Pumpkin Passion

Pumpkin & Bacon Pasta

We took a short trip to Seattle about a month ago and it was a life changing experience. I completely fell in love with that town. We had so much fun: the food was incredible; the people were so nice; and the scenery can’t be topped.

I have a friend who is equally in love with Seattle and visits frequently. She gave us some restaurant suggestions that proved phenomenal. One of the places was Thai Ginger. I was wary of having Thai in Washington because I’m fairly certain that the best Thai food on the continent can be found in Los Angeles. Why go elsewhere?

We ended up near Thai Ginger and decided to try it. I had a pumpkin curry that was grand! It was one of their specials. Actually, a shrimp pumpkin curry was one of their specials but they made me one with chicken. It was the perfect amount of spice and the pumpkin was cooked just right.

Not only was the food good in Seattle but the coffee went above and beyond. The connection between Seattle and coffee is seriously no joke. I had no idea coffee could even taste that good. Hands down, the best cup of coffee I have ever had was in Tacoma at the Babblin’ Babs Bistro. The owner mentioned that they get their coffee from a local roaster 2 to 3 times a week. It is super fresh. They had no pumpkin but their menu is ever-changing and I’m sure pumpkins make an appearance but I simply had to give them a shout out!

We did have some good tea also. Tully’s Coffee has a Pumpkin Spice Tea Latte, which was good and unique. They are located near Pike Place Farmer’s Market where we also purchased three little pumpkins: one was made by a local crafts person, one was purchased at a store that only sells windup toys, and one was from a toy store and is made out of wood but didn’t make it into the pictures.

Someday we will be back and hopefully it will be for a more permanent stay.

Panera has a Pumpkin Muffie–aka: a muffin top–that is quite delicious. It’s soft like a pumpkin pillow.

I’ve learned recently that the description “hipsters” is not as well known of a term as I’d thought. I thought they were like hippies or beatniks. Everyone knows what a hippy is, right? Hipsters, I’ve come to realize, are somewhat of a Los Angeles phenomenon but exist in most metropolitan areas.

My own observations have led me to the following conclusions:

–Hipsters like anything with a curly mustache;
–They love to model Threadless t-shirts;
–Burning Man is their Disneyland;
–They can’t get enough of ice cream with crazy flavor combinations (ex: pistachio hefeweizen, Lychee Guava, brown bread, etc.);
–Their favorite foods are tofu that tastes like real meat and Pho that is overly Americanized and probably contains canned broth.

In Los Angeles, the Brite Spot Café is the hipster watering hole. Essentially, hipsters are to the Brite Spot Café as beatniks were to City Lights Bookstore. The Brite Spot doesn’t look special at all from the outside. Inside it looks like a café the Brady Bunch may have visited in the 70’s—lots of wood paneling.

The food is typical diner food plus a whole lot more. Their menu is extensive but stick with the food that’s closest to typical diner food and you’ll be satisfied. I’ve never had anything horribly wrong at the Brite Spot but I’ve never had anything memorable either . . . except for their desserts. The best peanut butter cupcake I’ve ever had was from the Brite Spot. The do cupcake oh-so-very right!

I wanted to see if maybe they had a pumpkin cupcake, so I visited them recently. I guess I haven’t been there in probably a couple of years. They’ve add a new pastry case that is fully stocked with delicious looking treats. Formerly, they were out of cupcakes more than they actually had them in stock. Now they are plentiful.

I was hoping for a pumpkin cupcake but had to settle for a pumpkin whoopie pie. I’m not a huge fan of the whoppie pie-it’s too dense to be cake and too the-opposite-of-dense to be a cookie. This one was good but not one I’d order again. However, the two cupcakes with purchased were delicious.

For those who want to be able to spot a hipster in their natural environment, this is an excellent article on the phenomenon. This article berates those of us who like to make fun of hipsters.

I went to Disneyland a couple of weekends ago and they were slowly taking down the pumpkin seasonal items and replacing them with Christmas decorations. There wasn’t much new with their fall displays; they were very similar to last year’s with only a few changes—mostly absent items.

The pumpkin candy apple was new and darling but I didn’t actually try one. The almost $9.00 price tag was probably the only thing that stopped me. I did love the “World of Color” apple that sat next to it in the display case. Our friend who works at Disneyland mentioned that they just happened to debut the Pride “World of Color” apple that morning….on the first day of Disneyland’s “unofficial” 2010 Gay Days…hmmmm, what a coincidence. In spite of the $9.00 apples that were left behind, we still had much fun. Gay Days at Disneyland is always a blast.

***Reminder: Don’t forget to enter the Pumpkin Cupcake Ornament Giveaway before November 30.

Everybody loves pumpkins.

I’m so excited to have won something! My sometimes pessimistic nature causes me to rarely enter contests but this time the cuteness of the prize got the better of me and I actually won!

The Glorious Treats blog was giving away 2 adorable cupcake ornaments from Amy Miller Designs. I entered and won two ornaments ! It only seems fair to spread the wealth and share one with my Pumpkin Passion readers. I will be giving away the ornament pictured above on December 1st; I chose this one because I think it totally looks like a pumpkin cupcake.

All you have to do is visit Amy Miller’s Etsy store and then come back here and leave the name of one of her ornaments as a comment to this post. You can also earn an additional entry by “liking” Amy Miller Designs’ Facebook page and Pumpkin Passion’s Facebook page and then come back here again and leave another comment saying that you liked both pages.

You have until November 30, 2010, at 5 p.m. PST to enter and because of the short turnaround, between the contest deadline and Christmas, I will only be able to ship the ornament to a U.S. address. Good Luck!

With the 90 degree weather we were having last week, it only took a week for our pumpkins to end up looking like this:

Mine was the second one. Can you tell it was supposed to be an owl?

Tonight I am busy testing recipes and perfecting my entry for the Key Ingredient contest. The guideline are to bake and submit an original cupcake recipe using squash as the key ingredient and cupcakes as the theme. All you have to do is email your recipe by midnight on November 20th to sophie@keyingredient.com. The winner will be notified on November 23rd! The grand prize is a Demy! I want to win!!!

I hate giving bad reviews. I feel guilty. Just look at the woman’s face on the package. She looks so sweet and eager to share her pumpkin cheese balls with all of us and now I have to hurt her feelings.

These are weird. They sat in the refrigerator for a few weeks while I figured out what I was going to do with them: was I supposed to just grab a ball and eat it; spread it on some type of cracker; and what type of cracker would I spread it on–maybe a saltine or gram cracker? I finally decided to just eat one.

The gram cracker coating was soft, which was disconcerting. The taste was blah. I was not impressed and I’m still confused by them. Sorry nice blond lady but Kelly’s Kitchen Pumpkin Pie Dessert Cheese Balls are not a favorite!

A few days ago we received a package of lavender and lavender sugar in the mail. It pays to have a relative who works for a spice company. Thanks Anita! Every holiday, we make our spice wish list and she transforms into our own person Spicy Santa. It’s completely awesome.

With my lavender gifts, I quickly set out to bake this lavender pumpkin bread recipe. I may have been a little too eager because both the muffins and the bread were a tad undercooked but they remained delicious even though I had to put them back in the oven for a few more minutes. It is called “lavender pumpkin bread” and not “pumpkin lavender bread” but I would up the amount of pumpkin pie spice to at least 3 teaspoons. The aroma of this baking in the oven is well worth it. Our house smelled warm and delicious for the rest of the day.

We also had an abundance of over-ripe pears and so I also made a batch of this Vanilla Spiced Pear Butter to go with the muffins. I’ve had pumpkin butter and apple butter several times before but I tell ya, nothing beats pear butter. It was strangely perfect with the muffins. It came out as runny as apple sauce but after adding some instant pectin the consistency was more like a thin jam.

I’m going to be eating this for the next few months because Shannon thinks anything with lavender in it tastes like soap but I’m up for the challenge. I love baking!