Lately...

It's getting chilly in Virginia.  Ok, maybe it's just a little cold between the mountain ranges, which is exactly where we are.  Shenandoah Valley, that is.  So, in an effort to warm things up and make food at the same time, I came up with the items below.  Neither of which are exciting or super hard to make, but both were hits with my husband and I.

For a start to fall, pumpkin cookies were in order, especially since I had gotten some canned pumpkin from my Foodie Penpal, Ritsa!  In the case you actually try this recipe, I should mention, they're more like muffin-tops as far as consistency.  They're great, but not what I would traditionally call a cookie.

Pumpkin Cookies (very original name)
1 cup softened margarine
1.5 cups packed brown sugar
.5 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
.5 teaspoon salt
1.25 cups wheat flour
1.25 cups white flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together margarine and sugars until creamy (ha, perfect sense).  Add egg, vanilla, and pumpkin.  Slowly add a mixture of the remaining ingredients into the pumpkin mix.  Make sure to have all dry ingredients fully dissolved!  Drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheets.  Bake 12-15 minutes or until starting to brown at edges.

Below is my finished product!  Note:  these have raisins in them, but I liked them better without.

The other "homemade" item was chicken noodle soup.  Really, a total no-brainer.  But there are a couple things that I imagine I do different than others (maybe?).  I cook my chicken by boiling it in a pan of tap water.  Then I cut it up into small chunks and add to my cold soup mixture.  I also use some bouillon but also Swanson Flavor Boost to make the soup mixture.  This was my first time using the super-concentrated packets.  No where on the packaging does it say how it should be used.  Like add 5 cups water or a cup milk?  Oh no, I'm not crazy.  A little online research showed that you are to add one cup water to each packet used.  Glad I'm not the only one trying to figure this stuff out.  I don't add celery to my soup.  I don't like it, no other reason.  Carrots though are fair game.  My spice mixture though I imagine is pretty typical (1 tablespoon margarine, 1 teaspoon basil, 1 teaspoon oregano, 2 teaspoons black pepper).  That is for approximately 8 cups of "broth".  Sometimes my soup turns into what I call noodle soup instead of actual soup, meaning there's more noodles than anything else.  This phenomenon of course happened during this time too.  Still "soup" and still delicious either way.  Enjoy.