Pumpkin Passion

What a weekend! Here we are only a few weeks into Pumpkin Eatin’ Season and I’m pretty sure I’ve already found my favorite pumpkin treat of 2010. Magnolia Bakery, a staple of the New York cupcake scene, just opened their first west coast store a few weekends ago. I’d visited one of their New York stores and loved it. The aesthetic of the store is my aesthetic: bright and cheery with a giant dollop of 1950’s retro. Even their cupcakes are simply beautiful. The colors remind me of Easter pastels and their cupcake decorations are reminiscent of a sophisticated kindergarten birthday party. So cute!

How do they taste? Yummy delicious! They’re the only store-bought cupcake that truly tastes homemade to me. They keep their flavors fairly basic. Combinations of vanilla and chocolate make up the bulk of the cupcakes in the case. Lately cupcake stores, at least those in Los Angeles, pride themselves on coming up with the craziest flavor combinations: sea salt caramel, cookie dough, cosmo, watermelon, etc. Magnolia doesn’t need to overwhelm your taste buds with crazy flavors because the simplicity of their flavors allows the quality to come through.

While the cupcakes and banana pudding (equally as amazing) would have left my taste buds dancing for weeks, they also had a Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Pecan Crust!!! I’m always raving about the Pumpkin Bars at Creative Cakey and these are equally as good. The gingersnap crust pairs wonderfully with the creamy spiciness of the pumpkin cheesecake. These are completely craveable. I’m drooling right now just thinking about them.

If you’re not near Los Angeles or New York, you can pick up the second book from Magnolia Bakery, More From Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey’s Home Kitchen, which has the Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Pecan Crust recipe. I can’t wait to try it at home because the only thing that would have made it any better would be a little more salt in the crust.

I’m beginning to think I’m an east coast girl trapped on the west coast. I would choose Magnolia Bakery over Sprinkles any day—not to mention Five Guys over In-N-Out.

I have been baking up a storm lately. Some recipes I took one bite of and promptly put in the trash while others will now become wonderful seasonal standards. Here’s a quick run down:

Pumpkin Spice No-Bake Cheesecake from Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes
I have enjoyed several recipes from Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipe blog and was looking forward to making the pumpkin cheesecake. This recipe seemed perfect: pumpkin and guilt-free dessert. I’d tried making a similar recipe before minus the pumpkin and was not impressed. Still, my hopes were high. However, the cream cheese was just too strong and tangy. We didn’t finish our slice. Maybe next time we’ll add more pumpkin and lighten up the density with some fat-free whipped cream

Pumpkin & Corn Fritters by Emeril Lagasse
I haven’t eaten many fritters before or I might have know better than to have made this recipe. Essentially these are like a savory pumpkin bread with corn added and then fried. A more realistic name would have been fried pumpkin corn bread. They did have some good flavor but they were just too much. It needed some kind of sour cream chipotle sauce…actually any sauce would have been an improvement. I ate a few of these but most of them went in the trash. Savory fried bread balls are not my thing. However, these Golden Ricotta Pumpkin Fritters sound like a delicious improvement and so do these pumpkin banana fritters.

Pumpkin Waffles by the Pumpkin Waffles Blog
We have also been pumpkin waffle making fools lately and I really do mean fools. The first batch of these pumpkin waffles that I got from a recipe at the aptly named Pumpkin Waffle Blog turned out CRAZY BAD. They were runny and thin and I couldn’t get them to cook without burning in the middle. I had no doubt that I’d done something wrong. Trying out a new recipe early on a Saturday morning without taking the time to drink a cup of coffee beforehand is a bad idea. I gave them another try a couple of weeks later and they were completely delicious. They have the Pumpkin Passion Seal of Approval. Yummmm!

Pumpkin Bread by the Polka Dot Cottage
Hands down, my favorite pumpkin recipe we tried over this past Pumpkin Eatin’ Season was the Pumpkin Bread recipe over at Polka Dot Cottage. I swear that I would not be eligible for a spot on the Food Network’s “Worst Cooks in America”–btw, I HEART Rachel Coleman. I can be a pretty decent cook when I try but I almost messed this recipe up too. I didn’t read that this was a recipe for two loaves, instead of the one gigantic loaf I tried to make. Luckily I realized my mistake shortly after putting it in the oven. I quickly took out the full loaf pan and took out enough batter to make 12 gigantic Costco muffins in addition to the one loaf. Even with this mistake the bread and muffins came out wonderfully. We’ve made this recipe several times and have frozen and thawed the second loaf without being able to tell that it wasn’t freshly baked. It’s moist and delicious. I highly recommend trying this recipe all year long. In fact, I think I’ll make some more this weekend!

Here’s a perfect example of my biggest pumpkin related pet peeve.

What exactly is pumpkin about these Pop Rocks? The orange color? Basketballs are orange too. Why not call these Basketball Pop Rocks? Or maybe Clown Fish Pop Rocks? Yum!

Just because you slap an awkward looking pumpkin on the wrapper doesn’t make this a cool seasonal item. Next time, try pumpkin flavored Pop Rocks. Those would be awesome!

A special thank you to our regularly featured Pumpkin Passion hand model, Shannon. We use her services regularly because she’s free, which is probably the reason why she can’t afford hand lotion. Dang! Those are some dry looking fingers! Love you!

Have you ever been to Rutabegorz? It’s a delicious vegetarian friendly restaurant with a funny name. Unfortunately there are only 3 locations and they are all located in Orange County, CA: Fullerton, Orange, and Tustin. Their food is generally healthy but substantial and their menu is extensive. Their salad are amazing and are served in a substantially sized mixing bowl—they’re huge—and their salad dressings are unique and taste homemade.

I’ve been going here for almost 20 years and the food has remained excellent. There are so many great moments I’ve had at Rutabegorz. I met Nomy Lamm at the Fullerton location. She asked my friend and I over to her table and we ended up having dinner with her. It was a memorable night. Mostly, this is my favorite restaurant because it’s where my wife and I had our first date. I suggested we meet there (just in case she was a serial killer) and she was impressed because it was one of her favorite restaurants too. Ahhh…

We went to Rutabegorz again last month and they were in full pumpkin motion. They had pumpkin hummus (only $1), pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin beer (only $2). We tried all of it but the beer. The pumpkin hummus was quickly gobbled up but the soup was not a favorite. It was too tasteless and there were canned mushrooms it, blah! The pumpkin cookie tasted like half of a whoopie without the frosting center. Their pumpkin items weren’t their best items but I still love the place.

There’s still so much going on related to pumpkins even though Halloween is just a distant memory. For instance, I’ve recently tried the pumpkin spice lollipops at See’s Candy and their pumpkin truffles. There were more pumpkin truffles at Godiva Chocolates (review coming soon but don’t rush out and buy them–they were WRONG!) and so many pumpkin waffles that it’s ridiculous.

Lately, I’ve been working on the Etsy shop, which is still under construction. I need a better welcome message and profile page. There are also more photographs that I should take and more items to be listed. However, I thought I’d give my blog readers a look at my favorite scarf that I have up on Etsy. It was hand knit with 100% soft merino wool. The colors are a beautiful warm autumnal palette of oranges, browns, and creams. Perfect for any pumpkin lover!

For the pre grand opening of my store I am offering a 20% discount on any item from now until Thanksgiving. Here’s how to get the discount:

1.) First add an item(s) from my shop to your cart and start the check out process.
2.) Enter the code ”Pumpkin Love” in the ‘notes to seller’ and the email address where the revised invoice should be sent.
3.) Complete the order but do NOT go to Paypal to pay.
4.) You will receive a revised invoice, and a link to complete payment, via email reflecting the discount.

Also, what pumpkin treats are you making for Thanksgiving? A simple pumpkin pie or something more daring? I’m making this.

Disneyland has gone pumpkin crazy! There are pumpkins nearly everywhere you look from the entrance gates, down Mainstreet, all the way to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. There are simply too many items to mention. Some highlight are the giant Mickey Mouse head at the beginning of Mainstreet (pictured above) and the pumpkins carved with Disney characters surrounding the Walt Disney statue at the center of the park.

They even had a pumpkin Mickey Mouse Hat. Of course, I had to get one with my name stitched on the back. I don’t think I’ve had one of those since I was about 6 years old.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted House is the #1 reason to go to Disneyland this season. It’s simply awesome.

While you’re feasting your eyes on all the pumpkin decorations you can also treat your tummy. There’s a pumpkin latte and a pumpkin cupcake at Blue Ribbon Bakery on Mainstreet. The latte was descent but cold and the cupcake was good but the frosting was similar to what you get with grocery store cupcakes. At California Adventure in the Wine Country Trattoria there was a tiramusu with a pumpkin mousse in a take-home ceramic Mickey Mouse mug. It was simply delicious but didn’t taste much like pumpkin. It tasted much more like banana. I wanted to eat 4 of them for a complete set of mugs to take back home. I probably could have eatten them all because the portion is teeny tiny–there’s a disposable plastic cup inside the ceramic cup. The whole thing is little more than the size of a shot glass but it was yummy and super cute.

Since I could never adequately describe all the many pumpkin items, here’s a little montage:

Name: Pumpkin Eggnog Ice Cream
Purchased At: Scoops
Price: it was under $2.50
Availability: Seasonal

Scoops is this really small ice cream shop on an obscure L.A. street. They sell only about 10 or 12 flavors collectively of ice cream, sorbet, and vegan ice cream. The store looks somewhat worn but not in a dirty/not well kept kind of way. It’s more like an establish mom and pop store that’s been around for a while but with a hipster feel to it. There are only a few tables available and the place is almost always packed

What really sets this place apart from all the other ice cream/frozen yogurt stores is their unique flavors of ice cream. Actually, “unique” does not even begin to describe the flavors. For instance, their repertoire of flavors has previously included avocado pale ale, brown bread, pomegranate and yuzu, blueberry and ricotta, pistachio and black pepper, sea salt malt, and pear and lychee sorbet.

I’d been there once before and really liked the ice cream. So, I went back this Saturday after having visited 2 pumpkin festivals in 90 degree weather. I needed something cold and yummy. The place was packed, as usual. While I was scoping out the flavors, Shannon pointed to one of them at the end of the row and my jaw dropped. It was pumpkin eggnog!

If there were more eggnog flavored items in this world I would probably have a blog titled “Eggnog Enthusiast.” I freaking love eggnog! To have pumpkin and eggnog combined in one item made me giddy.

I knew instantly what I was getting. So, I used my taster to try the strawberries with balsamic vinegar flavor. Yum! Shannon tasted the brown bread which she said was good but got a scoop of their chocolate peanut butter. Their scoops are a good size; one is definitely enough.

With eager excitement I sat down to eat my pumpkin eggnog ice cream. I defiantly enjoyed every last bite but it was difficult to taste the pumpkin flavor. The extra nutmeg in the eggnog overpowered the pumpkin. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed because a solo eggnog ice cream would make me jig for joy but I did want more pumpkin flavor.

Even with my minor criticism, I would still recommend Scoops with no hesitation at all. Enjoy!

Rating: 3 out of 5 for the pumpkin eggnog ice cream
Rating: 5 out of 5 for Scoops

I originally found this post on EpiCute: The Cute Food Blog. These are oh-so-very cute!!!

You can find out how to make them yourself over at The Decorated Cookie.

Can you even imagine how adorable these would be sitting on top of a pumpkin cupcake?

Update: Epicute is giving away a Hello Kitty Mimobot. Go sign up quick before the contest ends.

I recently finished reading the book Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. I’d say that it was mostly fluff and read more like a movie script than a novel but it was an enjoyable lazy summer read. Mostly I liked the whimsy of it. There was a woman hiding in a closet for almost the entire story, books that would appear out of nowhere and follow one of the characters around town, a possibly magical red sweater, and some fantastical romances.

One of the main story lines is a secret closet. In the main character’s closet is a small entrance to another closet that’s located in a different room. The main entrance to the secret closet is blocked by a giant armoire. No one else uses the closet or remembers the other entrance. In the closet, she stores travel magazines, romance novels, and lots and lots of candy that she has to sneak into the house and hide from her controlling mother. It got me to thinking about what I would hide if I had my own secret closet. There’s no use in storing candy in my secret closet because I’d eat all of it the same day I brought it in. Cupcakes wouldn’t preserve well and neither would pumpkin pies. I think I’d want to fill it with a collection of babushka dolls and Maneki Neko Beckoning Cats mixed with a few garden gnomes thrown in for the sake of being eclectic. A secret closet has so many possibilities!

I picked up the book while at Costco, mostly because I liked the cover and the title. I’d never heard of the author before. When I flipped open the book to peruse its pages, I opened it to this page:

Of course I had to buy it.

I actually had no idea what a pumpkin mellowcreme was until I did a google search. I was imagining something likes those Idaho Spuds candy bars; something fluffy with pumpkin flavor inside covered in chocolate with a sprinkling of pecans on the outside. Nope! It’s those tiny candy pumpkin that taste like candy corn. They’re only available around Halloween time. Those things make my teeth hurt just thinking about them. My initial guess was that it only takes four ingredients to make the pumkin mellowcreme: sugar, high fructose corn syrup, green food coloring and orange food coloring. I was close; they also contain honey. They taste absolutely nothing like pumpkins.

What I also learned from my google search is that people actually go nuts over these things. There’s even an entire website devoted to the pumpkin mellowcreme. Their tagline is “Debunking the myth that eating them incessantly will kill you.” They have a poem, discussion board, photos, and information on the tiny-pumpkin-looking-tooth-decayers. I thought my blog was super nichey but this one makes me look like a generalist!

Sugar Queen is a thumbs up as a mellow read and pumpkin mellowcremes are a thumbs up only as a cute pumpkin cupcake topper.

Name: Zachary’s Pumpkin Spice Gourmet Candy Corn
Purchased At: Walmart
Price: $3.99
Availability: Seasonal

This season, there’s a strange phenomenon going on with candy corn. There are currently several different types of gourmet candy corn in stores—to me that’s similar to gourmet spam, it just doesn’t exist. Target has a variety of flavors including Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine, Green Apple (plus Chocolate Covered Green Apple), Toffee and S’Mores. This particular Pumpkin Spice Candy Corn was found at Walmart (don’t hate me Sharon!). Even Walmart is carrying gourmet candy corn?!?!

I feel strange even admitting this but these were really good. When I first saw them on the shelves I think I groaned because I knew I had to purchase them for blogging purposes. Candy corn, pumpkin mellowcremes, and all the other similar candies are not my favorite. They are the last eaten and reserved only for sugar emergencies. My expectations were very low, low, low.

These did have a mellow pumpkin spice flavor to them. They were also somewhat soft and almost creamy—let’s just say they were fresh. I enjoy eating them in small quantities sporadically. We’ve had them for almost two weeks now and they are almost gone. This is surprisingly quick for candy corn but slower than a snail’s pace for candy—most candy in our house is gone within two days tops.

I recommend them for lovers of candy corn and pumpkin mellowcremes but others won’t find them all that spectacular.

Rating: 4 out of 5