Secret Recipe Revealed

Here's my roommate's recipe for the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I featured in a post a bit ago. She has since made them twice (though probably just half of a batch - maybe 30 each time) and they never last 24 hours in my house.

This is Jane's mom's recipe. She makes a batch and passes them out to all of her neighbors. She's an art teacher and while her recipe isn't vegan, it's easily veganized:

I 30-oz (BIG) can of pumpkin

3 cups of sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp baking powder

3 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs replaced with Ener-G or other

6 cups flour

vegan chocolate chips

bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Jane says, "if you make this recipe in full it makes soooo many cookies, probably 100. so i suggest you halve it - i don't think i've made a full batch in a while. and if you're short on a few of the ingredients you should be okay - i always forget something." For half of a batch use one 15-oz can of pumpkin instead of one of the huge 30-oz cans.

Spaghetti Squash

I forgot to take pictures of the pumpkin pancakes because they didn't last long. Everything Jane bakes turns to delicious and disappears - just take her pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, for instance. This photo was taken 24 hours after she baked her nuggets of vegan gold:

I walked into the other room and it was gone when I returned.

Inspired by VeganMoFo madness, I've taken to photographing my meals more frequently. Unfortunately for you all, you will see what I eat. It's not very exciting and it's always cheap. I only buy things on sale - unless it's a staple item like cashews or broccoli.

Tonight I baked a spaghetti squash (79 cents a pound at Kroger- whud up) and prepared what I like to call "curry rice" (aka 2 cups of brown rice + 4 cups water + about 2 Tbsp red curry powder + about 2 tsp garam masala + about 1 Tbsp vegetable oil) in my handy dandy rice cooker. Check it:


Sorry I don't have a light box or anything. My pictures are sub-par. But wouldn't it be kind of ridiculous if I glorified brown rice and plain spaghetti squash? I could go on a tangent about how awesome s squared is, though. it GROWS like that. Just look at all of that fiber; eating the entire thing is probably the equivelent of taking like 2 laxatives. Fuck yes.

Another amazing freak of nature are pomegranites. Last week I discovered the joy of adding the seeds to my cereal (Kashi Heart to Heart Cinnamon, at the moment). SO GOOD. You have to try it.

BTW I got that Westsoy Plain Soymilk at Krog for about $3 and it's huge. I love sales. (Don't tell me how much it's actually worth. I have self esteem to protect and I get my self-worth from my sale-hunting skills.)

I added black pepper and some fresh basil to the squash. Yum.

I do cook,

contrary to what you may believe from the status of my blog. Guess I'm not cut out for blogging. I can live with that.


One of my room mates made these (vegan!) pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to celebrate the return of canned pumpkin to our local Kroger. They are seriously the best cookies I've had in a LONG time. They're fluffy and sweet, with the perfect amount of chocolate to balance the earthiness of the pumpkin.

The Kroger in Athens only gets its pumpkin (and many other items) in-state and apparently Ohio did not produce enough of it last year. To celebrate the coming of nos amigos gordos y naranjas we've stocked up on enough pumpkin to sufficently theme the weekly post-church brunch that we host for all of our friends and acquaintances. Pumpkin pancake photos to come!! Hopefully they'll turn out as well as the paw paw pancakes.

I've been super busy with my job with an afterschool child care program, which I absolutely love. I should really work with kids as a career. Forget journalism. Once I stopped obsessing over Cosmo I haven't wanted to work for a magazine anyway. We shall see where I end up...I'll leave it up to God.

I'm really into Zooey Deschanel's band, She & Him. I blame my room mates. But really, she's a talented actress who doesn't take herself too seriously, she's a vegan, and she just married Ben Gibbard of The Postal Service. That's a celebrity I'm willing to respect.