On Tuesday night Axes’ daycare Child Space will turn into Wild Space for a Halloween Party. We’re pretty excited. I made chocolate chip cookies with Orange and Black morsels for the event. I adapted the Tollhouse recipe with hints from my good friend Catherine. I also subbed 1/3 whole wheat flour for all purpose and subbed in 1/3 agave syrup for the white sugar to reduce the sugar content and increase the liquid content to hydate the bran in the whole wheat. Axes has also declared that they are haunted. There is no food science principle behind that. Pure whimsy!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 package vanilla pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup raw agave syrup
• 1 capful milk
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla paste
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Halloween Morsels

Follow package instructions, although I did only bake the first test batch for 10 minutes, as I like mine a little underbaked. I’ll bake them all the way for the event, though. I also find cookies turn out better if you refrigerate the dough overnight.

I’ve been an oatmeal lover for many years now. John Chilton is a true connoisseur, and we spent a few months scouting out the best place in Minneapolis for oatmeal. It’s Zumbro Cafe by the way. Any way when the recipe below appeared in my feed I was intrigued.

http://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookie-overnight-oats/#_a5y_p=2464768

We can’t use almond products in our household due to Axes’ allergy, so I needed to adapt it to suit our needs. Of course I decided to use some food science insights, as well.

So the first change was to use regular dairy milk. After working for a dairy co-op for 7 years, I probably would have used dairy milk even without the tree nut concern, as I prefer the taste. Since this was a sweet recipe, I used lactose free milk to reduce the amount of added sugar needed. The other major change I made from a food science perspective was to cook the pumpkin along with the pumpkin pie spice. Heat causes all sorts of chemical reactions to take place, and raw spices just don’t taste right. Cooking lessens their intensity and transfers some of the flavor molecules into the food matrix (melding or blending in laymen’s terms). Beyond that I’m fuzzy on the details, but I imagine the actual flavor compounds are changing, as well.

A comment on overnight oats before we get to the recipe. When you cook starch it goes through a process called gelatinization. This is why grains and flours are so magically different after you heat them. This process also makes them much easier for your body to digest. Ungelatinized starch is called ‘resistant starch’ and your body does not process the calories very efficiently, so overnight oats, which aren’t cooked, are a pretty great breakfast food if you are trying to lose weight. Some people really aren’t fans of overnight oats, though, so I also made a cooked oat version.

And a note about chocolate chips before we get to the recipe. I tested out a few different versions of chocolate chips, and I learned some things. In the overnight oat recipe a mix of mini and regular chips is nice to ensure that you get chocolate in every bite but still get the satisfaction from some regular chips. I like to get a nice big chunk of chocolate every once in a awhile. The other thing I found was that the chocolate chips had very different melt profiles depending on the brand. Hershey’s melted really quickly when tasted plain and behaved like a regular chip in the cold oatmeal recipe. Nestle chips on the other hand were very slow melting and extremely waxy in the cold oatmeal, but when you put them on top of the hot version, they actually held up and melted in your mouth rather than completely in the bowl. I consulted some other food science friends and a textbook, and I’m still not sure why. The chocolate expert in my department told me to check to see if Hershey’s had milk fat and Nestle didn’t, but they both had milk fat. It’s possible they have different proportions, though. Having worked in butter and spreads, my mind went right to fat crystal structure, but he didn’t think that would be the cause. If I find any more out, I will be sure to let you readers in on the mysteries of science!

Pumpkin Mix

• 1 can pumpkin puree (2 cups if you are using fresh)
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Mix pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice and heat on stove top or microwave until just heated (1-3 minutes on the stovetop, about a minute in the microwave). Can be refrigerated up to 5 days, and can be used hot or cold depending on your preference.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Overnight Oat Recipe

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup lactose free milk
• 1 cup pumpkin mix (see recipe above)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 teaspoon or more raw agave
• 1 teaspoon Ghirardelli mini chocolate chips
• 1 Tablespoon Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips

Mix milk and oats and let sit in refrigerator overnight.

Mix salt and agave into pumpkin mix. Mix into oatmeal. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Recipe

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup lactose free milk
• 1 cup pumpkin mix (see recipe above)
• 1 teaspoon or more raw agave
• 1 Tablespoon Nestle Dark chocolate chips

Microwave oats and water for 3 minutes. Mix all other ingredients together except chocolate chips. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Do not stir in, if you don’t want them to melt.

Okay, so what is a lagniappe? It is a bonus gift. A little something extra. I learned this wonderful word from one of my favorite author’s Gretchen Rubin. http://www.gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2013/12/a-lagniappe-for-you-that-is-a-bonus-gift-for-you/

So what is my little something extra for you? Well, one morning Axes found the pumpkin mix in the refrigerator and wanted to eat it. I didn’t think that would be very appetizing, but this child is as persistent, determined, tenacious, or sometimes stubborn as his mother. So I had to think quick. I mixed a little half and half and agave into it and created a delicious pumpkin pudding.

Pumpkin Spice Pudding

• 1 cup pumpkin mix (see recipe above)
• 2 Tablespoons half & half
• 2 teaspoons raw agave syrup

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Sprinkle with Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips if desired.

It’s taken me about 2 weeks to write this post for some reason, so I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I do!

I have a pumpkin spice oatmeal recipe (2 ways) with a bonus pumpkin pie pudding recipe in the works, but it has been taking me far too long to post. A wonderful vacation to MN got in the way. I wanted to give my readers a little something, though. So here are my (not) award winning pumpkin spice cookies. I pulled out every trick I knew in the book, but alas I did not win the first cooking competition I ever entered with these beauties. Well, I didn’t use every trick, they were not the absolute tastiest cookies I could have made, as I wanted to make a healthier recipe. So how can cookies be healthy? Well they are a bit of an homage to this recipe:

http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/1557/chewy-molasses-sandwich-cookies

And I think ditching the frosting by incorporating the orange flavor into the cookie, reducing the salt (for the amount of flour called for), and using ~30% whole wheat flour counts as healthifying. Yes, I made that word up. 🙂 So here you go, not award winning, but pretty tasty if I do say so myself

Pumpkin Spice & Orange Zest Cookies

• 2 cups brown sugar (packed)
• 1.5 cups butter (softened)
• 1 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1 T molasses
• 1 T orange zest
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1.55 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until well blended and fluffy. Mix in honey, egg, molasses, orange zest, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine the rest of the ingredients and stir until well blended.

Using the electric mixer, mix the flour mixture into the butter sugar mixture in stages, adding about 1/3 of the flour mixture at a time.

Shape dough into balls, and roll in sugar. A mixture of yellow, red, and orange sugar adds a festive touch.

Place 1 inch apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes until cookies begin to puff up and tops just start to crackle.

Axes and I carved our first pumpkin of the season last night.

It’s for the big pumpkin festival that will be taking place in State College this weekend. Anyone who wanted could get a free pumpkin to enter into the competition as long as you promised to bring it back carved. Thank you to the Vargo family for sponsoring this fantastic event. We had so much fun creating our special carving together and sharing an evening creating even more special memories. And this morning when I dropped it off, I got a participant ribbon. I am so excited to show it to Axes. They almost forgot to give it to me, but this Minnesota girl spoke up to remind them (I know, scandal!), because Axes will love it so much.

Now I come from the era where participant ribbons were invented (I think). And many people bemoan their creation, but I am not one of them. Because as the saying goes, a big part of life is just showing up. And in my opinion that is to be celebrated. We didn’t have to enter the event. And we probably didn’t have to return our pumpkin. What were they going to do? Come to my house? But we did. We showed up. And I’m glad that they gave us a little memento to remember it. And they didn’t give us all 1st place ribbons. Those are reserved for the winners.

And now I’m going to get on my soap box. I don’t even know why. This just reminded me of when people say that the younger generation was brought up to feel they were special. Well, I hope so. We all are! Every one of us. And if no one ever told you that you were special, I am so sorry. Please hear me when I say you are. Because believing you are special isn’t a problem. It is essential. The problem is when you start to believe you are somehow more special than anyone else. Because each and everyone of is as beautiful, special, and unique as the Jack-O-Lanterns I saw this morning. And one will win Best in Show tonight, but that just means it was the best for the criteria of that award. Given different criteria, it might have been another just as special pumpkin.

ETA:

I initially forgot to include my sweet & spicy recipe for this sweet & spicy post!

Sweet & Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

• Seeds from your carved pumpkin
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• salt
• 1 Tablespoon unsulphured molasses (I like Grandma’s)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic chili paste

Thoroughly clean your seeds. It worked well to get as much gunk off, and then soak them in water to help remove the rest.

Toss seeds in olive oil and salt. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Roast at 300F for about 35 minutes until golden brown.

Mix molasses and chili paste together. Toss roasted seeds in mixture to coat. Spray your sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Roast for another 5-10 minutes at 300F until a glaze forms on the seeds.

Enjoy!

Gifts from the universe, manna from heaven, gifts from God. Call them what you will, but if you stop and pay attention they are everywhere. It can be as small as a message that arrives in your inbox right when you need to hear it, or as large your father surviving a very risky surgery. It can be as obvious as a box of Minnesota apples from an unknown friend arriving at your doorstep at the end of a very long and stressful week, or as hidden as a small salamander crossing your path when you’re running back inside because you forgot your lunchbox and wallet when you left your house that morning.

Because while I do believe that while the universe is always speaking to us and delivering these gifts, I also believe that you have to listen and pay attention to receive them. In fact, they often arrive at moments when you least expect it or think that you are in a terrible situation. For example, when I was headed to Minnesota to be with my dad for his surgery, in my stressed state I sat at the wrong gate for an hour and only when it was time to board the plane did I realize my mistake. Well the universe delivered after that. Four kind gentlemen took pity on me and helped me book another flight, and I thought to myself, there must be a reason that I missed that first flight. So I paid attention. While waiting for the next flight, I met an amazing man (http://www.timvandergrift.com) who upon his first taste of wine, quit his day job to make a career out of wine. Maybe someday we will collaborate together. Whether it’s true that all this was meant to happen or not really doesn’t matter. It sure made the next hour a lot more pleasant. And while in the past I may have beat myself up for my stupidity, now I just believe that it was a gift from the universe.

Yesterday the now Dr. Nadia Byrnes showcased all of the data from her PhD dissertation. She did a wonderful job bringing it to life for all in the audience. Her mother and I were commenting on what a confident presenter she was. I said that she was like a professional athlete- always able to bring it to that next level when needed.

I was reminded of the final SSP presentation that I wanted to highlight. Jennifer Jo Wiseman talked about how she turned her data into theater. What an amazing idea. She showed pictures of events they’d hosted where each persona from a segmentation was highlighted at a different station with foods and materials for the participants to sample and explore. It brought the data to life for people who may not love numbers and statistics quite like we do. I thought that this was a truly brilliant idea. Some people really need a tangible experience to connect with an idea.

I use this concept in my own life. When I am struggling with an idea or concept, I will create a piece of art to bring it to life. Well maybe it is going a bit far to call it art. One of my favorite writers and a sensory fan Gretchen Rubin (http://www.gretchenrubin.com/) is writing a book about habits (one of my favorite topics), so she has been blogging about it for some time. She has written how sometimes what we think is a ‘treat’ or carrot really isn’t. This resonated with me, because it is something that I sometimes struggle with. I choose the momentary pleasure that isn’t so great for me in the long run, so I created this picture to illustrate the concept.

See I said art was stretching it. 🙂 But more recently, I did get inspired to create something a little more involved. Those who know me well know that I have been meditating for a few years now. If I could recommend one activity to add to your life, it would be meditation. I could go on and on, but that will be another post. I do guided meditation, and Deepak Chopra puts out my favorite series. I have several, but there is one that I love especially. In it he says, ‘Be bold. Rooted in the knowledge that you are as mighty as the universe itself. Full of love, joy, and power. You are stardust. A bright golden light.’ It just sticks with me and comforts me in times of trouble. It is very important to me to be brave. I was a very brave little girl, but at some point I lost some of that courage. When I feel it wavering, I repeat this line. So when I was decorating my new home and had a large empty space on the wall, it was time for my first painting.

The whole thing is covered in silver sparkles and the purple letters have at least 7 different kinds of glitter in it when you look up close, and it’s a little 80’s, but I absolutely love it. And when Axes saw the final version he said, ‘It’s perfect.’ What a sweet little boy. So don’t hide yourself or your data under a bushel, bring it to life and let it shine! You are stardust after all, and your data is pretty magnificent too.