Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I went to the Dexter Cider Mill yesterday with Chani, Kolby, and Ariane.  It was my first time at a cider mill since moving to Michigan a half decade ago, and apples, apple orchards, and cider mills are sort of a big deal around these parts.  This year, unfortunately, because of the hot, hot summer and crazy climate changes, Michigan lost 90% of its apple crops (and a large majority of its other fruit crops), so we're a little short on apples.  But, the cider mill was still a great time.

Photo by Chani Hodonsky

We went in for pumpkin donuts, and I got a cinnamon roll with apple cider glaze.  Of course, we got hot apple cider, and I also bought a jar of pumpkin butter.

Pumpkin butter.  I don't really know what to do with this stuff, aside from throw it on some toast (and maybe sprinkle some cinnamon on it?).  So, today, when I was deciding that I must have chocolate chip cookies, I had the idea of putting pumpkin butter in them!

In fact, I found a recipe for pumpkin butter chocolate chip cookies and followed it.

The recipe:

Step one:Melt 6 tbsp butter and let cool.

Step two.While butter is cooling, mix the following in a separate bowl:

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour,  

• 1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch, 

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda,  

• 1/4 teaspoon salt, 

•  1/4 teaspoon of each: ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, 

• Plenty of cinnamon because its good.  (Yeah, I didn't measure this well, but just started shaking it into the bowl.)

Step 3.In butter bowl, mix: 

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar 

• 1 large egg 

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

• 1/4 cup pumpkin butter

Step 4.Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients 

Step 5.Add semi-sweet chocolate, and white chocolate chips.  Lots of them.

Step 6.  Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-15 minutes

Update:  Husband names these the best cookies I've ever made.  I promptly reminded him of the Chocolate Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cookies and he then couldn't decide which was better....

"There comes a day in your life when you wanna kick back, Straw hat on the porch when you old perhaps. Wanna gather your thoughts, have a cold one, Brag to your grandkids about how life is golden"

Saw this comic in the Sunday Detroit Free Press this morning and thought it'd be great to share it.  It works on so many levels, speaking to all of us throughout any life stage through which we're metamorphosizing, and speaking to me and my work in aging research.   

Hope you enjoy it, and remember to live every day with smiles and joy, even through your troubles and hardships.  Lean on your family, find bliss in your friendships, and bring joy to those who haven't found sunshine in a long time.  Life is good.

And, to recognize Nas who wrote the lyrics that title this post:

Just the two of us, building castles in the sky

I hope every girl, young lady, and woman in the world has a dad who believes in her as much as my dad believes in me.

(Unfortunately, it is not the case, and that makes me sad.)

I love you, Dad!

Don't do it for anything but the love of movement and location,

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This question takes on different answers at different phases in life.  When we're kids, we want to be cowboys or astronauts, and maybe that switches to artists or musicians, then melds to doctors and lawyers.  But, somewhere in there, we pick a path that may or may not be within the scope of a dream we once had.  For some it's more random than others.

Even in our 30s, have we found it?  My dad had a friend who finally realized, in his 50s, that he wanted to be a teacher.  So he went back to school.  And, quite frankly, good for him.  Dream big, and don't let yourself get caught up in a job that feels menial.

My career choices went something like this:

• Age 5:  I wanted to be an astronaut like Sally Ride.  I wanted to explore space and feel what it was like to float.  I wanted to look at the Earth from outside of the atmosphere, to take it all in.
• Age 10:  I wanted to be a pediatrician.  Not only that, I wanted to work internationally and save all the kids in Africa who didn't have access to health care... the ones they showed dying of starvation or infectious disease on TV.  I wanted to make a difference.
• Age 15:  I wanted to be a musician.  I wanted to spend my life composing songs that expressed emotions that others could feel understanding within.  I wanted to play at night clubs, alongside amazing drummers.  I wanted to be inspired with every note I played.
• Age 18-22, the college years:  I had no idea what I wanted to do anymore.  I wanted to be a chemical engineer, a musician, a philosopher...  I think there were a few other majors I explored, too. But I decided to major in math.  Why?  Because I liked math just fine, and I had taken a lot of math classes.  I threw in an extra major in statistics because it seemed more likely to get me a job.
• Age 22-26, the working years:  I still had no idea what I wanted to do, but I thought it might be something more like genetics or molecular biology.
• Age 27:  I wanted to be an epidemiologist.  I could save the world and the world's children, similar to my dreams at age 10.  I could do math/stats.  I could incorporate molecular biology.  I could work on different projects, with different collaborators, so my life would always keep me interested.

So, here I am.  An epidemiologist.  I've got an M.P.H. and am breaths away from a Ph.D. from one of the top schools in the nation.  But, even that doesn't just give me a career.  My pathway isn't just outlined.  This is fantastic, but means making decisions.  Do I teach or research?  Academia, government, or industry?  Do I continue building myself a little niche within the epigenetics of aging and chronic disease, or do I widen my net to include cardiovascular, genetics, molecular, and/or environmental epidemiology?  Do I direct myself toward computational biology and statistical genetics, or not?

What is it that I want to do, exactly?  Because there are jobs in all sorts of positions for which I can make myself a great candidate.  I can postdoc in order to explore and learn a little more about something, or I can jump into a career.  It's always exciting to see what the next step will be.

"We press play. Don't press pause. Progress, march on!"

For all the states that have ballot items involving hate and bigotry coming up in November, vote for love, acceptance, and equality.  Denying rights to our loyal American citizens sets us back in time to previous centuries and supports closed-mindedness and ignorance.

Let's join ranks with the nations who push the envelope to ensure all citizens are treated equally and benefit from the same rights.  Let's promote actions that will help to destroy ignorant stereotypes.  It is these ignorant stereotypes that destroy our youth through schoolyard and internet bullying.  And, this bullying has taken the lives of so many American youths.  We should all be proud to be the beautiful humans we are, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender.  And we should educate our children and each other that kindness wins.