Cream of Mushroom Soup

I'm not a huge fan of Mushroom soup in general, but this stuff is waaay better than the canned stuff.

Homemade Mushroom Soup

-1 C Chopped Celery
-1 C Chopped Onions
-1 tsp minced Garlic
-12oz Mushrooms Chopped (or more or less depending on what you prefer)
-1 C Chicken Broth 
-1/2 to 1 C Cream
-1/2 to 1 C milk
-Salt and Pepper to taste
-Poultry Seasoning to taste (or about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp)

-Saute the celery, onions, garlic and mushrooms in the bottom of your pot until they have softened up a bit.
-Add the chicken broth, cream milk and seasonings and simmer over medium-low for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetable have reached your desired softness.   

TIP: If you make a lot or have a ton of leftovers, freeze the soup and use it in place of canned soup in another recipe.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is one that my mom found a number of years ago. I've slightly changed a few of the ingredients, such as using butter instead of shortening and using whole wheat flour instead of white flour because the texture and taste isn't overly affected by it in these particular cookies. You could even go as far to say that they are almost healthy. Almost.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

-1 C Butter (room temp)
-1 C White Sugar
-1 C Brown Sugar
-1 tsp Salt
-2 tsp vanilla
-2 eggs (room temp)
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda 
-2 C whole wheat flour (white flour works too)
-2 C oatmeal
-a bag of Chocolate chips

-These work best if you chill the cookie dough for 1/2 hr or hour in the fridge before baking.
-Scoop or roll out desired amount of dough and place ball a few inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. 

Pumpkin Muffins

Awhile back I was checking out a bunch of recipes online for pumpkin muffins and didn't like any of them so I made up my own recipe. I've now made these muffins more times than I can count, and decided that I just have to share it...and write it down somewhere so I don't loose it.

Pumpkin Muffins

-1 C Butter                
-1 C Brown Sugar     
-1 C White Sugar       
-2 tsp Vanilla            
-1 tsp Salt                  
-1/8 tsp Ginger           
-1/8 tsp Cloves          
-1 tsp Nutmeg
-1 tsp Cinnamon
-2 eggs
-3 C flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/4 C buttermilk
-2 C pumpkin puree
-bag of semi sweet chocolate chips

-Cream together butter, sugars, vanilla, salt and spices until light and fluffy
-add eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated
-sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda
-starting with the flour mixture, add a little bit and mix just until combined. Add the buttermilk and mix again, just until combined. Add more flour until combined and then alternate adding the pumpkin puree with the flour until it is all combined. DO NOT OVER MIX or your muffins will be tough.
-gently mix in chocolate chips.
-drop into muffin liners

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes

(or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean)

NOTE: if you want more spice flavor, feel free to add more to taste...or less depending on personal preference.