I’ve been neglecting my blog again lately…life just seems to be running away with me and I have either lacked the time, motivation, or energy to keep up with this recently. I mean, this past weekend I didn’t even bake anything! That’s a rare occurrence in our household, and I think I’m starting to have withdrawal symptoms. I think there have been a few factors contributing to this problem, one of which is the recent lack of naps in our household. Ryan has decided that he is old enough to not need a nap, and honestly he is doing pretty good without one. Anastasia (who will be 8 months in a few days) aspires to great things and wants to makes sure she keeps up with her brother, so she followed suit and also stopped napping. Unlike her brother, however, she does not really handle it so well… All of this results in all of us being a bit on the tired cranky side by the end of the day, and also means that on the days I am not working (well, and really most of the days that I am working) I have zero time to myself because the kids gravitate to me like I’m a magnet or something.
With this said, I LOVE being a mom, and I LOVE my kids, I just have a problem setting up boundaries and making time for myself occasionally. I also have a problem with Working Mother’s Guilt, and feel like when I am at home I need to be spending time with my kids. Which I do, however being an introvert, I need a smidgen of time to myself to recharge my batteries occasionally too. I was laying on the couch like a big lump the other night after we got the kids in bed telling my husband how I felt tired, but also just completely drained and didn’t know why… and we figured out that it might be related to the lack of nappage and the fact that I no longer get that period of time by myself on the weekends to recharge. Not sure quite what I’m going to do about it, but the first step is identifying the problem, right? So if my posts are a bit spotty for awhile here, well, you can probably assume that among other things going on too I’m probably still trying to figure it out.
Anyway, two weekends ago instead of taking a nap Ryan helped me make cookies. I love having him help me bake. He stopped helping me for awhile after we moved here, I think because our kitchen is so tiny. There is really only one possible spot to put a chair for him to stand on so he can reach the counter, and that one possible spot happens to be pretty much blocking the entire counter space, and the drawers and cupboards that I need in. But lately he has been interested in helping again, so we manage to make it work, and he’s getting pretty good at it. He is even doing really well at cracking eggs and not getting any egg shell in the bowl. I decided that much to my delight pumpkin season has officially returned, so the first thing I couldn’t wait any longer to make was these delicious pumpkin cookies. They are a recipe that I adapted from one that I found in Taste of Home a few years back, and they are up in the ranking as one of my favorite cookies. Anytime I take them anywhere I always get asked for the recipe. In fact, I took some of these to work with me the next day and my co-workers were asking for the recipe as well.
The nice thing is, if you ignore the obvious fattening aspect of the 1 cup of butter, they actually do have some nutritious value in them between the pumpkin, craisins, whole wheat flour, and oatmeal. So I can feel good about my son that I have turned into a Cookie Monster actually getting some nutrition when he’s eating them, as opposed to some other types of cookies. Of course Ryan as usual puts me to shame and requested that I not put any icing on the cookies he was going to eat. They are good without the icing too…but personally I recommend going all out and adding the icing on top!
Iced Pumpkin Cookies
- 1 cup of butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of canned pumpkin
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup white chips
- 1 cup of quick oats
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In large mixing bowl cream butter and sugars. Beat in egg and pumpkin.
- Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Add gradually to the creamed mixture. Fold in the white chips, oats, and cranberries.
- Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets and bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Remove to wire racks to cool. When completely cool frost the cookies.
Icing:
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 3 Tbsp. of milk
- In a small mixing bowl combine the icing ingredients until smooth. Frost cooled cookies.
Therapeutic Kitchen 