I had just walked in the door from another forced march with the Aussie and the Timesharer - tired and in desperate need of water, like a one hump camel who had finally arrived at the oasis, when the mister sneaked up behind me...he thought he was so funny - water went everywhere! It was 5:30 in the afternoon and he was home. He NEVER comes home at 5:30. That's like mid-day for him. So something had to be up....in the past, arriving home early has meant either he lost his job or he's violently ill or he has a confession of some sort. So, with my astute powers of deduction I quickly ruled out him losing his job because he owns the company; I also ruled out him being violently ill as he was smiling and looked every bit the picture of health as a man his age can look...so that left the confession category. I walked to the sofa, made myself comfortable and said, let me have it.....
The mister took a seat across from me, leaned back and pretended not to have heard me as he turned on the TV....so, why are you home early? He laughed, said he just felt like coming home...RED FLAG! RED FLAG! RED FLAG! So - he wanted to play, did he? Well then, the game was on...we vollied...I asked, he deflected...point - counterpoint...Finally, after 30 minutes of back and forth between Brian Williams and the news, I got something...here's the upshot - the mister made a big sale yesterday AND got a check in the mail...two good things in one day - so he came home early as a way of celebrating...sounds plausible - but...in all the years I've been married to the mister we've never had a "good news" category for coming home early...I'm on the case.
Luckily for us both, we had plenty of "game food" - earlier in the day I had made these delicious cake-like pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips. I love the orangey color - which doesn't quite show up in this picture - these are soooooo yummy - sometimes I frost them with just a vanilla glaze or a drizzle of chocolate ganache but this time I left them plain and they are every bit as good plain as they are frosted.
Pumpkin Cookies With Chocolate Chips
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned, cooked pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla and mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into buter mixture until well blended. Add chocholate chips. Drop by tablespoonful onto parchment covered baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake about 15 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks.
If you want to glaze them with icing, here's a quick and easy recipe:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons whipping cream, fresh orange juice or rum
Cream sugar and butter together. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth. (If icing is too thin, add more powdered sugar, if too thick, add more cream, orange juice or rum.) Drizzle over cookies. 
"Life is not a goblet to be drained; it is a measure to be filled." Unknown
