fall, you sure are my favorite!

I love this time of year...crunchy leaves, pumpkins, cool weather...too bad it only lasts about a day and a half in Idaho. That just means that I have to enjoy it ten times more to get my fall fixing! I must say, however, that the best thing about fall can be summed up by these bad boys...

HO-LY COW. These are quite possibly my favorite cookies ever. Within 2 minutes of taking that picture, those poor, sweet morsels were toast. With a cold glass of Reed's Milk, they didn't even stand a chance! I can't take the credit for the recipe, nor for even finding the recipe. This one came from a late college night when my roommate Melissa stumbled upon these and whipped up a batch. Melissa, my life may have changed because of you :) Anyway, here you go. Make them, and devour them. I have to keep extra cans of pumpkin in my pantry just so I can have these during whatever season I want!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350; spray cookie sheets.

Beat butter until smooth; add both sugars, a little at a time, and mix until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla and pumpkin.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat into batter.

Stir in chips, and scoop onto cookie sheet. Add more chips on top of each mound if desired.

Bake 13 minutes, or until just golden. Let cookies rest for 2 minutes; cool on wire racks.

Delicious. And while you are either waiting for you cookies to bake or as you are loading them into your face by the shovel-full, check out my husband's blog for his creative writing samples (http://tyrelmurri.weebly.com/). Grad school application deadlines are drawing near, so he can use any advice he can get on how to improve what he has already written.

Happy Autumn!