Ere the winter storms begin

The wind blew all day, the rain came down, the sky was gray. It was a perfect day for spending time in the kitchen baking and cooking.

First up were the Pumpkin Raisin cookies from A Sweet Spoonful. I used pecans and dried cranberries as that was what I had on hand. We like our cookies big around here so I used a 1/2 T scoop. That yielded 27 cookies. The frosting had to be thinnned a bit to cover the batch. They are fantastic and the house smells great, no scented candles around here today.

Next on my list was Greek Pastitso from The Naptime Chef. This is a baked hamburger and macaroni dish, comfort all the way around. There are several separate steps each requiring a separate pot before putting the casserole together but the time and effort are well worth it. The bechamel sauce forms a light, fluffy custard on top of the noodles and ground beef filling. There was silence at the table as my three children ate. They only spoke to ask for seconds. My daughter proclaimed it her new favorite spaghetti. It was an out of the park homerun.

So as my Baking Thursday comes to an end, there are cookies in the cookie jar and great leftovers in the fridge. The laundry may not be folded but we won't be going hungry anytime soon.

The cookies can be found at sweetspoonful.blogspot.com. The pastitso can be found at thenaptimechef.com.