Happy November! 

I have no idea where October went and I will definitely miss it….however, November is my absolute favorite month of the year.  To me, Halloween starts off a chain reaction of wonderful times full of holidays, birthdays (MINE!!), Black Friday sales, Christmas decorating, snow,….and the list goes on and on.

Remember being in school during this time?  Halloween parties, followed by Thanksgiving vacation, followed by a couple of weeks of Christmas parties and pageants, followed by Christmas vacation?  It was always my favorite time and it still is (even though I’m an adult now and no longer get any type of Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation).

Dear Teacher Friends,
I’m totally jealous of your holiday vacations.
Love, Kelly

(maybe I should go back and finish my last semester of student teaching so I can enjoy my vacations once again?…that conversation is neither here nor there right now and involves a long story that we aren’t going to touch on right now)

Ahem.  Anyway.  Let’s celebrate November with cookies.  Fall cookies.  At this time of year, we can forget about carving pumpkins and just concentrate on eating them.  Sound good to you?  Sounds good to me.

Pumpkin Applesauce Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup applesauce

4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs into butter and sugar mixture, one at a time, beating after each one.  Add in canned pumpkin and applesauce and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt.  Add to wet ingredients, gradually, mixing well after each addition.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, placing cookies 2-inches apart.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Yield: 3-4 dozen, depending on size of cookies

Now, if you’ll excuse me.  I’m going to go and stuff myself with cookies while I dream about getting a Thanksgiving vacation.

What is your favorite thing to make with pumpkin?  I love pumpkin bread!