When I was on maternity leave last year I tried my best to do a big purge of the house - go into every room, all the nooks and crannies, and CLEAN.
I have always hated clutter, but something in my brain has tweaked and gone
into overdrive, and now clutter drives me bonkers.
into overdrive, and now clutter drives me bonkers.
It's super fun for all.
One thing I really surprised myself at doing was taking a hard look at my
notebook collection
and ask myself -do I really need all these books? All these recipes?
The answer was no.
The first thing I did was go through them all and see what I wanted to save - what recipes did I love and which ones would I realistically make.
(Like the recipe for Lobster Oil that I'd saved 10+ years ago - I don't like lobster. We don't cook lobster at home. Why did I think I was going to MAKE my own oil from lobster shells???)
The pile has been moved around from place to place, and finally, over the past few weeks I've started going through it to cull it even further, and try to figure out how to store it for actually being used.
This was a recipe that I kept because The Mister loves pumpkin. I gave him a choice between these cookies and a pumpkin cake for a family dinner and was pretty surprised he chose these.
I loved them!
The first thing I did was go through them all and see what I wanted to save - what recipes did I love and which ones would I realistically make.
(Like the recipe for Lobster Oil that I'd saved 10+ years ago - I don't like lobster. We don't cook lobster at home. Why did I think I was going to MAKE my own oil from lobster shells???)
The pile has been moved around from place to place, and finally, over the past few weeks I've started going through it to cull it even further, and try to figure out how to store it for actually being used.
This was a recipe that I kept because The Mister loves pumpkin. I gave him a choice between these cookies and a pumpkin cake for a family dinner and was pretty surprised he chose these.
I loved them!
(A plate I brought to work to share. Although I helped myself a couple of times before actually sharing.....)
Pumpkin-Raisin Doodles
From Fall Baking
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 2/3 cups flour
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup sugar
1 TB pumpkin pie spice
Beat butter with a mixer on medium for 30 seconds. Add sugar through salt. Beat 2 minutes.
Beat in egg, then flour. Mix in raisins. Cover and chill 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350'
Combine the 1/2 cup sugar and the 1TB pie spice in a bowl. Scoop the dough into 1 1/2" rounds and roll in the spiced sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes, until the edges are set. Cook on wire racks.
Makes 32 cookies
