Pumpkin Donuts

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup pumpkin
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup shortening, butter, or margarine, softened

In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. Add pumpkin, eggs, milk, and shortening, butter, or margarine; beat with an electric mixer on low speed till mixed.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a very large star tip with a 1/2-inch opening (can be purchased at any specialty kitchen store and most craft stores. Pipe onto 2 greased baking sheets in 3-inch circles. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for 10 minutes, or till golden brown. Cool doughnuts on a rack over waxed paper.

Baked donuts??? That's not how Renee and Karla roll, so instead we spooned small amounts of the dough into hot oil and fried them. Then we rolled them in the following mixture:

1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

You will want to make them very small so they cook all of the way through. At first I used a medium cookie scoop, but that was way too big. I ended up doing about a teaspoon of dough for each one by the end.

The original recipe is from here.

Orzo Wild Rice Salad

You will need to eyeball these:

Orzo, 2 cups-ish, cooked to al dente
red, orange or yellow pepper, diced finely (or a combo)
red onion, diced finely
currents or craisins
corn
sliced almonds
wild rice, cooked

Dressing:
1/2 c Olive Oil
1/4 c white wine vinegar
2 T lemon juice
2 T sugar
2 T honey
1 T sesame oil
1/2 t salt
1/2 t garlic powder

*So several months later, I just noticed that I forgot to included the wild rice in the list of ingredients for this dish. DUH!
Cook your pasta, anything will work and whole grain pasta is great in this! Be sure you don't over cook it, and then rinse it in very cold water.
Combine your "dry" ingredients. Make the dressing. You can sub regular white vinegar for white wine vinegar, if you don't have it on hand, and olive oil for sesame oil. It still tastes great, but if you have those things, use them. It makes for a very yummy salad! Salt and pepper it to your own taste.
And the reason you have to eyeball the amounts is that I was not given amounts so I eyeball it and have no idea how much of each thing I use! It changes each time. Enjoy!

Emma's Corn Salsa

Drain these:

15 oz shoe peg white corn (works with regular too!)
15 oz. black eyed peas or black beans

1 large red pepper, diced small
1 red onion, diced fine
1/2 c fresh or frozen cilantro, finely diced
Combine all.

Sauce: 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c vinegar
1/4 c olive oil
2 T Tiger Sauce

Combine sauce ingredients, let sugar dissolve, then pour over salsa and mix. Serve with tortilla chips.
I had this at the campout, and I am finally getting it added!