Jazzing up that plate of holiday cookies for gift-giving

We've all exchanged a plateful of cookies at the holidays with a neighbor or friend. Often the cookies are placed on a colorful paper plate and covered with plastic wrap.

I have a suggestion that's a cut above your typical cookie-laden paper plate. Swap out that paper plate for a nice holiday plate.

Black Friday has reached our local thrift shops. Yesterday, two of my kids and I headed out to find a few things. While at the thrift shop, looky what I found! A stack of 4 beautiful holiday plates!

These will be lovely, filled with home-baked cookies and tied with a silver ribbon. Our Value Village still had many holiday plates, bowls and trays. They will be snapped up in another week or two.

But the idea to use a nice plate, for your cookie gifts, will still be a possibility. Many people I know use all white dishware. Plain white dishes are found in abundance at second hand stores, for about a dollar per piece, sometimes less. And plain white also happens to be a nice base for an assortment of holiday cookies.

Just an alternative to your usual holiday paper plate for cookie exchanges.

What to do with leftover canned or cooked pumpkin

You know how it is, you buy the large can of pumpkin, use some of it for a pie, but there's all this leftover pumpkin still. What can you do with it?

If you have just a spoonful:

• stir it into a bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup and cinnamon
• stir it into some applesauce with a sprinkling of brown sugar
• add it to a bowl of chicken noodle soup
• add to a smoothie -- vanilla or plain yogurt, banana, blueberries, honey/sugar to taste and pumpkin
• whisk into eggnog
• add to cheese sauce when making mac and cheese
• add to white sauce for casseroles

If you have several spoonfuls:

• make a batch of Pumpkin Praline Granola (1 batch uses 1/2 cup of pumpkin)
• bake a batch of Pumpkin Scones (1 batch uses 1/3 cup of pumpkin)
• add to a batch of vegetable based soup
• make pumpkin milkshakes -- ice cream, milk, pumpkin and nutmeg
• make Pumpkin Pie Spice Syrup for Pumpkin Spice Lattes (1 recipe uses 1  1/2 tablespoons of pumpkin)
• add to muffin batter as part of the wet ingredients
• add to pancake batter as part of the wet ingredients
• bake some Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Buns (1 batch takes 6 tablespoons pumpkin)
• stir into vanilla pudding, add nutmeg and cinnamon to taste

If you have a cupful or more:

• make a pumpkin chiffon pie (only takes 1  1/4 cups pumpkin)
• make pumpkin bread (2 loaves takes 1 cup pumpkin)
• make a pot of Pumpkin Soup (1 recipe calls for 2 cups of pumpkin)
• bake soft pumpkin cookies (1 batch takes 1 cup pumpkin)

If you can not use your leftover pumpkin within 5 days of opening the can, scoop into small containers and freeze for future use.

And if using home cooked pumpkin for these recipes, strain in a mesh sieve for 30 minutes to an hour, to thicken (but save that liquid in your stock container in the freezer).