Pumpkin Cake Cookies!

 Ok, so it’s finally fall and I could not wait anymore until I started making some fall goodies.  However I didn’t have any pumpkin cookie recipes so I went on the hunt.  Happily, I found a recipe but given I had more brown sugar than white sugar and recently found out I’m allergic to cinnamon, I had to make some edits.  Those edits turned out to be amazing!!!!!  Recipe below.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

- 1 stick (1/2c) butter, softened

- 1/2c sugar

- 1c brown sugar

- 1tsp vanilla

- 1 c pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie purée)

- 1 egg

- 1tsp baking powder

- 1tsp baking soda

- 2.5c flour (I use gluten free)

(You can add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves as desired, but I didn’t and I loved them.  Very fresh tasting).

Preheat the oven to 350.  Blend the sugar and butter.  Add in vanilla, pumpkin, and egg.  Mix until well blended (you might have what looks like a separated dough but it’s just the pumpkin).  Add in dry ingredients until smooth and well mixed.  

Bake for 15 (to 18) min, but I found 15 to be perfect.

Seriously.  So good.

My New Obsession: Walnut Butter

 It's official, I'm obsessed with walnut butter.  It's so good.  And two spoonfuls mixed with a handful of chocolate chips?!  Delightful; the perfect afternoon snack.

As we know, I have a lot of things that my body is sensitive too.  I recently found out my blood type, and if you follow those "Eat for your blood type" diets, it makes a lot of sense why I don't handle certain goods well.

Well, as it turns out, of all the nuts, walnuts maybe are the best for me (or, said differently, my body best tolerates them), which is great, because I've always loved them!

However, as I get older, sometimes eating nuts and the subsequent little pieces that trickle through my digestive tract (like many other foods) can cause more irritation that I want (and sometimes migraines as a result).  So, I decided to try walnut butter instead, because it's already ground down to a paste, so I figured maybe I'd have better luck.

Now, if you want something other than PB or Almond butter, it's not necessarily right on your grocery store shelf.  I had to hunt for some walnut butter.  I should also note it's expensive and comes in the tiniest of jars.  However ... TOTALLY WORTH IT!

That said, I won't be able to eat it all the time because of the cost, but if that means enjoying a spoonful of nut butter becomes more of a special treat, then so be it!  I can't say enough awesome things about it.

Hopefully you find your favorite nut butter, too!

Unlikely Allergies

 So, apparently, being allergic to pork is a thing.

Ok, so I know some of you are reading that thinking, "of course it's a thing," so let me clarify.  Being sneakily allergic to pork is a think.

That doesn't make any sense, right?  Agree.  Which is why it took me four (almost five) years to figure out that I am sensitive to - in a sense allergic - to pork.

I've always enjoyed bacon, but I never really had an affinity for pulled pork or ham or pork chops, etc.  In fact, growing up, when my mom said it was "pork chop night" I always groaned.  But as I got older, and especially after I moved southward, I realized just how integrated pork is to many dishes.  

Asian food? Lots of pork options;  Spanish? Same thing;  Live in the south? Pork in everything.

So I got a little more accustomed to eating pork and even found myself enjoying it more on occasion.

And then it started.  The area around my fingernails would get really inflamed and painful, and one time it even sent me to urgent care it was so bad. After numerous doctor visits, the best they could think was I had paronychia, which is essentially inflammation of the nail and bed and often because of the regular use of one's hands. 

And that never really sat well as a diagnosis.  Then years later I started musing on what caused this sudden symptom when I've never had it prior to moving.  Then I realized that after moving, I started eating more gluten and pork.  Suddenly I had a mini "ah-hah" moment and wondered if either of those were the culprit.  I'm sensitive to lots of foods, so who knew?  I had the allergy doctor test me for allergies to pork and it was barely raised / negligible.  

But within 2 weeks of no longer eating pork, the symptoms disappeared.  Completely.  And just to test, I ate pork again (just once) and bam! back.  

So, who knows why things happen, but sometimes our bodies tell us something is wrong and we have to work to figure it out.  So for anyone else dealing with these kind of sneaky allergies, best of luck to you.  I know they are so frustrating.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Ok, while I love peanut butter, and I can be a fan of cookies, I haven't always loved PB cookies.  That said, this weekend I developed a hankering for something sweet and I had the ingredients for PB cookies.  To my delight, they were wonderful!!  Below is the recipe, which is a bit of a mash up of two I found online, so it's 'one of a kind' if you will.  

Ingredients

• 1/2 c (1 stick) butter, softened - this can be vegan butter if preferred
• 1/2 c PB, also softened (e.g. if you put your PB in the fridge, either let it sit out or see instructions below for how to war it up)
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 Tbsp milk (I use unsweetened oat milk)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/3 c flour (I use a gluten free flour blend that can go cup-for-cup with regular flour)

For topping, you may decide to sprinkle sugar and/or coarse sea salt. Totally up to your preference.

Instructions

• Mix butter and PB together (if not softened, heat in microwave for 30 sec so soft but not melted)
• add in sugars
• mix in vanilla and milk until well blended
• add remaining dry ingredients
• Move dough to wax paper and roll tightly.  I recommend rolling into a log now as opposed to trying to form cookies later.
• Place dough in wax paper in fridge for 4-24 hours (depending on the time you have).  This helps make the cookies chewier
• When ready, remove dough from freezer and cut into the size cookies you desire (I recommend 1/2 inch thick cookies)
• Place cookies on wax paper'd cookie sheet.  If you like to put the fork marks, add now
• If you wish to top your cookies with salt or sugar, add now
• Preheat oven to 350F
• Bake for 8-10 min
• Remove and let cool.  Store in container once fully cooled

Enjoy!!

PSA - Spay and Neuter

 This is a PSA - Please spay and neuter your pets.  The shelters I support with the What Faye Loves book profits have been hammered with euthanizing pets these last months because there are just too many and not enough adopters.  And the volume of pregnant and new puppies is staggering.

The dogs that exist already deserve to be loved before more puppies are created.  

Please spay and neuter your pets.

That is all.