Yesterday I Lived in the Kitchen

Yesterday I lived in the kitchen. Well, kinda. After I got home from a swiss ball workout class in town, I set up camp in the kitchen with my laptop, some CDs, and a few recipes I wanted to try out. The first thing I did was to throw some ingredients for pizza dough into the bread machine and got that going for dinner later. Then I got started on Pumpkin Pie Squares. I had about 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree leftover from when I made pumpkin bread & muffins last week that needed to get used up. I know it's summer and pumpkin is usually a fall-ish type flavor, but they just sounded good and who can let good food go to waste!? Plus, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and pumpkin pie is the best part of the meal.

Pumpkin Pie Squares
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. quick oats
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. pecans (I didn't have any so I didn't use them)
3/4 c. butter or margarine
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1 12-oz can evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves (or pumpkin pie spice is what I used)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, and pecans. Cut in margarine until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup for topping. Press remaining oat mixture into bottom of ungreased 13x9 in pan. I used an 8x8 pan because I like them thicker. Bake 15 minutes.


Combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, ginger & cloves (or pumpkin pie spice); beat well. I used a stand mixer but a hand mixer or a whisk works just as well.


Pour pumpkin mixture over crust; bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle reserve oat mixture over top; bake 15-20 minutes longer or until filling is set. Thanks to my little brother, Michael for this SWEET pan that he got me for Christmas. It comes with that little contraption to cut perfectly sized desserts.


Serve with cool whip and vanilla ice cream, which I didn't have unfortunately.

Makes 12 squares.

Well, after my pumpkin pie bar endeavor, I turned my attention back to the pizza dough in the bread machine. To my dismay, it was a soupy mess.... I forgot to put in one of the cups of flour. Ugh. I dumped the sloppy, sticky mess into a bigger bowl and added flour and kneaded until it looked like pizza dough. Then I let that rise for another hour or so before squishing it out into a pizza crust. I topped it with pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and ham on the whole thing. Since our tastes differ, I put onions on Zachs' half and mushrooms on my half. :) When Zach walked in the door at 5:30 he said, "Something smells GOOD in here!" Success.


Zach didn't have to work today! Yay! And he got home at a normal hour last night too. We had homemade pizza and salad for dinner then went for a bike ride around the neighborhood. Canadian Lakes is PACKED with vehicles, boats, people, grills, and fishing tackle during 4th of July weekend. Then we watched Disney's "Tangled" and ate the Pumpkin Pie Squares for dessert. Great night! Today he was up and at 'em wayyyy before me this morning so he went off to the farm for a few hours. When he came home he mowed the lawn which actually has some grass growing in it now! I've been entering this blog and doing laundry. Zach is now eating mac & cheese right out of the pot as I write this. Ha ha.

We're off to a wedding in an hour and I've got to go get ready.

Love,
Sarah