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What is a Balaboosta?
Balaboosta (n.)(bah-lah-b00-sta) A Yiddish term meaning the perfect housewife, homemaker, wonderful mother, cook, and gracious hostess. She does it all and does it well.
I make simple food with easy recipes and I like to try new things. My family and friends love my cooking and always ask me to share, with them, what I know about food, flavor, and technique.

I'm not a professional chef and I've had no formal culinary training. What I know and do in the kitchen comes from three women...Nana, Grandma Della, and Rose, my mom. Each one of them knew more about putting a meal on the table than any fancy chef in a white hat. They were the ultimate Balaboostas.

What I offer you is a lifetime of experience in the kitchen with my compliments and theirs. I hope they'd be proud. I will bring you my recipes as I make them with photos of the actual food I'm preparing. I'm no professional photographer either but I promise, my food will speak for itself in every picture.

The food on my table isn't stacked in a trendy tower.
Instead, my food is stacked with flavor and full of my passion for cooking. So please come in, make yourself comfortable, and enjoy.

To see amazing detail in any photo just click on it!
Don't forget to SIGN MY GUEST BOOK at the bottom of this page and/or LEAVE A COMMENT (be sure to leave your email address if you'd like a response)

Disclaimer: While most of my recipes are "Jewish Style", I do sometimes cook with pork. This might have been a great disappointment to some but my grandmothers knew that I live in modern world. I light Shabbos candles religiously but I have to admit...I do not keep a Kosher home.

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Pumpkin Oatmeal Pecan Chip Cookies

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!  If you haven't yet decided on what put on your dessert table you might want to whip up a batch of these tender pumpkin cookies, full of fiber from 3 of the main ingredients.  Pumpkin, like Squash, is rich in vitamins and iron.   Did you know there was a time that pumpkin was used as a medicine as well as a food?
You can prepare the recipe with or without nuts.
You can add dried fruit snipped in little bits.  Apricots or dried cranberries are my favorites.  Your friends and family will be asking you to make these every year.  Enjoy.
Ingredients...
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar (I use 3/4 cup granulated Splenda with 3/4 cup white sugar)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 small can of pumpkin (NOT PIE FILLING) (1 can = 1.5 cups)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (you can do half whole wheat with half white)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup old fashioned Oats
  • 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds)

Here's how you do it...
  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Prepare cookie sheets with parchment or spray
  3. In a medium bowl blend the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and oats. Set aside.
  4. In your mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  5. Beat in the egg, pumpkin, and vanilla.
  6. Gradually add the mixed dry ingredients you set aside earlier.
  7. Scrape the bowl and mix another 15 seconds
  8. Using a spatula fold in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts.
  9. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto the cookie sheets 1/2" apart.
  10. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
  11. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

Store in airtight container and freezes well.

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