What's cooking?

Halloween is MY...FAVORITE...HOLIDAY...So for my little Halloween craft event I thought I would whip up a few treats. One was a yummy looking guacamole recipe I found on Pinterest.  The Best Guacamole. It was pretty good, but I have had one before that was really good and I don't have the recipe for it. I did add jalapeno so I used gloves to cut half of one up. I have made the mistake of not wearing gloves and taking my contacts out later and being in pain and losing a pair of contacts. That only happens to you once. 3 of us did demolish it pretty quickly, my mom doesn't like guac...sad...

I also made Pumpkin Raisin cookies and Black Forest Brownies. Both of these were in my Taste of Home Baking Cookbook. Now, I am highly critical on food. I will begin with the cookies.

I LOVE Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks. I look forward to Fall just so I can drink them. I LOVE pumpkin pie. I figure I will love everything pumpkin, but maybe not.
***Note***
This recipe does not call for an egg. I thought this was weird and looked up similar recipes online. They all used eggs. I decided to use 1 egg. All recipes seemed similar (i did not take time to look carefully), so I added the egg.

Carol Preston, Bloomington Indiana
Yield:about 3 dozen (mine must have been bigger because I didn't get many)
1/2cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash salt (what the hell is a dash? I added a few pinches)
Frosting: *I omitted the frost to save calories (like Im counting...)
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.In large mixing bowl or stand mixer, creme shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin and vanilla. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; then add to the creamed mixture. Fold in raisins (every time I read "fold in" I think of Sleeping Beauty when the Fairy folds in the whole eggs and smashes them).

2. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

3. For frosting, melt butter in a small saucepan. Stir in sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Frost over cooled cookies.

These are ok. Hold on, let me go eat one. Very soft. almost like muffins.  Im going to have to freeze them because I'm dieting tomorrow.

Now for the Black Forest Brownies. I LOVE me some Black Forest Cake. Somewhere I have a recipe for it. Message me if you want me to post it. These brownies are also in this cookbook.

Toni Reeves, Medicine Hat, Alberta
Yield:About 3 dozen depending on how you cut them

1-1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks unsalted)
1 cup baking cocoa (I used Hershey's)
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (I omitted because my sister is allergic)
1 cup chopped maraschino cherrys
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I omitted because my sister is allergic, did she even eat any of these? I don't like nuts in my baking anyways)
ICING (I omitted to save calories (really so I could eat more brownies))
1/4cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons baking cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1 greased 12x9x2 baking dish-i used a glass one

1. First chop up all of your cherries*
2.Combine flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
3. In a saucepan, melt butter, remove from heat and add in cocoa. I whisked until smooth.
4. Blend in sugar, eggs, and extracts.**
5. Stir in flour mixture, cherries, and nuts.
6. pour into a greased baking dish, bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
ICING: In a bowl, blend butter, vanilla, confectioners sugar, cocoa, and milt until smooth and spread over hot brownies. Sprinkle with nuts. Cool and cut into bars.

*I have read a lot of reviews and stuff on foods with added colorings and how other countries don't let this happen. There was also a recent report on Red#40 and ADHD or something. I heard it also made kids hyper. So I am now reading labels and not buying items with Red#40. We try to limit our processed food anyways. Sometimes we fail though. Anyhoo, while chopping my cherries, I noticed that my fingers and counter were being stained red. Of course I read the label and they added Red#40 in to the cherries. Next time I would get real pitted cherries or frozen ones (if there is no Red#40) and thaw them.

**My friend just posted on Pineterst about a women who experimented with cooking brownies different ways to figure which was the best. Here is the post. The Ultimate Brownie Guide. Long story short, she found that she liked beating the eggs and sugar together. Everyone is different with how they like their brownies, but I thought I would give it a go. I added the cooled butter and cocoa mix to it.

As you can see, we liked them...do brownies freeze well? Im going to have to try. This is only the second time I have made brownies from scratch. They were good. The first time was recently. They were Paleo brownies and were AWESOME! Lets see if I can find the recipe. Paleo Fudgy Brownies. These are a bit expensive to make but were probably the best brownies I have ever eaten. Maybe I should add cherries to that recipe.

Looking at some pictures now, here is a very quick recipe if you need some chocolate. Paleo almond bark. So my pinterest pin no longer shows this recipe, but here is a similar one. Paleo almond bark

Freeze it and get a bit when you need some chocolate. Okay, I gotta go now and hang with the family.