Pumpkin Bars and Adventures in Golf Carting, Big Sunglasses, and Bad Hair

Hello ladies and probably 1 or 2 gents...

Last week Meg posted about a pumpkin crumble bar recipe she found on about.com. I've been waiting since January's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to start baking with pumpkin again. Yes, canned pumpkin has been available at Whole Foods all year, but is it appropriate to make pumpkin desserts in the Summer? I had no problem baking pumpkin muffins when I was in Massachusetts, but that was because it was like 60 degrees at night and it felt like it was fall. I guess it doesn't even feel like fall yet in SC, but damn it, it's September, and I was ready.

This recipe is super easy but it contains a truck load of sugar and butter, so I made some modifications that I knew wouldn't sabotage the flavor. 

Pumpkin Bars with Crumb Topping (adapted from Southern Food)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup butter

Filling:

• 1 15.5 oz canned pureed pumpkin
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375*. Combine oats, flour, 1/2 cup sugar,  salt, baking soda, pecans, and butter. Beat until crumbly. Reserve about 1 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture and press remaining mixture into a lightly buttered 13x9 baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes.
• Prepare filling: Beat pumpkin, milk, 1/3 cup brown sugar, egg, and pumpkin pie spice until smooth. Spread filling over the crust. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture on top. Bake for a 25 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

Pecan oat crust:

Pumpkin filling:

Crumble topping:

Pumpkin bars!

These are the moistest bars ever ever ever. Margaret, Sarah, and I enjoyed them from Thursday until last night at about 3 am. They stayed incredibly moist and made our pee a really special highlighter color. Has anyone else experienced this from canned pumpkin?

Now that you have a delicious fall recipe, let's talk about some other junk. Golf carts. Marg's dad brought her a golf cart last weekend, and since I pretty much live with her now, we've been using this sassy vehicle to get around...

to places like Harris Teeter when we run out of wine...

...and to scare boys.

Say hello to Matt, fully dressed in boxers.

He was so impressed that he came for a ride around the hood too.

On Saturday, as much as we wanted to golf cart it to the beach, we drove a real car to Folly. 

Ummm how is it that I made pumpkin crumble bars on Thursday, yet went to the beach in 86* weather on Saturday? Oh, Charleston.

After the beach, we stopped at Chick-fil-A for Margaret's very first experience. Can you believe that she had never been before? We got one of each sauce!

I'm pretty sure she liked it.

And then Sarah brought home the largest banana pudding I've ever seen.

I liked it. FYI that is my beach hair look. Super hot.

That night we went out "under cover."

You can't see our faces in these glasses. 

Let it be known that wearing super large glasses to the bar brings a lot of attention.


Sunday morning, looking like people of walmart, we ran some errands for I don't even remember what. And we bought nothing. But damn, I looked good doing it. Kinda like my friend Tinkerbell!

Confidence and bloggy love is being able to show my readers when I look like Tinkerbell/trash :)


We sat on the couch for hours until Matt stopped by wanting to go for a ride on the golf cart. So we went for ice cream.

Since Matt was nice enough to chauffeur us downtown last night, Margaret let him drive home. Mistake. We went off-roading. 

And this driver of ours found it humorous to speed through every.single.puddle. The face of a naughty  man:

How was YOUR weekend? Any new fall recipes you'd like to share?