First of the Season

Well, Fall must be on the way. The famed Pumpkin Spice Latte' will soon be at Starbucks, and I'm already making pumpkin stuff in my kitchen.

I love pumpkin stuff.

A favorite annual tradition is Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I was first inspired to make by my friend, Christin.

Here's how you make the magic.

What You'll Need:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon nutmeg*

*I did not have any nutmeg, so I substituted pumpkin pie spice. It was fine, but nutmeg is definitely better.

Note: You do not need a stainless steel microwave, and/or sunglasses. My apologies. We live in an apartment and my kitchen could use a couple hundred more square feet. One day....
What you do:
In one bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg.

Note: You don't need a mixer for this, but if you want to use one because a) It's fun. and/or b) So you can lick the beaters, it won't hurt.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in.
Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.

Make sure, at this point, that you get at least one, big lick off the spatula. Do it now, I'll wait.
Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Embrace the imperfection. Think: they look homemade.

Eat at least one while they are warm.
Then, immediately give them away, or put them out of your reach. Or, just buy new black pants.

You should have enough dough to make like 60 cookies... so, unless you have a big household, I suggest freezing some of it for later!