Coffee Cake, but I didn't have any agave nectar, or soy yogurt for that matter. What I did have was a ton of over ripe bananas, so I made bread. The Lower Fat Banana Bread from V-Con, because I loves it so much. I used an extra banana in place of the applesauce and a little of the oil, threw in walnuts, shredded coconut and carob chips. It was amazing.

Yesterday, I hit the (non-food) jackpot. I got a new bike! I sold my mountain bike a few weeks ago so I could get a cruiser. An old retro cruiser. I didn't really want to shell out a couple hundred bucks for one, though. I happened upon an ad in our local paper for one that was restored, and only $30. It's in great shape. It just needed air in the tires and oil on the chain. There's just a tiny bit of rust, but that doesn't bother me. It had been restored several years ago, and had been sitting in a storage shed for two years. I spent the afternoon shining the chrome.

Not the greatest lighting. The sun wouldn't cooperate with me.

You better believe I am putting a basket and a horn on it.

Thebestfreakin'peanutbuttercookieseverIamsoserious!

I think that run-on title says it all: I made the best peanut butter cookies EVER last weekend. I was in need of an amazing PB cookie recipe to impress my man-friend who requested this particular kind of cookie, so I quite literally Googled the 'best peanut butter cookie recipe ever' and I found this one from Baking Delights. She wasn't kidding when she said it was the best ever. And she certainly didn't break her promise. I baked them for 8-9 minutes because I wanted them soft and chewy, and let them cool just a couple of minutes on the sheet. I used flax eggs as a replacement and demerara sugar. I got 30 good sized cookies out of a full batch. They are full of PB flavor, as they should be considering I killed an entire jar of Skippy for them. Absolutely perfect, they are. Oh, here's a picture or two:

Two words: MAKE THEM! One more: NOW!