Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Pumpkin Spice Cookies:

1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
**I don't like walnuts, but my husband loves them, so I double the amount and make the first half without walnuts, then add them in to the last half of the batch**

You may notice that there is no sugar! The honey, maple syrup, and vanilla extract sweetens up the cookies.

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and lightly grease or spray your cookie sheets with a non-stick Pam.
2. In a bowl, mix all of the wet ingredients
3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and ginger.
4. Slowly mix in all the dry ingredients into the wet mix.
(optional: Add nuts once all ingredients have been mixed)
5. Place batter into tablespoonful-sized cookies on your baking sheet. Bake about 14 minutes. They should be set, but not browned.

Once the cookies are out of the oven and cooled you can eat them plain or add a great cream cheese frosting!

Optional (less healthy) Frosting:

1 tablespoon vanilla
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 stick butter
8 oz. cream cheese

Beat frosting until smooth and spread onto the cookies once they are cooled.

Our family always gets together for Thanksgiving. Now that all my cousins are married and have children of their own we keep having to find bigger places to have our get togethers. We usually end up with 35-40 relatives! We've finally graduated to renting a town hall in a small Oklahoma town that has a gymnasium as well.

Every year we draw from a list of meat, soup, side, bread, and dessert and that is the item we bring the following year. A select few of us get together (or get on skype in my case since I live in Arkansas) and set up a scavenger hunt for the kids, and games for the adults. Yes, the adults get to have some fun too! Last year we made the adults ride old tricycles around a taped off course in the gymnasium. Needless to say, there was much laughter and a few skinned knees from the over competitive ones!

After everyone is tired from the games, we all sit at the multiple tables and fellowship over our amazing Thanksgiving Dinner. Since our families all live in different areas it is nice to have a time to get together and reminisce.

Last year I picked dessert out of the list, so I'll be making these cookies and hopefully everyone in the family approves!