 back to my kitchen and welcome back to another cooking video. I'm so, so excited about today's video. It is my first fall inspired cooking video and if I'm honest, fall is definitely my favorite season. It even wins a little bit over Christmas. I just love the smells and the flavors and the colors and the fall fashion. I just love all of it so much. And today's video, I also have some new recipes and I have some old recipes. My mother-in-law gave me her pumpkin whoopie pie recipe that she uses. I don't think she came up with the recipe, but it's her go-to. If you guys don't know what a whoopie pie is, it's basically like a large sandwich cookie. They're really popular in Pennsylvania. A lot of the Amish and Mennonites make them and then they sell them. They're just so, so good. You guys know I normally do a lot of healthy recipes, but when it comes to the holiday season, I definitely like to have some treats here and there. So you're gonna be seeing that sprinkle throughout my videos in the next couple months. I've already got my kitchen smelling really good, but it's gonna smell even better once we get baking and cooking and getting all of this yummy stuff going on. I've even got myself a fall-inspired tumbler. I am all about it today, guys. But before we kick off this video, I wanted to let you guys know that today's video is sponsored by Botanical Origins and they have some really great laundry detergent. You guys know that I am super, super conscious whenever it comes to having things that are plant-based and they reached out to me and wanted to send me some of their laundry detergent to try it out, so I tried it out and I also did a little stain test the other day. I'm going to insert that footage here. You guys can see how it really does work efficiently and also the scents that they have going on with these smell so good. Our clothing smells amazing and I've been really impressed overall with this. Out of the two scents that they offer, the Orange Blossom in Citrus is my favorite. It works with regular washers, high-efficiency washers, and even for hand-washing. I did use it on some stains that were on my daughter's clothing, that was barbecue sauce, and some other things. It's formulated for all water temperatures, including cold. It also comes in a recyclable bottle. The softener works really well as well and I love using this on my kids' clothes. Check out the link in the description box to find out where you can purchase botanical origin products. Hey guys, so now that I shared all that with you, I am definitely ready to get cooking so let's jump right into it. Before we get started mixing up the pumpkin, whoopie pies, or the cookie part of them, I'm actually getting a pound of beef started over here in my Dutch oven. I'm gonna fry it up and I'm actually going to be making some cheeseburger soup. This is one of my favorite fall soups and it's one that Cory also enjoys. They're just super delicious. It's very decadent, yummy. You'll see as we kind of build this soup up. But for the moment, I have a pound here and I'm going to get it rolling and put the lid on and it will cook up super fast in here. I also started the oven preheating at 350 because that is what we need to bake the cookies for the whoopie pies at. To mix up the whoopie pies, we're gonna do all of the wet ingredients. First, I am using my mixer. You could use a hand mixer or possibly do this by hand, but with cookies and things and baking, I just prefer to use my mixer. So I'm going to get like the pumpkin and the eggs and the oil all started in there and then add the sugar and then move into the flour and the spices and everything together. Okay, everyone out there that makes whoopie pies is probably cringing at this mess right now. Ideally, you wanna have like a big ice cream scoop or something that will make them more even, but I just have what I have on hand so they're gonna look extra homemade, but the batter tastes really good and I'm gonna pop these in now. These are the veggies for the cheeseburger soup and basically I'm gonna cut them up and then put them in the pot that I made the meat in with some broth and cook them up until they are tender. It's going super well. I've got the veggies all getting cooked up and I'm almost done baking the whoopie pie cookie part and then I will let them cool completely before working on the icing because you want them totally cool before you put the icing in the middle of them. Little tip to keep around your kitchen if you're somebody with long hair is a little grabber like this. I can just throw my hair up whenever I'm close to the countertops and if I wanna put it back down, I can pretty easily. So anyway, that's why I'm holding this. And now I'm actually going to make something that is apple related. It's something I found on Pinterest and it's super, super delicious looking. So it takes a, it's kind of like a bar but it's almost similar to apple pie at the same time. If this turns out really well, it may end up on our Thanksgiving day menu. I don't know, we'll see. So I'm going to go ahead and mix up, I think the bottom layer of it if I read the recipe right first and then we'll move on to the next recipe while that's baking. Now that the bottom layer of the bars are baking in the oven, I'm back to the soup making. So in here is all the veggies cooked up and now I'm melting butter to make the creamy part of the soup for this cheeseburger soup. It's so delicious and I'm actually going to be swapping out the flour in the recipe for gluten-free flour and I know a lot of people often, you know, say in the comments, gluten-free doesn't mean it's healthier and you're right, that's exactly right. But my husband has gluten sensitivity. He's not gluten intolerant but he has gluten sensitivity. So if there's areas where we can cut it out of our diet, it helps a lot for him. So that is why I make a lot of things that are gluten-free but we do mix in some stuff that does have regular flour in it. Okay, I'm about to make the crumbly topping that goes on top of this. So the bottom is like a shortbread and then you layer the apples on and you put like a crumble across the top and you bake it for 45 minutes. I can already tell you this, this is going to make your house smell incredible. I'm so excited for just the smell of this to go through my house. So once I get all of this made up, then I'll be starting in on my next recipe. Oh, I can show you the cheeseburger soup that's done now. Cheeseburger soup is done. This is so delicious. I love being able to freeze soups because you can pull them out and throw them in a big pot and just warm them right up and it's actually a really quick meal. So this is super yummy. This is going to be great for some fall days. Since our cookies have completely cooled, we are ready for the filling for the whoopie pies. So what you need for the filling is some shortening, some powdered sugar, some marshmallow fluff and some vanilla. And I will leave the recipe that I used. I used it off of a Pinterest post that had other whoopie pie recipes in it, but this is just their filling recipe. So I will leave that link below. But I know that for a good whoopie pie filling, you really want shortening in it. I know it might sound funny, but it's what makes it taste the best. Okay, so that filling is absolutely perfect. I love whoopie pies. And so does Corey. They're definitely one of our absolute favorite things. And traditional whoopie pies are chocolate and vanilla filling. I don't like chocolate outside, vanilla filling. I don't know if I mentioned that earlier or not. And they have a very specific taste and whenever you grew up eating them and you get one that is made by somebody that obviously has never made them before or doesn't have the right recipe, you can definitely tell. And the filling is very important to have the right flavor and the right texture going on. And this one is absolutely perfect. So the other thing that we do with whoopie pies is you kind of wrap them individually. So I have some saran wrap and I'll be wrapping them as I fill them. And you can store them in the freezer. Most of the time that's how they're stored. You can get them out and just let them thaw out if you're not gonna eat a lot because they're a very decadent kind of dessert or food. So it's not like you would eat an entire batch by yourself in one week. I mean you could, but it's just something nice to have in the freezer to be able to pull out. And actually I personally like eating them frozen and I know there's a lot of other people that do too. So anyway, so I'm gonna stop rambling but I had to make a note that this filling is really great and I'm gonna get them all wrapped up now. As far as that's actually what they're called out on the dining room table to cool off in a different bowl out there to cool off because we're gonna use the Dutch oven for something else here in a little bit. And I took a break and kind of cleaned, loaded my dishwasher, hand washed some dishes, washed off my stove, just kinda reset a little bit. So now we're going to make some biscuits and they're supposed to be similar to the biscuits that Red Lobster has like the cheddar biscuits. So I'm really excited to make these and they are keto friendly and gluten free. So if you fall into those categories then you will love this recipe. They look pretty simple and pretty quick to whip up. Biscuits are so good with soup and this recipe has very simple ingredients. It's like almond flour, some cream cheese, some cheddar cheese and you just kinda whip it all up and plop them onto a lined cooking sheet and stick them in the oven. So I have all the ingredients out and now I'm just gonna take a fork and mix it up. I'm giving you two cream soups in one video but this is my favorite, favorite thing for the fall. I just love cream based soups. They're just so good or like creamy soups I guess or white sauce soups. I'm not sure the exact term of them but this one is a ham and potato just like absolute comfort soup. So a lot of this is similar to what I did with the other one. In fact, I would consider this one a little easier than the other one. So I got this ham from Aldi and it's one that has like never any so that means like no antibiotics, hormones, all of that. So this one, I don't think I'll need to use all of it for this recipe so I may end up using this for like some breakfast sandwiches or something like that since it's already sliced partially for me. And one of the things that goes along with these style soups and I didn't do a very good job on the other soup is to make sure that your potatoes and onions and things like that are cut pretty finely, like small, diced. So I'm gonna try to be better about that with this soup just because it's a little easier to get everything on your spoon when the pieces aren't quite as big. These are absolutely incredible. I will be making these again for sure. But this here, I mean, you guys, we can just throw out apple pie altogether because these are beyond amazing. With a scoop of ice cream, these would be so stinking delicious. I pulled some of them out so you can see the apples and kind of like see the layer of the bar. And once they cool a little bit more, they're still a little warm. I think you could actually pick them up and they would be fine and sturdy. But oh my word, you have to make this apple recipe during this fall season. It is absolutely incredible. The thing I have for this video and honestly, all of these recipes were so delicious. Cory actually came home and had some of the apple pie bars or apple crisp bars and said too that they were so incredibly good. And so I think we'll be making those probably for Thanksgiving. Super great, highly recommend. And I hope that this video inspired you. I'm so excited to do a lot more fall cooking and fall inspired recipes and meals and just all things fall right now. If you're new here, I'd love it if you subscribed to my channel. Don't forget to leave a comment below. I love to read your comments and respond to the ones that I can. Give this video a like and I'll see you guys in my next video.