Pumpkin Bars and a cancelled experiment

All in all, today was a disappointing day. I got a call telling me that the Asian brush painting class I was planning on taking this Saturday was cancelled because I was the only person signed up, I had to delay starting on a project at work that has finally gotten moving (after 2 years of prodding people who needed to be involved) in order to work on a project that has nothing to do with my job or the company, and to top it off, the cream cheese frosting on my pumpkin bars was less than impressive. Given, my mom makes some pretty top notch cream cheese frosting, so I have some high standards, but this frosting was runny and tasted more like butter than smooth cream cheese frosting. The bars themselves are good, but the cream cheese frosting leaves something to be desired, so--I'll just keep that part of the recipe out of this. Find your favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting, ask your mom or buy the jarred type at the story to top these off.

Pumpkin Bars
I got in trouble with the people at work who had New Years resolutions with these ones! They're very heavy and rich, but as I heard several times; pumpkin is a vegetable. Ergo, these must be good for you. Right?

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1- 15 oz can pumpkin
• 2 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using an electric mixer at medium speed (if available--I didn't use one), beat eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin together until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mix and beat on low speed until batter is smooth and thoroughly combined.
4. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
5. Frost with cream cheese frosting. Cut into bars and serve.