Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Sugar Glaze

Howie left me alone in Cleveland this weekend to go to the Bills vs. Giants game...which means I finally have a Sunday that doesn't involve football!  Not that I don't enjoy football or anything, but it's about time I get caught up with my "life" things a.k.a. decorate my porch and fireplace mantel for fall, make Slow Cooker Garlic Rosemary Beef Stew and bake the all important Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Sugar Glaze.  Let me tell you, these suckers are addicting!  Like so addicting that I'm actually going on a run right now before dinner because I ate three in the last 2 hours.  And I'm probably going to have three more tonight.  And I actually don't even feel that bad about it because I'm just being seasonal.  Oh gosh you have to try these perfect fall cookies!

Apple Pie

Let me start off this blog post by saying that this apple pie recipe is very near and dear to my heart.  It was actually the recipe that first inspired me to start a cookbook back when I was 19 years old.  I was in between my freshman and sophomore year of college, and made an apple pie on a warm summer afternoon.  I decided to photograph my beautiful pie after it came out of the oven, and realized that it looked just as good as some of the pictures I would see in cooking magazines.  Before I knew it, I was furiously baking and cooking as many recipes as I could to photograph them before I went back to a cramped dorm room sans oven or stove at Miami University.  I used an online publishing software to design the layouts for my cookbook, and finally finished it in Fall 2012...all because of this simple pie recipe! 

Autumn Favorites

Howie's parents came to visit over the weekend, and we had the best time taking them apple picking out in the country!  We went to Burnham Orchards, an apple farm in Berlin Heights, OH, a little southwest of Vermilion.  You pay $16.00 for 1/2 bushel, and literally can squeeze 50 apples inside of it!  Obviously I've been eating them for snacks, but I LOVE trying to cook with fresh produce.  I made the epitome of a fall meal: butternut squash soup, garlic rosemary focaccia bread and apple crisp.  Surprisingly, both the apple crisp AND the butternut squash soup use apples!  But the thing I like most?  How easy it is to make them!