Ahhh Fall...

Fall is finally here.  I look forward to it every year.  I love the transition from shorts to jeans and flip flops to boots.  I also love cooking with yummy Fall veggies.  Who doesn't love coming home to the smell of a pot of hearty vegetable soup or veggie chili?  I also love pumpkin.  I love the color, the taste and the smell of baked goods with pumpkin in them.

Which is why I went to the store yesterday to pick up a few last minute items for my vegan pumpkin oatmeal cookies.  I promised a friend that I would bake something for a sale going on this weekend. So as I was looking up and down the aisles of my local supermarket for some canned pumpkin for my cookies, I was puzzled.  Where the heck was the pumpkin?  I looked in the baking aisle, I looked in the canned vegetable aisle, I even looked in the canned fruit aisle (why do people eat canned fruit anyway??). Then I asked the manager.

"I was just having this conversation with someone else," he said.  Then he said, "There is no canned pumpkin.  The pumpkins got a fungus this year so the retailers are holding their shipment until the holidays."  What???  This is absurd.  What kind of crazy pumpkin fungus is causing the retailers to hoard all their pumpkin?   I had to get to the bottom this, and fast!

So after some investigating, I found out that in fact, there are several types of "rot" that can take down entire crops of pumpkins!  There's Black Rot (yuk), anthracnose, phytophthora blight and sclerotinia white mold.  Who knew??

Needless to say, I left the store with no pumpkin and I am now rethinking what I will be baking for this weekend.

If you do happen to get your grubby little hands on some pumpkin, below is the best cookie recipe ever!  Your kids will love these cookies and so will you!

PUMPKIN OATMEAL COOKIES

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup, rolled oats
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp. molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. ground flaxseeds (optional)
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease two cookie sheets
Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices.
In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla (flaxseeds if you're using) until very well combined.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet in three batches, folding to combine.  Fold in walnuts and raisins.
Drop by tablespoons onto the cookie sheets.  They don't spread very much so they can be placed 1 inch apart.  Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or your fingers, to press into a cookie shape. Bake for 16 minutes.  If you are using two sheets on two levels in your oven, rotate the sheets halfway.  You'll have enough batter for four cookie sheets.
Remove from oven, cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.  These taste best when they've had some time to cool and set.  And they're even better the next day! Enjoy!

I got this recipe from the Vegan With A Vengeance cookbook.  YUM!

Peace and love.