In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

I hope this post finds you all well for the upcoming holiday.

Please remember, I hope not to offend; only to enlighten and to express my reasons for my personal choices.

This will be my second Thanksgiving where I have chosen to celebrate not at the expense of any other life. I will keep my commentary short; for now, I will only say that The Farm Sanctuary (a place I hope to visit someday soon), knows how to do Thanksgiving right. Instead of "celebrating" by eating turkeys, they celebrate the turkeys themselves for the beautiful, intelligent creatures that they are during their Celebration for the Turkeys. If only all Thanksgivings could be so joyful for all involved.

On a more positive note, this week my students were thrilled to be cooking instead of doing "work," due to the fact that we are officially on break in 14 minutes from this post! I told them we would make pumpkin cookies for the holiday, something I had not previously made and needed a recipe for. The first Google result was, of course, an Allrecipes.com gem! I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone wanting a simple, scrumptious, and seriously addicting, flavorful cookie for Thanksgiving. Simple batter with a not-too-sweet glaze on top. My school kitchen is now an Earth Balance-only kitchen (for now), both due to it costing the same as regular butter, and technically, our county's regulations don't permit actual butter use due to its saturated fat content (yes, we still use it anyway). I have more or less stopped buying eggs for them (in baking) because eggs are a PAIN to schlep and they go bad if you don't use them and, well, I feel better giving them egg replacer anyway, and it works just as well!

I'm not usually a cookie FIEND, but I just couldn't stop with these. I had FOUR today alone.

Here is the original link, and below you will find the even-better vegan version:

Vegan Iced Pumpkin Cookies

• Prep
  20 m
• Cook
  20 m
• Ready In
  1 h 20 m

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance butter, softened

• 1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg replacer "egg"
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• GLAZE:
• 2 cups organic confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons almond milk
• 1 tablespoon melted Earth Balance    butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside. *Ms. S' special secret addition: a PINCH...pinchLETTE!...of allspice*
2. 
   
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
5. 
   
6. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.