Domestic Diva

Since moving to Chicago, you could say I've picked up a relatively new hobby - cooking. Most of the time Luke's a big fan of this new-found passion.

Most of the time.

There are a few things he doesn't like, however. (And you can imagine my shock when this meat and potatoes, "I'll clean your plate and everyone else's at the table, for that matter" guy told me he doesn't like pie. Really? Pie?) For instance, take his unexplainable aversion to corn. That's right, I said it, corn. He only likes corn by itself - if you put it in anything else, he won't eat it. And most recently, he's decided he doesn't like pumpkin things. Well, instead of shying away from my favorite harvest-time flavor, I decided to take care of this once and for all. So I spent Saturday afternoon baking up some delicious pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. What's not to like?

The finished product!

Notice the open space beneath his finger... something's missing! As I was frosting, everytime I turned to put another one on the rack, somehow a new open spot would mysteriously appear. There's more pumpkin stuff where that came from, Luke!

And so, I thought it only fair to share this mouth-watering recipe with you. Courtesy of your friend and mine, Betty Crocker. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies

2/3 c. granulated sugar

2/3 c. packed brown sugar

3/4 c. butter or margarine, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. pumpkin

2 eggs

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, 3/4 cup butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until well blended. Beat in pumpkin and eggs until well mixed. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soad, cinnamon and salt.

On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched in center. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 45 minutes and frost. (I'll admit, I used frosting from the can... it was much easier at that point.)