I would like to introduce myself, I am Shannon–the famous “pumpkin passion” hand model and wife of Yvette. I am the new guest blogger on pumpkinpassion.com for the pumpkin growing section.
About a month ago we were at Home Depot when Yvette and I found these cute little plastic “greenhouse” kits with Sesame Street characters on the carton. They were labeled “My First Greenhouse”. We fell in love with them and knew that pumpkin growing needed to be blogged. Consequently, I figured this year I could buckle down and grow my own pumpkin patch. It would save us some money, I could be a rockin’ farmer person and it would be fun to document our progress on the blog.
Let me give you some of my back ground…I am not a farmer. I have never grown anything, possibly a houseplant but nothing to really boast about at backyard barbecues. The most farming/gardening experience I have ever had would be picking raspberries on a ranch up in Oak Glen, CA or being a “digital” farmer on everyone’s favorite networking site. Clearly this is a completely new experience, the choices I will make in this journey will be based off of info I locate on the web, maybe some advice from friends and hopefully a little common sense. So let’s see if we can get some pumpkins to sprout.
It’s time! I made a recent trip to the craft store, Michaels, and found a whole section of paraphernalia, stuff, decorations, thingamajigs, and junk for the fall season. As we all know, the return of the fall season means a return to pumpkins!
I am officially dusting off pumpkinpassion.com and officially welcoming the 2010 Pumpkin Eatin’ Season! Welcome back.
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!
Happy New Year! There’s so much exciting pumpkin news to report already. In fact, by noon on January 1, 2010, I already had something to share.
For reasons that are currently beyond me, Shannon and I decided to go the Rose Parade. We were supposed to go last year but the 4 a.m. alarm was promptly turned off and ignored. This year we got all riled up to go and managed to get ourselves out of bed at an ungodly early hour. I’d never been and Shannon hadn’t been since childhood. It just sounds like something you’ve got to do at least once if you live in Southern California. Why not?
Here’s why not: We had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. in order to get dressed and drive to Union Station by 5:30 a.m. We saw the sun come up on the packed Metro Gold Line ride from Union Station to Pasadena. Then we walked and walked and walked to find a place to stand that did not have the stench of bacon wrapped hotdogs cooking upwind from us. Stumbling out of a bar at 2:00 a.m., the things don’t smell as bad, but OMG! SERIOUSLY! I do NOT want to smell a bacon wrapped hot dog at 6:00 a.m.! Do other places have bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors? Please someone tell me!!! I need to know!
Finally, we found a spot in a doorway of a used bookstore. As we stood there with all the many sleepy people who were crazy enough to sleep out on the streets of Pasadena just to be 8 feet closer to the floats than we were, 6 teenagers came and stood next to us. This was our second mistake (the first was waking up). We should have moved when they first started to get annoying, but we felt like we’d already staked this spot out and it was ours, dang it! So, when a few of them left and came back with bacon wrapped hotdogs we cringed but stayed put.
Another thing to know is that there was a walkway between us and those in their sleeping bags. It was just a thin path allowing people to get past in a single file line. This tiny empty spot wasn’t wide enough for people to get past without constantly bumping in to us and others. Hours and hours of crowds bumping in to me while I’m just trying to take a couple of pictures of the floats wore on my sleepy nerves.
The entire combination of annoying teenagers (I mean REALLY annoying, not the typical level of teenage annoyance), stinky people who hadn’t showered in a while because they’d been sleeping on the street; the smell of bacon wrapped hot dogs with the grilled onions that were served with them; the lag time between floats, which lasted as long as 10 minutes; constantly being bumped into by the throngs of people; entitled Orange County parade watchers; standing for 6 hours; no coffee; only port-a-pottys; growing hunger; and the floats looked a lot smaller than they do on television all made us go a little wacky and I may have flipped off the group of teenagers as we left the parade early.
We got the heck out of there before the crowds completely flooded the Metro Gold Line and headed back home. Since we’d been up since 4 a.m. and it was now noon, we decided to stop off at Island’s Burgers for our farewell meal to fatty foods before starting the traditional New Year’s Resolution diet. As we were seated, I noticed their televisions were showing the Rose Parade and better yet they were showing the last float we saw before we were completely fed up and left. We got to see the rest of the parade from our comfy restaurant booth while eating a juicy bacon cheese burger…just like God had intended!
Unfortunately, that’s when we saw the pumpkins on the floats! Dang it! How was I supposed to blog about the Rose Parade with out pictures of the pumpkins! We decided (mistake #3, if you’re counting) to go to the float viewing the next day. After the parade the floats are parked in Pasadena and people can pay to go walk by the floats and see them up close. It sounded like a great idea.
What we didn’t know was how incredibly crowded it gets and how FREAKIN’ hot it was going to be! The place was PACKED and the temperature was unseasonably hot even for Southern California. We were sweating buckets and I even got sunburned. However, I did get pictures of the pumpkins.
There were three floats with pumpkins on them. The first and largest pumpkin display was on the Kaiser Permanente float, “Magnificent Tales of Health,” which had the best pumpkin display and wins the unofficial Pumpkin Passion Trophy. In lesser news, the float also won the official Extraordinaire Trophy. Two other floats also included either decorated pumpkins or actual pumpkins on their floats. I liked the Kiwanis International float titled “Above the Rest.” It won the Craftsman Trohpy and the Isabella Coleman Award for best presentation of color and harmony through floral use. The City of Duarte/City of Hope float titled “Harvesting Good Health” won the Past Presidents’ Award for the most creative use of floral and non-floral elements. I can’t say with 100% certainty that it was their intention to have pumpkins on their float because they kind of looked like oranges.
Please enjoy the photos! It’ll be a LONG time before I go back.
Name: Desert Essence’s Pumpkin Hand Repair Cream Purchased At: Under my Christmas Tree Price: $8.99ish Availability: Year Round
My brain is so very fuzzy! I’m in a post holiday funk and my brain wants to nap and watch HGTV and Season 1 of Glee on dvd. The focus necessary for work has been hard to come by these last few days. The holidays were so fun that I haven’t accepted that they are over. I refuse to take down my Hello Kitty holiday lights handing in my office until it’s humiliatingly necessary . . . perhaps Easter.
My wonderful holiday included being gifted several pumpkin themed gifts and the Desert Essence’s pumpkin hand repair cream is one of my favorites. I’m obsessed with lotion, especially at work because I wash my hands numerous times throughout the day . . . probably because at my desk in where I drink my 8 cups of water a day. This lotion smells really unique and it took me a day or two before I decided that I really liked it. The smell is strongly vanilla and slightly caramel but it is still reminiscent of pumpkin. It’s also not greasy. Good stuff and Thank You Lynn!
Jess at Du Wax Loolu, one of my favorite bloggers, posted this morning that pseudostoops is doing a blog donation giveaway! Not only is pseudostoops giving 50 cents to charity for each comment on these three posts, but now Swistle is in on the fun, and will be adding another 25 cents per comment.
So, head over there, post a quick comment on each of those three posts, and know that you’ve done your part to help someone else, just that little bit. For free!
AND, you can vote on which of five charities should be the one to receive an additional $50 donation.
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.
In addition to my love of pumpkin, all things cute, anything with sugar, eggnog, and etsy, I also have a minor obsession with cupcakes. They perfectly combine my love of all things cute and anything with sugar and sometimes they are even pumpkin flavored. The trifecta, however, has never been successfully accomplished. I guess pumpkin cupcakes are so simple that they’re complicated.
I’ve ranted several times before about my pet peeve when it comes to pumpkin cupcakes: people treat pumpkin cupcakes like carrot cupcakes. Carrot cupcakes typically have a stronger combination of flavors; in addition to carrots, there are walnuts, raisins and cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese has a naturally sour taste that stands up well to a carrot cupcake. Cupcake shops also tend to top pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting but the flavor of the frosting over powers the delicately flavored pumpkin cake. My search for the perfect pumpkin cupcake had therefore been futile.
This year I’ve had a more successful run with pumpkin cupcake. I’ve enjoyed two cupcakes this year and both are on the same block. Soon all of Los Angeles will have two cupcake shops on every block, which is 3 less than the number of Starbucks currently on every block.
The first pumpkin cupcake I had this year was at Crumbs in Larchmont, CA. Their pumpkin cupcake was different but in a good way. The walnuts on top and the drizzle of chocolate were a nice touch. The frosting may have had some cream cheese but it was very light–if there was any at all. Maybe it was the orange color of the frosting but I kept also tasting some orange flavoring. The pumpkin cupcake was strongly flavored and moist–definitely enjoyable.
Today we went to the Village Pizzeria in Larmont (their pizza is amazing) and we walked past a new coffee shop called the Larchmont Bungalow. We could see their pastry case from the street and it appeared to be filled with yummy looking cupcakes and other sweets.
We decided to stop by on our way back to the car and take a closer look. The cafe is beautiful. There’s a counter full of orchids and a relaxing outside patio. The back half of the café is also a sit down restaurant that serves primarily brunch items and also sandwiches and salad. We saw red velvet pancakes on their menu. What did I just say?!?! YES! RED VELVET PANCAKES.
The desserts are divine looking. We got two red velvet cupcakes, a chocolate ganache, and I ordered the pumpkin cupcake. I also got a cup of coffee that was strong yet devoid of any bitterness–an absolute must try for coffee snobs.
When I came back to the office I meant to wait until at least 3:00 p.m. but that was wishful thinking and so out of the brown bag it went and into my tummy.
I have to say, the pumpkin shaped disk on top threw me a little. I wasn’t sure if it was paper, that foamy stuff used for kids’ crafts, or if it were actually edible. Sprinkles has similar looking dots on top of their cupcakes and they are simply horrible. They’re so bad that you’d think you’re eating a Tiddlywink, blah! Their hand-drawn pumpkin thing was surprisingly tasty. Not too sweet and not hard. I’d describe is as sweet and foamy but it looks a little cheesy–kind of like a grade school Thanksgiving Day art project.
The frosting is a simple buttercream dusted with cinnamon–excellent choice–and the cake is nicely spiced and plenty tasty. I think this is my favorite pumpkin cupcake that I’ve had so far. Also, it’s the LARGEST cupcake I’ve had. This sucker is huge.
A special THANK YOU! goes out to Terrye who purchased both cupcakes for me. You’re sweet!
Question of the Day: Am I the only one who doesn’t like cream cheese frosting on pumpkin cupcakes? Just curious.
