Fall Cookin"...

  The air has a different feel to it.  When I step on the porch in the morning the air is cooler and it is stirring differently in the trees.  The light through the trees that comes into my bedroom is a different shade of green--it's signalling the change of a season.  I'm so ready for the brisk days and nights and for opening the windows again and letting the cool air come through our home.
   At breakfast about two weeks ago I asked the kids what they thought of when they thought of fall meals.  They mentioned Cheesy Potato Soup, Chili, Corn Chowder (the potato soup or the chowder are served in bread bowls sometimes), Beef Stew,Taco Soup, Pot pie, Goulash with piping hot corn bread on the side, deer tenderloin fried and then  baked with warm brown gravy around it, Rotel, and other hearty comfort foods. 
  I start wanting to make my favorite desserts made with apples, pumpkins and oatmeal.  I think of desserts with caramel flavor and lots of cinnamon.  Mmmmm....out come the cookbooks and I pull out my Maple Nut Twist breakfast bread, Pumpkin Roll, Little Debbie Oatmeal Cakes (homebaked), German Apple Cake, Apple Crisp, Apple Dumplings, Monster Cookies, Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake, Pecan Pie, Spice Cake with Cooked Caramel Frosting and Pumpkin Doughnut Drops. 
  Last year I made a delicious pumpkin cake out of Jennibeth's cookbook "Dining with Pioneers Volume II". 
We had celebrated Thanksgiving together and had just about emptied out the pantry and we were looking for something to make with what was left.  She said she had a can of pumpkin left so I dug through the cookbooks and found this recipe.  It mentioned cream cheese frosting but we didn't have cream cheese so I made the cooked caramel frosting and we put it on it.  (I did a double batch since it was a three layer cake.)
It was SOOOO good!
  So in celebration of the beginning of fall I'm going to put the recipe on here for Pumpkin Cake with Cooked Caramel Frosting.  Enjoy!  I'm planning on making it in the next couple weeks and will try to add a picture here then.
  
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. cinnamon
  Combine sugar and oil.  Add eggs separately, beating well to combine.  Add flour, soda, salt and cinnnamon to sugar mixture.  Blend thoroughly.  Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes in pans that have been greased and floured.   Makes three (3) 9" round layers.

Cooked Caramel Frosting (or Easy Penuche Frosting)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar
  Melt butter or margarine.  Stir in brown sugar.  Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir over low heat for two minutes.  Stir in milk, heat to boiling.  Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm.
  Gradually, stir in powdered sugar.  Place pan of frosting in bowl of ice and water; beat until it's of spreading consistency.  If frosting becomes too stiff, heat slightly, stirring constantly.
*Remember-I double this for this cake.
   What's your favorite fall recipe?  Is there something you just have to have before the season is over?  We love food traditions at our house and these are some that we cannot imagine not having at the table this time of the year.  I hope you're enjoying the beautiful weather, the changes and the plans of the season!  Isn't God good to give us wonderful changes and such a beautiful creation?  Enjoy, enjoy!