The Creightonian Online edition is launching a new blog focusing on college-friendly reciepes and crafts. Here is a first peek into the new Crafts ‘n Cooking Corner blog, which can be found online at life.creightonian.com.

We’re mixing things up here at The Creightonian. Each week we will write about something seasonal, tasty and sometimes successful. You can find the regular updates on the Creightonian online.

For our first edition, we tried out two fall-related recipes: pumpkin bars and beet (yes, as in the vegetable) brownies. Guess which one turned out better . . .

The pumpkin bars were quick and easy. The recipe was found on MarthaStewart.com, and we followed it pretty much exactly. Canned pumpkin lent extra moistness and just the right amount of fall-related goodness to the bars. The entire Creightonian staff gave these little guys its vote of approval. We even made them as mini-muffins, which turned out slightly denser but still delicious.

As for the beet brownies, just say no. Self magazine said the beets would add depth and intensity to the softer flavor of the chocolate. It lied. In addition to a rather unpleasant taste, the baking process was difficult, requiring extensive whipping of egg whites and gentle folding of sifted chocolate powder. We suppose if you are a dare-devil, determined to create goodness out of evil – or if you have no tongue – then go ahead and try to bake these. On the bright side, this recipe gave us an excuse to swing down to the farmer’s market and fight with middle-aged women for fresh produce (the last market of the year is this Saturday, by the way.)

Pumpkin Bars:

Ingredients:

* 2 cups flour

* 1 tbs pumpkin-pie spice

* 1 tsp baking soda

* ¾ tsp salt

* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted, room-

temperature butter

* 1 ¼ cups sugar

* 1 large egg

* 2 tsp vanilla extract

* 1 cup canned pumpkin puree

* 1 package semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth.

4. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.

5. Beat in pumpkin puree.

6. Mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

7. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 – 40 minutes.

Yummy Mummy Treat Cups:

In order to get in the Halloween spirit, we found a fabulous craft and gift idea. For this first week, we created Yummy Mummy Treat Cups. We got the idea from crafts.kaboose.com. This is a great site if you’re looking for seasonal or holiday crafts or decoration ideas. The Yummy Mummy Treat Cups are fun, easy and remind us of our great paper-mâché skills from first grade.

What you’ll need:

* Plastic or paper cups, bathroom sized (5 oz. or smaller)

* White printer paper

* Medium wiggle eyes

* Felt, any Halloween color

* Scissors

* White craft glue

* Bowl

* Water

How to make it:

1. Cut the 8.5×11 inch paper into long strips. Cut strips in half.

2. Add water and white glue to bowl. Mix until glue is a bit runny and watered down.

3. Cover the paper with the glue and water mix.

4. Cover cup with paper. Layer paper on top of each other for better visual effect and layering texture.

5. Cut a simple bow from felt. For a “boy” cup, use white craft glue to attach the bow tie to the bottom of the cup. For a “girl” cup, glue the bow to the top of the cup.

6. Use white craft glue to attach

wiggle eyes.

7. Fill with fun treats!

White paper can be substituted with an old white t-shirt.