a little party

we had a reunion of former residences of this apartment. it was a nice little gathering and all of the children played together amazingly well. we had a surprise visitor, a kitten from upstairs with no fear of children, that turned out to be the best babysitter for eliot. it was our first party since we have been here and despite only having one working burner on our stove the food came out great. once everything is put away i think we will have a proper housewarming.


i have been tweaking a recipe i found from Martha Stewart for pumpkin whoopie pies. a real maine treat! the recipe follows:

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie

3 cups pumpkin pure w/o spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cloves
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup veg. oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting

3 cups conf. sugar
1/2 stick butter
8 oz cr. cheese
1tsp vanilla

Directions

350 degree oven
in a large bowl whisk the dry ingredients
in a separate bowl mix the wets including the pumpkin pure and sugar
add wets to dry

drop and shape on a cookie sheet and cook until spongy and slightly cracked
approx 15 min.

My Variations

I added at least another tablespoon of cinnamon and heaping measurements of the other spices. Use a larger bowl than you would think, it puffs up a lot while mixing it. Instead of brown sugar i used slightly less granular sugar and a few heaping tablespoons of molasses.

for the frosting - be sure to sift the powdered sugar or it will clump up. it helps to use an electric mixer and be sure the ingredients are room temp. i cut the sugar by quite a bit and it still makes a ton.

the original recipe was for either 6 or 8 massive ones but i cut it and made 12 or 13 big ones.

i found the cooking time to be more like 20-25 min. even when small.