Jordan's famous pumpkin cookies!

Well hello everybody! I hope you all had the best of weekends, and before we really dive into this fabulous recipe, I wanted to say THANK YOU thank you thank you to all of you who SURROUNDED our family in prayer these last few days. We were overwhelmed by the messages, texts, calls, etc asking about Gege and letting us know you were praying. What a blessing it was to us and to HER to know there was a community of people LOVING on her and praying for her recovery. She is stable and much better today than she was yesterday so PRAISE THE LORD! I will continue to keep you all updated!

Now, how THRILLED is everybody that it's THANKSGIVING WEEK!!? I AM! I've been dying to give you this recipe for awhile now but I thought I'd better hold out 'til the PERFECTLY appropriate holiday, Thanksgiving. Now that it's here, all I want to DO is write about, make, bake and eat these COOKIES! I know many of you have heard of these and are salivating at the mere thought... but for those of you who HAVEN'T had the pleasure of hearing about, seeing or tasting these golden puffs of magic, let me tell you about them. My sister is NOT a baker. AT ALL. HOWEVER, somehow, magically and by the grace of God, she came across this recipe and I think even adapted it a little to make it her own... I was opposed to trying them the first time for 2 reasons: 1- they were pumpkin and 2- she made them and she is NOT a baker. (did i say that already? love you jord! she's a much better overall chef than i am so i don't feel bad saying that) ;) But in support of her valiant efforts despite her not-so-great baking track record, I decided to taste one. I immediately fell in love with all things pumpkin, all was right with the world and I couldn't help myself but to eat 2 more. Seriously. They're that good.

SO, what's better than presenting a giant platter of the world's most beloved cookies on the most food appropriate holiday??! Not much. Let's get into it!

Here's what you'll need: (so so so easy)***

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Crisco (yes, fat, don't feel bad, its Thanksgiving! Be thankful we HAVE packaged fat available! maybe a little bit of a stretch but go with it) ;)
• 1 cup pumpkin (fresh or canned will do, but NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the cream cheese frosting: ***

• one pound (1 bag usually) powdered sugar
• one 8 oz. package regular cream cheese (not whipped)
• one stick of salted butter
• one Tablespoon vanilla extract

***ok so I gave you the halved dough recipe and the whole frosting recipe...some people are frosting crazy so I figure it's better to give you hefty frosting amount option. if you're having 4-10 people for Thanksgiving, I'd make the halved recipe of dough. if you're having over 10 people, go ahead and double the dough recipe above, trust me, you'll need them!

Go time! Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cream the Crisco, pumpkin and sugar. (word to the wise... if you like CAKE-Y cookies, don't soften your crisco in the microwave, leave it solid, or if you must, microwave it for 10 seconds. If you like cookies that are AIRY, throw the crisco in the microwave until it has solids and it's liquidy.) Add the egg and mix well. Now add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix. (if you're the obsessive personality type, yes, you can mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding it to the creamed ingredients, more power to ya, but you don't need to) ;) Jordan likes to make hers massive so I'd say scoop 1 & 1/2 Tablespoons for each cookie. I make mine about 1 heaping Tablespoon. By the way, put them on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes! 

Voila!

(that's half! just like i gave you above! however i did make them smaller than jordan's)

Don't they look SO GOOD?! I know! Because I made way too many, I gave them away as gifts and they were loved by all! So keep that in mind... maybe if you have some family members from out of town coming, go get some little brown boxes and simple string and keep them on hand for "on the road" gifts! So nice!

(who wouldn't want to open that and eat those?)

Well you guys, I hope you make these and enjoy them as much as I've talked them up! :) You will, I know you will... and stay tuned! There's a LOT more coming this week in preparation and celebration of Thanksgiving! Hopefully, I'll give you a little inspiration to spice up your menu and make the cooking that much more fun! Thanksgiving should be FUN, not stressful... we've just gotta stay creative and relaxed and THANKFUL... after all, we've got A LOT to be thankful for, a little of which is that we HAVE food to prepare for the FAMILY and FRIENDS that we have! So let's be grateful to the Lord this year for how blessed we are to even ATTEND or HOST our Thanksgiving meal, and let's enjoy every minute of it... cooking and baking and spilling things and cleaning dishes included. ;)

Love you guys! Let's start talking about how grateful we are and get our hearts geared towards actually GIVING THANKS! Happy Pumpkin Cookies! 

xo