DIY Spiced Pumpkin Cookies

I changed the scone recipe just a little to make these pumpkin cookies. They are really quick to mix up and just drop by the spoonful onto the cookiesheet.

Homemade Spiced Pumpkin Cookie Recipe

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup oil or melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp (or a pinch) cloves

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until well combined.
2. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes until just lightly brown
4. Remove from oven, and let cool.
5. Make spiced powdered sugar glaze.

Spiced Powdered Sugar Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Combine spices and sugar, and add milk a Tbsp at a time until a nice consistency. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies. If you want to serve these for company, wait an hour or so for the glaze to harden, but I really have a hard time waiting more than a couple minutes to eat some myself. These are a great with tea, coffee, or milk.

(Makes about 2 dozen good sized cookies)

Mandarin Mondays:交通

One thing that is markedly different about living in a big city in China, instead of the suburbs or countryside of America, is transportation (jiāo tōng, 交通) around town. Kunming is relatively modern and packed with cars (chē, 车). Some foreigners even drive here, although it takes a bit of effort to get a driver's license here and a bit of an expense to purchase a vehicle. However, if you are spending most of your time within the city, you don't really "need" a car unless you just love to drive.

The option we use the most for traveling in the city is public buses (gōng jiāo chē, 公交车), which will take you all over the city for a very reasonable price. Once you learn the bus routes, it feels very comfortable to just hop on a bus and ride to your destination. My husband has even used Google maps to figure out bus routes to and from destinations. If we are going somewhere new, we can figure out ahead of time what number bus to catch, if we need to change buses, and the names of the stops we want to get off at.

Some other foreigners use small motorcycles (diàn dòng chē, 电动车). Motorcycles will probably get you to your destination as fast or faster than any car, but they're not our preferred method of transportation. Regular pedal bicycles (zì xíng chē, 自行车) are more popular and perhaps the most popular method among foreigners. They can get you to your destination on our own schedule quite quickly and have very little fees, other than an occasional very small parking fee.

I think the last option for getting around town is the simplest, although it will take you longer, and that is simply walking (zǒu, 走). We often do this to places nearby, and usually push our little boys in the stroller or use baby carriers to carry them on our backs. This is a great option for things that are close to you. It has all of the benefits of a bicycle, and you don’t have to lock your bike. It will take you longer and you'll be more tired, and obviously it is not a good option for getting all the way across the city, but for a quick run to the store, we like this option best. Walmart, fruit and vegetables markets, and a lot of restaurants are all within easy walking distance from our house.

DIY Cinnamon or Pumpkin Spice Syrup

We are loving all things pumpkin right now at our house, including these delicious pumpkin pancakes. This weekend, I made some pumpkin spice syrup to go with them. I briefly adapted the recipe from here. I really like the combination of spices, but if you feel like this would be pumpkin spice overload, simply using the cinnamon will tone it down a little.

Homemade Cinnamon or Pumpkin Spice Syrup Recipe

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• Dash of ginger
• Dash or cloves

Combine all ingredients in a pot, and stir well. Make sure flour is thoroughly dissolved. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the syrup begins to thicken. Pour over pumpkin pancakes, and enjoy, or cool and refrigerate for later use.

DIY Pumpkin Scones

This is my new favorite pumpkin recipe of the year. Last year, I discovered pumpkin soup and love it, but this may just be the best unusual use of pumpkin puree ever! I adapted a recipe I found here, making it a little simpler in my opinion. I'm lazy enough to not like the extra step of cutting in the butter, so I substitute oil or melted butter and they still turn out amazing.

Homemade Pumpkin Scone Recipe

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup oil or melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp (or a pinch) cloves

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until well combined.
2. Divide dough in two, and press or roll out into circles on greased pans until about 1/2 inch thick. 
3. Score into about 16 total triangle-shaped scones.
4. Bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes until just lightly brown
5. Remove from oven, and let cool.
6. Make spiced powdered sugar glaze.

Spiced Powdered Sugar Glaze

• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2–3 Tbsp milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Combine spices and sugar, and add milk a Tbsp at a time until a nice consistency. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over cooled scones. If you want to serve these for company, wait an hour or so for the glaze to harden, but I really have a hard time waiting more than a couple minutes to eat some myself. These are a great with both tea or coffee.

Family Fridays: I Like Your Funny Hat

Today at a friend's house, the boys had a blast using her plastic containers as hats. I am so thankful that they are still so easily entertained by little things like this and that they can create lots of smiles and laughter for us adults as well.

DIY Pumpkin Biscuits

These are a great low-fat twist on traditional biscuits. These are really good with butter and/or honey and as an accompaniment to pumpkin soup.

Homemade Pumpkin Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano or cinnamon (optional)

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
2. Drop rounded tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 400 F for 10–20 minutes.

DIY Pumpkin Soup

This is an unusual use for pumpkin, but we all (except for Aaron) love it. Like most soup, you can customize the taste quite a bit by varying the meat and vegetables to your liking.

Homemade Pumpkin Soup Recipe

• 4 cups chicken broth or water
• 2 cups pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin
• 2 cups whole milk or half-and-half
• 1 pound of sausage, chicken, or ground beef (cut and cooked)
• 4-6 potatoes
• 3-4 cups carrots, corn, celery, peas, beans or a combination (cut)
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 tsp salt (unless using salty sausage)
• 2 tsp oregano or cinnamon (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large pot, and simmer for 30-60 minutes. Or combine all ingredients in a crock pot, and cook for 4-8 hours.  These are great served with pumpkin or cheesy biscuits.

DIY Pumpkin Pancakes

This is a great fall twist on traditional pancakes. It is a great use for pumpkin puree and uses less milk than regular pancakes in case you are running low.

Homemade Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and stir until smooth.
2. Pour 1/2 cup of batter on hot greased frying pan, and fry until underside is lightly browned.
3. Flip over, and brown the other side.

Mandarin Mondays: 中国

Because of China's National Day (guó qìng jié, 国庆节), we're studying about China this month. Each Monday I'll be sharing a few of the facts we've learned about this fascinating country. In this last week of learning facts about China, we focused on things that represent China.

China calls itself the Middle Kingdom (zhōng guó, 中国). This name comes from the belief that develop during the Zhou Dynasty (Zhōucháo, 周朝) that China was the center of the earth or at least the center of civilization. China is still an important center of industry and world trade.

China's National Flag (guó qí, 国旗) is red with five yellow stars in the upper left hand corner. Red represents revolution, and the four yellow stars around one larger yellow star represents unity under the Party.

Their national anthem is the march of the volunteers (yì yǒng jūn jìn xíng qǔ, 义勇军进行曲). It is a musical march that was first a part of a play in Shanghai in 1934. It talks about one million hearts beating as one.

DIY Scrap Pumpkin

This pumpkin takes a little more time to sew than the sew easy or sleeve pumpkin, but it is really cute. It is also a great way to use up small scraps and the odd button or piece of ribbon you might have lying around. You could also use this process with all red fabrics and short green leaf piece like this one to make scrap apples.

Scrap Pumpkin

• Fabric scraps in fall colors
• Green and brown fabric scraps, felt, or ribbon pieces
• Needle and thread
• Somthing to stuff the pumpkin with
• Extra embellishments if desired (buttons, ribbon, lace, etc.)

1. Cut several strips of fabric the same length to sew into a tube for the body of the pumpkin. For my pumpkin I used four strips of alternating fabric that are the same length and roughly the same width as well. However, you could use more types of fabric, less strips, or vary the widths of the strips as well.
2. Cut a piece of green sleeve, a green square to sew into a tube, or a green circle to gather for the pumpkin top. Cut a brown strip of fabric, felt, or ribbon to use for the pumpkin stem.
3. Sew the strips of fabric together to form a square. I then chose to stitch some scraps of orange lace i had on. You could also stitch contrasting fabric scraps on at this point.
4. Fold the square over and stitch the long side of the square together to form a short tube.
5. Gather the bottom of the tube, and stitch closed tightly.
6. Stuff the pumpkin.
7. Gather the top of the tube, and stitch closed tightly.
8. Fold over the piece of green sleeve, and gather the unfinished end together, or gather the green circle.
9. Fold the brown strip together to look like a stem, and stitch into the green pumpkin top.
10. Whip-stich the green pumpkin top to the orange pumpkin.
11. Add any extra embellishments you like.