Pumpkin Crunch Bars

You should never poison your friends. This is axiomatic. But sometimes, you know, it's just really hard not to.

Today's challenge: gluten free. I am not gluten-intolerant, but these were made for a dear friend who cannot eat gluten. At all. Ever. Seriously, do you have any idea how difficult this is? I didn't and probably still don't. Gluten is everywhere. Sort of like air, only most of us can (and do) routinely inhale air without the terror of imminent death. The idea of having to carefully scrutinize every label may not be so bad (some of us are compulsive label readers already), but imagine not being able to eat at any restaurant ever again. Yeah, that's what I thought. Me neither.

I was so preoccupied with being clever with this dessert that it completely escaped my notice that, while the pumpkin bars would not kill her, the marinated sun-dried tomatoes I also fed her just might, as the Italian dressing they were soaking in was loaded with MSG. The moral of the story? Eat dessert first. That way, even if your friends are trying to poison you with the entrée, you will be too full to eat any of it.

Curried Pumpkin Scones

So just recently my BFF the WX Goddess asked about pumpkin recipes. Somehow she allowed herself to be persuaded to make a trio of pumpkin desserts for a Thanksgiving celebration. We batted ideas back and forth for an afternoon, but really, all you need to do is visit the good people at King Arthur and type pumpkin into their recipe search engine.

Which I did, and if you do this you will know precisely what caught my eye first: Curried Pumpkin and Ginger Scones. Not entirely appropriate for a Thanksgiving dessert, but then, I am not the one who needs to make three different pumpkin treats for a single meal. I just need a quick breakfast.

I have mentioned before how much I detest recipe reviews wherein the reviewer hates the recipe... but did not actually follow the recipe. As in, I did not have any pumpkin, so I just used applesauce, and I hate curry so I skipped it entirely, and on and on, until they have made something, but it's not anything like the original recipe. I may have also mentioned once or twice how I'm not always good at following recipes to the letter. I always think I know better. Frequently I do (at least with respect to what'll taste good to me), and when I don't...well, those experiments just don't get posted.