Are you ready for something a little different for Thanksgiving dessert? I bet you that once you have tasted these delicious morsels you're not going to limit them just to Thanksgiving.

My 'dog' friend Stephen Schmidt is a pastry chef-instructor as well as the author of the upcoming tome, DESSERTS IN AMERICA. It is a social history of American history since the late eighteenth century, with some 400 recipes from early to late. He is the creator of this delight. He is also 'daddy' to always hungry and vociferous Petrus, one of Bogart's morning playmates. We - a motley group of dog parents, barely awake (that would be me), wait expectantly every morning to see what Stephen might have whipped up for us to sample. He promised that soon there will be 'chocolate time' and we will get loads and loads of chocolate inspired desserts to taste - I will keep you posted on that orgy - I promise.

Now back to the pumpkin squares. He arrived a few weeks ago at the park, laden with large shopping bags stuffed with individually wrapped portions of pumpkin squares, slices of airy light pumpkin roulade and little bowls of spicy pumpkin flan (also incredibly yummy). He even brought spoons. We were even more excited than the dogs that day and started immediately sampling the goodies. I particularly fell in love with the pumpkin squares and will definitely make them for Thanksgiving. Like a good girl, I did make them once already - following my own advice; never to prepare a dish for a party without testing it out first. But, I could not resist playing around with it a bit and use hazel nuts instead of pecans (to be honest, I had the hazelnuts on hand and was too lazy to go out and get pecans). I had a little extra pumpkin puree - what would be the harm, I thought and added it to the mix, then I was out of vanilla: Bogart's fault, he falls in love about 10 times a day and can be rather annoying when he pursues a female or male dog (he does not discriminate - he is an equal gender lover). What has that to do with vanilla? Well, I learned from a breeder that when showing your dog and he is distracted by bitches in heat, put a little vanilla under his nose. That is supposed to take care of the 'lust'. Hasn't worked for love sick Bogey, but has made me out of vanilla. Therefore I experimented with pure lemon oil extract- which, again, I had at home. Basically, I am lazy once I am set to cook or bake. I DO NOT want to go out again to get missing ingredients. Sometimes it makes with tasty results, sometimes not so much. The lemon extract is a lovely flavor and I use it quite often, especially when I make my mate's favorite breakfast granola, so that seemed a decent replacement. I chopped, stirred, mixed and pressed and baked and...the result was not NEARLY as good as Stephan's. Randy still thought it was wonderful - he had not gotten any of Stephan's, because - I have to admit - even though I had gotten 2 pieces, I ate them both myself. Randy was not home, I could not let them spoil!!! Yeah right. Yummmmmmmm, they were so very good.

Here, for your own pleasure, is Stephen's recipe. Do yourself a favor, learn from my mistakes. Do not deviate from this recipe it is PERFECTION.

~ Click on the recipe ~