Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies + Violin Story

Enjoy these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, with a delicious yummy cream cheese drizzle on top, along with a sweet violin story. Enjoy!

Our daughter is a high school senior this year. Plus, she’s my baby, so you know what that means. Empty nest is around the corner, and I feel a little sadness looming in the background, mixed with moments of joy. Motherhood has been one of my highest callings in life, one I will never take for granted. Although I’m excited for the new chapter to come, I can’t help but think back to when Abby was almost 4, just coming out of toddler stage to a little girl, and we started her taking violin lessons using the Suzuki Method.

Today, at almost 18, she still plays her violin every day, and we love the sound that fills our home with music so beautiful that it makes you want to cry.

How she started violin.

When Abby started with a Kudos Box taped to a ruler (learning how to hold the violin before ever playing), and following every lesson with thanking and bowing to her teacher—Thank you, Virginia, for teaching me violin today— it felt like a long journey ahead.

Would she stick with it over the years? When would it become her passion and no longer mine? Would the violin make her happy and other people happy? Did she have an “ear” for music, which is so important for a true violinist to have, if passionate about playing for life (and enjoying it)? Would I ever see the day when she’d be *driving herself to lessons and I’d no longer pick her up once a week, bribe her with Polly Pockets and Littlest Pet Shop toys if she would only listen to her teacher, or stand anyway even though she was “tired”?

Later in life, would she get to play at Carnegie Hall in NYC?

Yes to violin!

The answer is yes to all of these questions that I had in my mind. Our beautiful daughter learned the mystery of the 2 instruments—the violin and the bow—and it became her passion, her love, her “thing” in life, and I slowly transitioned away from control.

A dream for a mother to have.

To see her daughter grow, with beauty and power in the love of an instrument.

A beautiful chapter is coming to an end. I watched her drive away to her now Russian teacher, Faina, and a tear rolled down my cheek.

Not only for my love for my beautiful girl, but for the passion that lives in her heart to make beautiful music, and to use it for good in this world —whatever God has for her.

Abby’s music will always be everywhere – even when she’s off to college. Just as it’s in her ears and her head, it will always be in our hearts.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Last night I watched her make this recipe, Pumpking Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Foodnetwork.com, for her brothers and friends, who were over for dinner. Only a few more nights with our family together to enjoy evening meals, laughter, long discussions, talks about our lovely pets, thoughts and feelings, goals for the future.

Her recipe also made us happy. Because food is comforting to the soul, especially when you know that change is coming.

Does your child play an instrument, and have you heard of the Suzuki Method? Or, what’s your favorite autum cookie to make?

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Get the Recipe:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

From FoodNetwork.com, and we added a yummy cream cheese drizzle!

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 15 minutes mins

Total Time: 35 minutes mins

Yield: 60 large cookies or 30 small

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Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups 12-ounce bag milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
• 2 oz softened cream cheese
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• heavy cream or milk

Instructions

 

• Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.
• Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips.
• Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges.
• Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.
• Mix the powdered sugar, vanilla, and cream together. Drizzle over the cooled cookies.

Author: Sandy / Reluctant Entertainer

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Read more about Abby’s violin journey and the Suzuki Method, here. For years I took Abby to violin, but on busy work weeks our retired friends would jump in and help. I’d like to dedicate this post to our dear friends–Dee, whom Abby’s precious violin belongs to, and Minor –driving back and forth to Talent or Ashland, picking Abby up from school, and then getting her back on time (with an occasional stop at Wendy’s). :)

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