Pumpkins,Gourds and A Cute Amish Kid!!

I gave myself a day off from baking today. My friend Janet and I hit the road to go to the Antique Extravaganza out in Kutztown. Always in search of something..anything interesting in an antique or collectible I was very disappointed to have found nothing but I didn't come home empty handed.
I had a fun day taking lots of pictures of the area, pumpkins and gourds and one very cute, very bored little Amish ( or Mennonite) boy. He was just sitting on that hard cement block, bare foot holding on to the horse !! I wonder how long he had been sitting there?!

Soon after I took this picture, the boy, his mother and sister loaded up their belongings onto the buggy and took off down the side of the road with cars zooming past them. A common sight out there.

We found some really neat pumpkins and gourds for sale at the second market we went to at Shupps Grove. The colors and textures of these pumpkins were amazing and Janet brought home two of these stacks to put out front of the house.

These gourds were dyed in the prettiest colors of deep orange.

More interesting colors of yellow and white pumpkins. I never knew pumpkins came in such an array of colors and textures.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies...Happy Autumn !!

Although I am really sorry that Summer is officially over, I do love the cooler temps and the changing colors of the foliage. The recipe for these cute frosted sugar cut out cookies came to me in a round about way. I was watching QVC early one morning...or was it late one night !!? OMG, I can't even remember !! And no, this is not something I do often!! Anyhoo, They were selling cute cut out cookies from Cheryl & Co. Cookies. Not really knowing much about the company or the product, I decided to check them out and I came upon a copycat recipe ( or so they claim) for the Cheryl & Co. cookies. I don't have any little ones in the house..just a big one!!( My 21 yr. old!) , but it was fun to take a little time to decorate these. I used the frosting recipe that is included with the recipe and tinted it with food coloring. I used green sprinkles for the stem but if I was going to make them again, I would decorate them with royal icing.
The flavor of the cookies was nice, not too sweet and I think they make a perfect "canvas" for frosting or icing. They are a soft cookie( like Cheryl& Co. claims theirs to be). They are rolled out 1/2" thick which makes them a good substantial sugar cookie.
So, go ahead...Celebrate the Fall season with some cute pumpkin shaped cookies...or any other shape that tickles your fancy!!