Bourbon Pumpkin Seeds

Every year when Justin carves pumpkins for Halloween, he saves all the seeds to make some sort of snack for himself. The past few times, he's been disappointed with the result, so this year he tried 4 different options to come up with one he really liked. This one was his favorite, which I could have predicted since it has bourbon in the recipe.

Ultimate Fall Float

Who doesn't like fall? It's clearly the best season, and if you disagree, I just don't think that we can be friends anymore. The weather here in Virginia can't seem to make up its mind as to whether or not it's fall yet though, which makes this float the perfect dessert right now. Floats are an essential summer treat, but this one gives you all the flavors of fall together in one glass. It's the perfect treat to cool you off from the late summer-like warmth and give you delicious dreams of the weather and wonderfulness fall will bring.

Pumpkin Pudding Cookies

If you like your cookies crisp and crunchy, walk away now; this recipe is not for you. Sometime a few years ago, Justin found something that said that putting pudding mix in cookie dough will make the cookies turn out more cake-like. Doing that resulted in some of my favorite chocolate chip cookies ever. No matter how long you store them, they're still wonderfully soft.

The other night Justin felt like having dessert and settled on cookies, but we were low on supplies. No chocolate chips. No nuts. Nothing fun. We did, however, have 4 boxes of pumpkin pudding mix. (Justin stocks up when it's available in the fall.) Add in some pumpkin pie spice, and voila, pumpkin pudding cookies. He says they have a nice, strong pumpkin flavor, even though the only pumpkin flavor in them comes from the pudding mix. For a little extra goodness, you could shape the dough into balls and roll them in cinnamon before baking to give them a snickerdoodle kind of feel.

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Caramel Sauce and Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Yesterday was Justin's birthday, and it's sort of become tradition for me to bake him a cheesecake. The other day I found a recipe for a what I thought would be a great autumn cheesecake, but when I told Justin about it, his eyes glazed over and he started to drool a bit. I knew then that this would have to be his birthday cheesecake. So much for waiting for fall!

I made very few adaptations to the original recipe, though I added the cinnamon whipped cream. I can't tell you from experience how good this cheesecake is because, well, I don't like pumpkin--even the smell grosses me out--but Justin's had three pieces today, so I think that speaks for itself.