Jewelry cleaner is magic

Before:

After:

'Naner Pudding

I have officially won an unofficial banana pudding cook-off.  I came in as the underdog against the fan favorite.  Sort of like Rocky.  Maybe.  I've never seen Rocky.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is so simple, but tastes like banana pudding that you might order at a restaurant. 

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

1 - 8 ounce package cream cheese
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 - 5 ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 - 8 ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed (you can definitely use more)
4 bananas, sliced
1/2 box vanilla wafers

Directions

1.  In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer), beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk, and vanilla until smooth.  Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.

2.  Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish with vanilla wafers.  Arrange sliced bananas evenly over the wafers.  Spread with pudding mixture.  Top with remaining whipped topping.  Chill (overnight if possible, otherwise at least several hours).

I would have liked to include a beautiful picture of my impressive banana pudding, but this is all I have:

The recipe can be found here.

Joey's Birthday Cupcakes

Joey asked for chocolate cupcakes with green frosting to bring to school on her birthday.  While I actually had cake mix and a can of frosting on hand, I opted to make everything from scratch.  The results are good enough to share.

I based my cupcake recipe on the Double Chocolate Cupcakes from Our Family Eats, but I modified it slightly because I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand.  My cupcakes were fantastic nonetheless.

For the cupcakes:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake/muffin pan with paper liners.

Stir together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, water, sour cream, oil, and vanilla to dry ingredients.  Mix until smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom as necessary.

Pour the batter into the prepared cups, filling each about 2/3 full.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are fully set and spring back when touched.  Let cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

The yield for the recipe from Our Family Eats was 24 cupcakes, but I only managed to get 14 out of the recipe.  The cupcakes were huge, which probably had something to do with the smaller yield.

For a while I have been searching for a homemade frosting recipe that tastes as good as the butter cream frosting from the Publix Bakery.  So the other day I Googled "Publix bakery frosting" and it turns out that other people are fans of this frosting as well.  Go figure.  I browsed several recipes and decided to try one by Copykat Recipes.  It did not disappoint.

For the frosting:

1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)
2 cups Crisco Vegetable Shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 pounds confectioners sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon meringue powder

Mix butter, Crisco, and salt together on low speed for 5 minutes.  Add vanilla, butter flavor, and almond extract; beat until well blended.  Add meringue powder and half of the confectioners sugar. Turn mixer on the slowest speed and add the remaining confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time until it's mixed well.  Beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 5 minutes.

I cut this recipe in half, and had plenty to frost 14 cupcakes with a lot left over.  Maybe I should have been more generous with the frosting?  While I had to buy a few ingredients that I wouldn't ordinarily keep on hand (meringue powder?), the outcome is worth the investment.

Domestic Goddesses Need Help Too

I'm awful at meal planning.  If I can decide on three meals before hitting the grocery store, I feel very organized.  And for me to base my list on the grocery sales -- impossible.  There are a lot of great web resources for saving money at the grocery store by matching sales with available coupons, such as I Heart Publix and Southern Savers, but these require a great deal of organization and don't tell you what to cook.  And these days, I need all the help I can get.

Enter a site that has combined the grocery store sale ad and recipes.  At Food on the Table you select your preferred grocery store(s) and enter your family's food preferences and they suggest recipes!  You can also choose preferences such as saving time or eating healthy recipes.  Other users rate and review recipes, so you're not going in blind.  Users can also submit their own recipes.

Once you've selected your meals for the week, you get a printable shopping list, organized by section.  The site allows you to edit items or quantities and even add items. 

You can plan up to three meals per week for free, or upgrade and plan all of your meals.  Food on the Table even has a free iPhone app.  It's worth a try!   

How I Keep My Man Interested

This morning I woke up with the urge to make beignets, even though I had just cleaned my stove and frying anything will get messy.  I didn't have any beignet mix on hand, so I turned to the Internet for a recipe.  But it turns out that making beignets from scratch is seriously complicated stuff.  Recipes I found called for yeast, evaporated milk, or even cooking the dough on the stove top before frying it.  No, thank you.  A $3.99 box of Cafe Du Monde Beignet mix is totally worth it.  I bundled myself up, looking like a bag lady I might add, and drove the mile to Publix for the mix.  Two cups of beignet mix, 7 fl. oz. of water, a little flour, some oil, and a lot of powdered sugar are how I keep my man interested.

Joey approved of the beignets, aka "Princess Tiana doughnuts."

If DHR saw my filthy kitchen they would snatch my babies away...

So I exaggerate.  A little.

My stove had gotten to be disgusting, but I have been avoiding cleaning it because it gets dirty again so fast.  And it's a monster to clean; it's not one of those that can just be wiped down.  It's a thirty-minute commitment, easily.  Today I decided to tackle that monster, even though I plan on cooking Pepperoni Stuffed Chicken tonight, which will surely create a big mess.  Well, once the stove was sparkling, I had to wipe the spatter from the cabinets.  From that angle I could see that the baseboards needed attention.  And while I was crouched on the floor giving those baseboards all I've got, I could tell that the undersides of the cabinets needed a good scrubbing.  Had I had an old toothbrush I would be scrubbing the crevices of the dishwasher, but Paul and I replaced our toothbrushes just last week.  Cleaning "the stove" turned into a half-day ordeal.

I hope that Baby Losavio can appreciate a clean kitchen.

DIY Chocolate Pudding

Last night I was craving something sweet.  Chocolate pudding to be more specific.  And I didn't even have any on hand, as it's not one of our staples.  Due to Winter Storm 2011, I wasn't planning to drive on icy roads to get to a grocery store that may or may not be open for a box of instant pudding.  So I looked online and found a recipe for chocolate pudding from scratch, which was surprisingly easy.  It was a microwave recipe, no less, so the mess was minimal.

Unfortunately, homemade pudding takes a little time to cool and set.  The recipe didn't indicate exactly how long, but I think that it would take about four hours.  Seeing as I didn't even start this recipe until 6:30 p.m., I was sound asleep by the time it was ready to be eaten.

The consistency was a little thinner than the instant pudding that I'm used to, but it could be due to several factors:  an ingredient substitution, using low-fat milk, or even not cooking it for long enough.  Or maybe homemade pudding is just a little thinner than instant.  However, the flavor is excellent and I would definitely attempt homemade pudding again.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp cornstarch (I didn't have any, so I substituted 6 tbsp flour)
2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch/flour.  Gradually add the milk while whisking so the mixture doesn't have any lumps.
2. Microwave for 3 minutes on high.  Stir, then cook at 1 minute intervals, stirring for 2 - 4 minutes between cooking times, until shiny and thick.  Stir in vanilla.
3. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming, and then chill in the refrigerator.

Winter Storm Cinnamon Rolls

Whenever we visit Baton Rouge, we can usually look forward to homemade cinnamon rolls made by my father-in-law.  This morning when we woke up to snow ice on the ground, I had a hankering for those cinnamon rolls.  My father-in-law uses Bisquick, which is banned in my house, so I found a similar non-Bisquick no-yeast recipe online.

Dough:
2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp salt
3 tsp butter, softened
3/4 cup milk

Filling:
4 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 400. 

In a large bowl, stir flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in softened butter, then stir in milk to form a soft dough.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.

Mix the filling ingredients (butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon).  Spread about 1/4 to 1/2 on the bottom of a greased 9 x 9 pan.  Spread the rest on the dough.

Roll the doughy rectangle into a log, and then slice rolls about 1 - 1.5 inches thick.  Place in the prepared pan and bake 20 - 25 minutes.

Combine the milk and confectioners sugar to make the glaze.  Drizzle on the finished cinnamon rolls.

The consensus:
We prefer my father-in-law's glaze, which (we think) consists of confectioners sugar and butter, but adding the cinnamon filling to the bottom of the pan makes these cinnamon rolls extra delicious.  Joey gives her "thumbs up:"  she ate three.

Mmm...brownies

I usually buy boxed brownie mix, which is pretty ridiculous considering that I think Bisquick is a rip-off.  However, a few weeks ago I needed something sweet and I didn't have any mix.  So, I went to the Hershey's website to find out what I could do with the ingredients that I had on hand, specifically cocoa powder.  It turns out that you can make brownies.

The following is a pretty simple brownie recipe.  And there's probably a better one out there that's just as simple but I wasn't exactly on a search for the best brownie recipe of all time.  I wanted a recipe that was fast, easy, and required just the ingredients that I had on hand.  Regardless, it sure beats sending Paul to the grocery store at 9 p.m. for something to satisfy my sweet tooth.  He really is not amused by those sorts of requests. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.   Stir together butter, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl.  Add eggs and beat well.  Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended.  Stir in nuts, if desired.  (I actually just throw all of the ingredients into the KitchenAid and don't concern myself with the order.)  Spread batter evenly in pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Cut into 16 squares, or however you want to cut them.

You can easily do all sorts of variations, like the mixes that you'll see in the grocery store.  For example:

Add nuts.  

Add peanut butter chips.
Add frosting (recipe below).  

Use peppermint extract instead of vanilla.  

Drop chocolate chip cookie dough into the pan with the brownie batter.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

*****

Creamy Brownie Frosting

Ingredients: 

3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon light corn syrup or honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Beat butter, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla in small bowl until blended.  Add powdered sugar and milk; beat to spreading consistency.  Makes about 1 cup frosting.

DIY: Joey's Bunk Beds

For several months I have been obsessed with Ana White, an Alaskan stay-at-home mom who designs and builds furniture and then blogs about it.  Paul does not like this obsession.  He has no interest in building our own furniture, although his help is both required and expected. 

More on the DIY Diaper Burp Cloths

Several weeks ago I entertained myself by making diaper burp cloths.  So many of our friends are having babies, and I think that these will make cute, personal baby gifts.  Especially if they are monogrammed.  But I don't have an embroidery machine, nor do I know how to embroider by hand.

Last week I made a couple of diaper burp cloths for a friend's baby shower, which was Saturday.  On Thursday I realized that I should get the cloths monogrammed, since our friends had just decided on a name for the baby.  I called several local businesses for pricing and turn-around time, but none would be able to do the work by my deadline.  After a little searching, I found a local woman who does this sort of work out of her home.  Her prices were extremely reasonable and she was able to do the work overnight!  I dropped the things off on her porch on Thursday afternoon and picked them up Friday morning.  Paul said it sounded like a shady drug deal, but no, no drugs in these diapers.

This is how they turned out:

Cupcakes

More on the DIY Cocktail Napkins

Earlier today I taught myself to make cocktail napkins with mitered corners.  I initially tried to figure out how to miter on my own, then referenced a web tutorial, which confused me, so I then figured out how to do it my own way.  The first napkin took a while, but I've knocked out several more since this morning.

I am horrible at explaining things but I'll give it a shot.  For the life of me I cannot remember sewing jargon.  I had difficulty recalling the word "crease."  Anyway, this is what I did:

Cut fabric to 2 inches larger than desired size.  Fold over an inch on each side and press.

Fold the one-inch sections in half and press.

 Your creases should look like this:

Fold the corners in and press.  The fold should be at the corner of the inner crease.  Flatten the napkin and flip it over.  Fold the napkin to make a triangle and sew along the corner crease.     

This is what your napkin will look like after sewing all four corners.  This is inside-out.

 Snip, snip.

Turn the napkin right-side-in.  Refold your creases and press again.

Stitch the hem of the napkin.

Voila!

This process actually requires more ironing than sewing.  I'm lazy and I don't like to use pins, but I think that if you make sharp creases when you press, it's not really necessary to pin.

DIY: Cocktail Napkins

I had some leftover seersucker fabric from yet another attempt to make a dress for Joey and decided to use it to make cocktail napkins.  Why cocktail napkins?  Why not? 

To make things harder for myself For a more professional outcome, I decided to miter the corners.  After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to do it by myself, I searched for an online tutorial.

I wanted my cocktail napkins to be 8 inches square.  I cut my fabric to 10 inches.  Note:  the measurements must be perfect for the mitered corners to work.  I learned this after spending longer than I'd care to admit trying to get it right.  Rather than cutting and folding the fabric (as the tutorial suggests) to get the mitered corner, I did some wacky sewing trick that I may or may not be able to repeat.  It was easier for me, considering that my measurements weren't perfect. 

Trying to miter the corners by cutting and folding.

It took a while, but I finally ended up with a cocktail napkin.

Only 7 more to do...

Here's an update on the napkin-making process.

DIY: Diaper Burp Cloths

With so many of our friends having babies in the next few months, I've been thinking of personalized baby gifts that I could give.  I often purchase gifts from a registry, but I also like to include a small supplemental gift.  I figured that diaper burp cloths were within my skill set, so I asked Google how to make them.

I used  Gerber cloth diapers, the kind that have the thicker center panel.  These seriously make the best burp cloths, in my opinion.  I believe that these are also available in organic cotton, if that's your thing.  I washed the diapers using hot water and then dried on hot, to get the little suckers to shrink as much as they were going to.  Unfortunately they didn't shrink very evenly, as you might be able to tell by the photographs.

I had some very cute Amy Butler fabric on hand, but I decided to make the first burp cloths using scrap fabric, because it was pretty darn likely that I would mess up.  I found some houndstooth fabric that was left over from an attempt to make a dress for Joey.  Houndstooth diaper burp cloths would make great gifts for our friends who are Alabama fans.

I cut the fabric to size, and then folded down the edges and ironed.  I sewed the strips of fabric to the diaper using a small zigzag stitch.  And Voila!  A diaper burp cloth, made by yours truly!  A little crooked, but not bad for a first attempt.

Sewing...

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

If you are interested in making your own diaper burp cloths, please visit the blogs that I referenced.  These explain the process more eloquently than I can.

http://chickpeastudio.typepad.com/chickpea_sewing_studio/diaper-burp-cloth-tutoria.html
http://anewchelseamorning.blogspot.com/2007/03/such-mystery-not.html

To my friends who are having babies in the next few months:  you will be receiving burp cloths from me.  And they were made for you and your baby with love.

Here's an update on this diaper burp cloth project.

My Attempt at Fall Decor

Joey and I had a $10 Home Depot gift card to burn, so we went shopping for some fall decor for our front porch steps.  We spent a total of $8.64:

mums:  $2.97
medium pumpkin:  $2.97
pie pumpkin:  $1.99

Here are some pictures of my attempt at decorating.  And cute pictures of Joey, of course.

 

Joey's Halloween Costume

Unlike the past two years, this year I really took Joey's interests into consideration when deciding what to dress her as for Halloween.  She is getting to the age where she's enjoying dressing up, and I knew that her costume would be reused for playtime regardless of what it was.  She loves princesses but she's getting a princess dress for Christmas (shh!), so I didn't want to buy another one.  I turned to Etsy for some inspiration and found the idea of Candy Corn Princess. 

For Joey's Candy Corn Princess costume, she'll have a tutu, a magic wand, and either a tiara or a hat.

I found several tutu-making tutorials online, and the consensus said:

Cut the tulle into 4 inch wide strips
Cut the strips to double the desired length
Layer three strips together and fold in half length-wise.
Sew or knot around elastic (cut to desired length with the ends sewn or tied together)

I was able to find 25-yard spools of 3 inch wide tulle pretty cheaply, so I bought one spool each of white, yellow, and orange.  They were $1 each, but after shipping and handling (gag) they worked out to about $3 per spool.  I had 75 yards of tulle to work with, and would you believe that I actually used all of it for Joey's tutu?  I cut the strips roughly 24 inches long and layered three of the same color, folded, and sewed, allowing room to thread elastic through.  Although it seems to be the trend to make "no-sew" tutus with knots, sewing seemed easier to me.  I threaded the strips onto a wire hanger before the elastic to make sure that the tutu would have the fullness that I wanted.  After all of the strips had been threaded onto the elastic I sewed the two ends together, fluffed, and Voila!  A tutu!

The magic wand was purchased at Hobby Lobby.  It is a wooden star-shaped wand that cost $1.47.  I first painted the entire thing yellow using acrylic craft paint, and then added a candy corn design using white and orange paint.

A candy corn hat was lent to us by Paul's coworker, but if I'm able to find a tiara I may use that instead.

Joey will wear her costume over a long-sleeved black shirt, black leggings, black socks, and black Mary Janes.

This project was so much easier than anticipated that now I want to make tutus for Joey for every occasion!

DIY Pancakes

About a year ago, Joey went through a phase where she wanted pancakes, or cake-cakes as she called them, every single day.  I started by giving her the occasional convenient frozen pancake, but she ate so many that it just wasn't cost effective.  So then I started making large batches using dry Bisquick, milk, and eggs and refrigerating the leftovers.  But one day Joey wanted pancakes and we were out of Bisquick, so I looked in my cookbook to see how to make them from scratch.  Here's what I learned:

Bisquick is a rip-off!

The ingredients of Bisquick are flour, shortening/butter/oil, baking powder, and salt.  I had these ingredients in my pantry all the time!  Why was I wasting our money on designer flour?  

Of course, Bisquick is a convenience product.  Buy it if you like that sort of thing.  But you should know that you don't have to.

Here's an easy from-scratch pancake recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook:

1/2 to 3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Beat the milk, butter, and egg in a mixing bowl.  Mix the dry ingredients and add them to the first mixture, stirring just enough to dampen the flour.  Lightly butter or grease a griddle and set over medium-high heat.  Drop the batter on the griddle; flip when the top of the cakes are full of bubbles and the bottoms are lightly browned.   Bake on the griddle until both sides are lightly browned.  Serve.

The yield of this recipe is 16 pancakes, but I don't ever a correct yield.  This recipe is enough for one grown man, one pregnant woman, and one ravenous toddler.  I often double the recipe to have leftover pancakes for Joey to munch on for a few days.

You can easily modify this recipe by adding fruit.

The War on Toys

I am frustrated.

I am frustrated by my messy house.  It's not that I don't clean.  I clean up a lot of messes.  Every day.  I clean up messes that I've already cleaned and then clean it up again.

Today each one of Joey's toys was out of place.  Every block, every tea cup, every piece of Mr. Potato Head.  Toys were scattered throughout my house and yard.  And it wasn't just toys that were all over the place.  I was finding kitchen utensils in the beds.  Dirt in the bed.  Birdseed in the bed.  Books and movies all over the living room floor.  Outside toys knocked over.  And to top it off, Joey was having a "naked day" and would not sit on the potty.  Today's mess was not the kind that you can pick up in a few minutes.  This girl can trash a house quicker than a frat party.

It sounds like I should probably do a better job of entertaining my two-year-old.

Instead I instituted a war on toys.

Months ago, in an effort to be more organized, I bought several clear plastic bins for Joey's toy shelves.  I sorted her toys by type and then half went into the closet.  Every few weeks I would rotate her toys out.  Kids don't tend to miss their toys when they're out of sight, and the toys seem new again when they're put back into the rotation.  But after a while she caught on to my ruse and wanted all of her toys to be accessible all the time.  So today when Joey emptied each and every bin onto the floor, I was compelled to reorganize.  Half of her toys are again neatly organized in the closet. 

While I was sorting through the toys I had a trash bag handy...you know, for all of those "crap" toys.  I took no prisoners.  I threw away (recycled, thank you) old plastic bottles that Joey liked to play with in the bathtub.  I tossed Happy Meal toys.  Paint swatches.  Bubble wrap (where did that even come from?).  Broken toys.  A broken-beyond-repair book.  Why did we still have these things?  I got rid of all of the non-toys, such as spent paper towel rolls and Mardi Gras beads (strangulation hazard?).  I felt so wasteful for throwing so much in the trash, but it was junk!   

I should make it clear that I don't think there's anything wrong with kids playing with empty cardboard boxes or peanut butter jar lids.  Non-toys are great for fostering a child's imagination.  But once the kid is done with it, throw it out.  Do not put it in the toy box.  It's lost it's luster.

My house is half-way clean now.  I'm sure that it will be back to normal by tomorrow.

My Favorite Pumpkin Cookies

It really felt like fall today so it was time for me to make my favorite pumpkin cookies.  Not that I have a lot of experience making pumpkin cookies, but I love these cookies.  They are cakey and tender and more sophisticated than my usual chocolate chip.  I found the recipe in the newspaper a few years ago, so I don't have an Internet link to it.  But here it is (with my notes) for your drooling pleasure.

For the cookies:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup shortening (or butter, margarine, whatever you've got)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  (I love parchment paper for baking.  It makes clean-up a snap.)  Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice and set aside (or don't).  Cream together shortening and brown sugar.  Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla.  Add half of the dry ingredients until well mixed, and then add the other half.  Scoop the dough by tablespoons onto the baking sheets and arrange two inches apart (I use a cookie scoop -- like a miniature ice cream scoop).  Bake for about 14 minutes, or until lightly browned at the edges.  Rotate baking sheets halfway through (or don't; use your judgment).  Allow cookies to cool completely before icing.

For the icing:
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp pumpkin puree (or some of the leftover canned pumpkin)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla
1 pound (4 cups) powdered sugar
Orange food coloring (or red and yellow, 'cause you know, that makes orange)

Combine the butter and maple syrup and beat until smooth.  Add pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla.  Add the powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.  Add the food coloring and beat until uniform.  Pipe or spread the frosting on the cookies and decorate with black sprinkles.

The yield for this recipe is supposed to be 24 cookies.  I never get a perfect yield; this time I got 37 cookies out of this recipe.

Store the cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  And as for the leftover canned pumpkin, feed it to Fido.