Monday, October 8, 2012

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I went home for part of my birthday weekend and went on a baking frenzy with my mother.  I woke up (late), worked on a book binding project and then decided to make my favorite fall treat–Pumpkin Spice Cookies! Here's the kicker though...these cookies have chocolate chips in them!!! I doubled the recipe because I wanted to share them with my sorority sisters and friends and they go like crazy. People devour these cookies and ask for more. I kid you not–they're very addictive. Because I doubled the recipe, I put it in a giant, metal bowl so I looks like a lot and was a bit intimidating, but now I have plenty of cookies to share!





Ingredients:
2 cups butter (4 sticks softened)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 can of Libby's Pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups of chocolate chips (my favorite part!)

Happy fall! 

- Nicole

Saturday, October 6, 2012

21 & Back on Track!

Hello!

So, I need to apologize. I've been a terrible, terrible blogger, but my life took a crazy turn in early July when I was in a pretty bad car accident. I was at an intersection and was struck by two large trucks–tiny me was hit by two HUGE trucks. It was a terrifying experience. I was injured, had a totaled car and was haunted by it day in and day out. I was afraid to drive all summer. I fell into a slump and blogging did not seem very fun at the time, especially since I was wearing a gauze wrap around a second degree burn that covered most of my right arm. The accident threw by back out of alignment, making doing anything extremely painful. In short, I was just in no mood to take pictures of myself or share my thoughts.

Since, I've seen a chiropractor and I no longer have to keep my gross burn under wraps (haha). So I'm doing much better and I've gotten into a normal routine after heading back to Des Moines and getting past my sorority's recruitment. So now that I am 21 (my birthday was Wednesday) and blessed to be alive, I am going to start blogging again! Given the fact that I am an over-involved student, I'm going to aim for one blog post a week. If I have time for more than one, I'll go for it! I just don't want to overcommit myself. I feel like that's been my problem all my life–I hate saying, "NO!" It's just a word I don't care to use too often. So, I'm going to start small for now.


And last but not least, cheers! It's a whole new year of my life and I'm going to enjoy every moment of it doing the things I love with the people I love!