Turkey Dinners

Greetings all- today we are making (drum roll please!!!!!)

Pumpkin Pie Snickerdoodle Bars

(recipe from here)

and we also have the sweetest girl in the world as a helper!

To begin, please gather your ingredients.

Snickerdoodle Layer
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan and lay a piece of parchment paper across the pan, so that it extends the pan slightly (see pictures below). The parchment paper is an optional step, but it will make it easier to get the bars out later

To make snickerdoodle layer:
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Make note not to put the sugar in the flour mixture. you will need to get that out if you do.

In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
Stir in the flour mixture until well blended.

Spread evenly in prepared pan (mixture will be thick and cookiebatter-ish.)

Next gather your pumpkin Pie layer ingredients.

Pumpkin Pie Layer
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

To make pumpkin pie filling:

In a mixer bowl (you can use the same one you used to make the snickerdoodle batter) with a paddle attachment, mix together butter and sugar. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined. This layer will be less thick and more pourable.

Pour over the snickerdoodle layer, smoothing out the top.

Combine white sugar and cinnamon in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

Bake for 33-40 minutes @350 (maybe more depending on your oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean. Let the bars cool completely (about an hour). They will deflate a bit and remain a bit pie-like on the top layer. The bars that are closer to the edges of the pan will be more firm.

Next is the Drizzle
1 oz white chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

After the bars are completely cool, place the chopped white chocolate into a bowl or zip-lock bag and melt on low power. When it's completely melted, add the pumpkin pie spice and mix (or knead if using a zip lock bag). Use a spoon or cut a small corner off the bag and drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the bars and let it cool and harden.

**** This whole drizzle thing was not as easy as it sounds. That is why my drizzle looks a little homeless. The white chocolate is not all that necessary, but it is yummy. *****

Use the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan. Place on a cutting board and cut into bars. Store in a covered container.

These have been my fav pumpkin recipe so far. really. i could have eaten the whole pan by myself. or like 60000 pans. forever.

so goood. go make them. now.

bun chaioo (with chicken) made with sewing-women friends for a matchmaking discussion lunch

cro-op chi dessert (little gelatinous + crunchy seeds served with coconut milk and sugar, here with a little agar jelly mixed in for textural difference)

pti fruit (from the pti vine. people usually use the leaf to put in sumlaw kokor, but they don't usually eat the fruits. these were always growing on my fence, so i would eat them when i wanted a little snack. my sister assured me they weren't poisonous. i'm still not entirely sure why people didn't eat them normally. maybe a superstition?)

special spicy eggplant stew made inside a big bamboo stick in the mountains of mondulkiri by the indigenous group there.

this is also indigenous food, but this was a super thick and tasty stew made with mushroom and bamboo pieces, i believe

here's our whole lunch setup from when we went with the host family to help plant rice and they served us this tasty food

'to go' rice + special strengthening/medicine liquor made at home

these we got on the way to mondulkiri at snuol, at the baby + other goods shop below our guest house. they were bizarre yet fabulous. fake chicken nuggets made of corn. what else could you want from an imported snack food?

here's the package in case you're itching to find some for yourself.

this is a full fruit smoothie and my empty dessert bowl at my corner dessert stand. the smoothie is a mix of all of those fruits inside the display case (durian, rambutan, apple, banana, carrot, chicu, jackfruit, longan--it depended what was available at the time) + coconut milk + ice. most cambodians enjoy the super sweet, but i liked mine without the extra cup of sugar so that i could actually taste the fruit. she only sold smoothies during durian season, because she said that's the only time when you'd make a profit. ours were pretty expensive--one smoothie for 2000 riel (~50 cents). in some places it was 3/4 that price. but hers were the most awesome i had in the whole country.

a view of the durians for sale at the end of the stand. super tasty--as long as you get a perfectly ripe one.

some really good mixed vegetable mixed seafood stir-fry i got in phnom penh while waiting for my van to leave near psa neak meas. that place has quality rice, too.

chicken grilled on a stick at my van's usual dang tung - pp rest stop place on the side of the road. tasty. 1 stick 1500 riel, usually, i think. i also used to always get hard-boiled duck eggs there for 500 riel a pop. it's somewhere along highway 3 in takeo.

diana's pork with rice for breakfast in the south of vietnam.

my eggs with rice for breakfast in the south of vietnam.

the result of our seafood escapades in rach gia, where we spent the night on the way to ha tien on our way back to cambodia.

stir-fried squid, rach gia street restaurant with tiny short chairs.

crab claws, same place.

grilled shrimp. this was seriously one of the cheapest (relatively) and best meals we had in vietnam. we ordered soooo many entrees. and no rice.

little clams there. these were super tasty, too.

these are nutty-tasting in the inside, similar to that of a boiled jackfruit seed. i never saw them in cambodia, and my host family didn't recognize them either. i got a whole huge bag for not much as we were waiting for the ferry in vietnam on our way to rach gia.

HUGE soursop. the vietnamese know how to grow 'em big.

these were mini sweet breads also from that ferry wait.

delicious guava at a bus rest stop in south vietnam. the inside to me looked like cotton candy mixed with cream. these are actually delightfully tart.

mixed sticky rice dessert from the street near our hotel in HCMC.

peanut sesame praline treat a fellow traveler gave me while visiting the cu chi tunnels.

ice cream at fanny's in HCMC.

spring rolls, etc. at a café in HCMC right when we got in. these are the spring rolls from somewhere called 'roll' or something or other.

sushi! such a treat after long time in cambo.

these were the rolls from the other place (same night), one called Hue or something like that. super delicious sauce.

Diana posing with shrimp from our multiple-course shrimp fiesta meal in HCMC. expensive, but forgettable place. excellent shrimp pose.

tasty doughnut nom thing with beans inside in hanoi

durian seeds (note: not as delicious as kampot durian)

vietnamese mixed coffee w/sweetened condensed milk after it was mixed

vietnamese mixed coffee w/sweetened condensed milk before it was mixed

durians before we ate one--in hanoi

diana and lydia in the phô shop. super tasty. we were looking for pho 24 but were unsuccessful. a sweet older lady showed us this place. it was a good choice. in Hanoi, I think.

delicious delicious delicious ugly-looking orange I got in the market in Sapa.

tiny red plums from the street market in sapa. very tasty. actually tasted like american plums.

pear tart + coffee at baguette & chocolat in sapa

delightful goat cheese + tomato + herb crostini at baguette & chocolat in sapa

stuffed frog from en route to svay rieng with my girls' soccer team when we were waiting for the ferry.

another stuffed-frog view.

cheyt k'ti--banana and tapioca coconut dessert soup--from my town/my favorite dessert stand at the corner (Ii Kim's)

boaboa su'dao--sweet sticky rice and black-eyed-pea dessert soup--from my town/ my favorite dessert stand at the corner (Ii Kim's)

remains of fish & chips in Phnom Penh

deliiiiiiiiiicious ripe perfect mango

eggs + lettuce + herbs dipped in spicy fish sauce for lunch at my house in Dang Tung

food for the ancestors on chinese new year at my host brother's grandmother's house. including mangosteen, roasted chicken, skewered whole fish, plenty of nom ransom (bottom right corner), and more

side view of the feast. note that the ancestors are receiving not only 7up, but also tea and nice beer! lucky ancestors. the money we burned up to them is also happening at the bottom of the picture.

the inside of nom cheyt. that purple part in the middle is cambodian banana, which turns that color when cooked. the white part is sticky rice, all wrapped in banana leaf before steaming. delicious. these are the kind sold all the time in Dang Tung at the market.

delicious soup at a wedding! clear herbed broth with seafood swimming in it.

trai ang'cheeit! so good. the pickled onion appetizer to the right i'm not so into. some nyoam (chicken + gristle + veggie slaw) in the back. you can pick the gristly stuff out easily.