Baking Monday

On a chilly day it's so nice to warm up the house with the oven and smells of good food baking. Today I got a few things in the oven: bread, pumpkin muffins and chocolate chip cookies, my man's favourite. And just to get a jump on tomorrow's breakfast, I mixed the dry ingredients for pumpkin scones - yum!

The bread recipe is from my mom, just simple whole wheat with brown sugar and milk. It's got a slightly chewy texture and makes wonderful toast.

I used pumpkin from our Hallowe'en jack-o-lantern that I'd baked up and froze. If you're careful with the candle, there's no black from smoke. If there was, you could always scrape it off before baking the pumpkin. It's not quite as sweet as pie pumpkin but the flavour is still very good and works well in baking.

I have tried for years to make cookies like my man remembered from his mom, the best ever I've been told. I've used recipes from magazines, from friends and the same recipe that my mother-in-law gave me but never quite got it right. (They were all good, especially the ones made with butter.)

It comes down to the fat. When I used golden crisco (normally makes me cringe), the chocolate chip cookies were finally deemed perfect. And it is the recipe from the box, although if you're not so picky as to buy Crisco, use butter and the recipe found here. They are good cookies...