Pumpkin Passion

Name: Kashi’s TLC Fruit & Grain Bars in Pumpkin Pie
Purchased At: Target
Price: $5ish
Availability: Year Round

Finding pumpkin products on the shelf of my supermarket in the month of May is always a little strange but nice. This was true of Kashi’s TLC Fruit & Grain Bars in Pumpkin Pie. I wasn't that surprised to find them in Spring because Kashi also has a year-round TLC Crunchy Granola Bars in Pumpkin Spice Flax (omg, how many names can a company give one granola bar), which I like but think the pumpkin flavor was nearly nonexistent—it seems like more than a stretch to call them “pumpkin spice.”

This previous experience squelched my excitement to try the TLC Fruit & Grain Bars in Pumpkin Pie but I figured I give them a shot. After all, pumpkin products in May are slim pickings. The wife tried them first and gave it a poor verbal review. She thought the top layer was a strange texture and the flavor was all wrong. I was subsequently even less excited and left them in the cupboard for weeks before a search for garbanzo beans turned them up again.

Begrudgingly I ate one at my desk at work in a moment of 3 o'clock hunger. After all, it's a healthy snack back with only 120 calories but they’re so not worth it. Yuck!

From the picture on the box you can see that these bars are in two layers. The first is a dry oat layer and the second is a spongeier layer-of-mystery with pecans on top. I have no idea what the mystery layer is about. It's somewhere in texture between a very firm jell-o and a nonsticky caramel but tastes similar to licking a cinnamon stick. The picture on the box also shows a generous amount of pecans on the top layer of the bar. In reality there's only about 5 small pieces of pecans stuck into the top layer.

I'm beginning to think that Kashi considers “pumpkin” to be synonymous with cinnamon. I checked to see if there possibly some pumpkin seeds in the bar. I'll forgive a product that tastes nothing like pumpkin if it includes pumpkin seed--the seeds don't have a very distinctive flavor. The check turned up actual pumpkin puree and dried pumpkin but both were down towards the bottom of the ingredient list.

Rating: I give it a 1 out of 5. However, I will finish off the box so they must not be entirely disgusting.

I'm trying something new! It's called "Photo Fridays." Every Friday I'll post a pumpkin picture that I find interesting but don't have a lot (or anything) to say about it. This way I'll have no excuse not to post at least once a week! Here's the first photo:



Pumpkins & Cupcakes=Sweet!

photo by clevercupcakes

After a random connection led us to the topic of Christmas in the month of May, a friend of mine made the observation that her girlfriend can take any discussion and always bring it back to the topic of sex and my wife can bring any discussion and bring it back to Christmas. Ohhh so VERY true!!! My topic is, of course, pumpkins.

To test this theory I’m going to try blogging in the off season and bringing my discussions back to pumpkins. When I started thinking about using pumpkins as a spring board for this blog I began noticing that pumpkins really are everywhere. To prove this theory I bring you the topics of a painfully annoying commute and a new pretty little PC.

I really do have a painfully annoying commute. It’s two hours to work and two hours home. The morning isn’t all that bad. Mostly I spend it asleep on the train and, when awake, praying that I don’t snore too loud when I fall back to sleep. The two hours on the way home are the most annoying. I just want to get home, relax and add a little fun to my day. The train ride home is not relaxing or fun. There’s a woman sitting across from me right now who’s LOUDLY talking on her cell phone in Spanish. I’m grateful at least that she’s speaking a language I’ve flunked several times over. In these close quarters, I’ve heard many a cell phone and personal conversations I never wanted to hear: There was the woman discussing the gynecologists visit she’s on her way to; the guy discussing in detail all the groceries he purchased over the weekend; the man showing the woman he’s sitting next to naked pictures of himself; the woman who whispers “Target” when it comes up in conversation as though she’d gone to a nuddie bar and must hide it in shame; and the crazy woman who swears her ID doesn’t look like her because 5 female San Bernardino Police Officers beat her up the night before she had to have her ID picture taken. There’s been so many details of people lives that I really don’t need to know forced upon me by oblivious commuters (the cell phone discussion is still going on and has gotten even louder, ugh!).

I’ve tried many a things to take my mind of the annoyances and to make this time at least somewhat productive--I’ve knitted many a scarves; done some needlepoint, with pricks in my fingers to prove it; Nintendo DC; the solitaire game on my cell phone; podcasts on the ipod; reading can only keep me interested for so long when I’ve just spent 8 hours reading article after article on family planning for work. My latest scheme to keep me entertained is my brand spankin’ new EEE PC, which was delivered to me less than 8 hours ago. It’s so bright, shiny, and new. I love it! Besides, a good electronics purchase is a guaranteed mood up lifter.

So yes, I can lead a discussion of an annoying commute and a new Laptot back to pumpkins because now I can blog about pumpkins even more . . . Oh yeah, and I named my little PC “Lil’ Pumpkin.” Too cute!

You know how it is when you don’t call a friend for a while and then you start feeling guilty so you don’t call them some more because you don’t want to get called out on your neglectfulness? Well that’s how I feel about pumpkinpassion.

I’m caught because pumpkin is ridiculously seasonal (HELLO! I live in Southern California where I can get just about any fruit or vegetable throughout the year. Why not pumpkins?). Do I close the blog down between the months of February through August or do I expand it in such away that I can post the entire year? I’m still caught on how I would expand it but there are a couple of thoughts floating around my head. We’ll soon see which wins.

For now, here is a very cute pumpkin find made today:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

A Special "Thank You" to timaree for leading me to the "Yes We Carve" website that has a whole patch of Obama related pumpkins:




Here's the winner of their Obama pumpkin carving contest:




I'd definitely give it a 5 out of 5!

I love this photo and I simply had to share it.

More blogs to come after the elections...I swear!


11/4/08 Update:
The pumpkin endorsements keep rolling in . . .

There’s only one thing wrong with Pumpkin Eatin’ Season…it coincides with election season. UGH! Work is unbelievably busy as we try to save California’s Family PACT program and stop Proposition 4 from passing in November. Consequently, I’ve been using my lunch breaks to try and rescue family planning services instead of crafting blogs… Pumpkins must wait for some things. If everyone would just take a moment and look at the “No on 4” and the “No on 8” websites I would really appreciate your effort and I’d feel less guilty about not working on a flyer for “No on 4” phonebanking!

Even with this crazy schedule I simply had to share my latest find. During a very hectic morning I took a brief mental break and stumbled across Cupcakes A Go-Go’s website where I found their pumpkin pie cupcake pictured above. They are so freaking adorable. Unfortunately they’re not pumpkin flavored, which is SO nuts! Oh well, Sarasota Florida is too far to get one anyway. I guess I’ll just have to make my own.

Name: Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch
Purchased At: Yucaipa, CA
Price: Free Admission!
Availability: Seasonal

If I were going to sit in a pumpkin patch Halloween night to wait for the Great Pumpkin to arrive, the Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch would be the one. If you don’t know about the Great Pumpkin, he’s the unseen star of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” The story goes that on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises from his pumpkin patch and flies through the air to deliver toys to all the children. However, he’s not like Santa…he’s more location specific. He doesn’t distribute toys to all the children everywhere. He only gives them to the children that he finds in his pumpkin patch.

The challenge is to try and find his pumpkin patch. Linus provides us with some hints on finding the correct patch,

“The Great Pumpkin always picks the most sincere pumpkin patch to rise out of. He's just gotta pick this pumpkin patch. He's just gotta! Look around. You can see that there' not a sign of hypocrisy anywhere. Nothing but sincerity reaching out as far as the eye can see.”
“Hey, aren't you going to stay to greet the Great Pumpkin? Huh? It won't be long now. If the Great Pumpkin comes, I'll still put in a good word for you!” [realizing what he just said] “Good grief! I said ‘if’! I meant, ‘when’ he comes! I'm doomed. One little slip like that could cause the Great Pumpkin to pass you by. Oh, Great Pumpkin, where are you?”

So, sincerity and complete and utter faith are your best bets to getting the Great Pumpkin to your patch and I do believe that the Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch has both. Today was my second visit to the Live Oak Canyon this season and I’m totally entranced by the place.

The first time we went was on opening weekend. Most of our time was spent in the gift shop. I’ve never been in one place that had so many pumpkin knickknacks. The best purchase EVER was 3 Halloween cupcakes! So very cute and when we went back only two ugly ones were left. Then, we picked a little tiny cute pumpkin. Her name is Francis and she’s the first pumpkin I’ve ever picked directly off the vine.

We were pretty overwhelmed the first time we went because of the sheer size of the place and how many pumpkins there were to look at. This time we went with a purpose, a bale of hay for our front porch and to take pictures. My camera was stolen from my car and the first time we went I only had my cell phone camera which sucks, big time. We spent time in the pumpkin patch searching for the perfect pumpkin and taking pictures of all the many types of pumpkins they have for sale. I’ve never seen so many varieties. It made me feel a little lazy, like I haven’t been doing my pumpkin duty by learning all of varieties.

There’s so much to do! It’s a kids’ paradise with lots of bouncy things and mini John Deere tractors to ride. There’s a couple of snacky type of food booths…but none that we saw with pumpkin eats. You can also take a tour of the grounds on the back of a truck bed or just take sit and watch the crowds go by.

I love this place! You should go soon because it’s getting picked over quickly. I could find the perfect pumpkin in the variety I wanted. You can see all of our pumpkin patch pictures here.

Rating: 5 out of 5

I’ve already ruined my personal goal of posting a blog entry every Monday for all of the 2008 Pumpkin Eatin’ Season. My excuse is as follow: Last week was the craziest work week ever in my entire working life. I could have used a case of pumpkin wine and have still not forgotten my troubles. It feels a little like the sky is falling and my only hope is that on November 5th we’ll see some actual change.

To forget my troubles, I’ve recently had some excellent pumpkin filled weekends . . . . . but for this post I’m forgoing the excellent. Oftentimes, I’m quick to post about the really awful pumpkin finds or the really awesome pumpkin finds. The mediocre ones get pushed to the side and forgotten. Not this time! This is my mediocre pumpkin post.

First off….



Name: Jack’s Pumpkin Whoopie
Purchased At: West Coast Whoopies in Calimesa, CA
Price: $2.50
Availability: Year Round

From the first moment I was told about Whoopies I’ve wanted to try them. The one thing I possibly love almost as much as pumpkins are cupcakes and since Whoopies are a variation on the cupcake I was totally excited to hear about them. A Whoopie is like a crème-filled cookie but it’s more like if you took the tops off two cupcakes and used them for the cookies but put the frosting in the middle, which sounds great. The only thing wrong with cupcakes are the wrappers and this eliminates that step.

We set out to get ourselves a Whoopie and when we pulled up to the shop I noticed the sign outside read PUMPKIN Whoopies. Yea! We got one pumpkin and one chocolate with peanut butter frosting. I took a bite of the chocolate one right outside of the shop but was unimpressed. They seemed dry and ordinary. The pumpkin Whoopies are frozen so we decided to take them home and have them later in the day.

I was hoping that my patience would be rewarded but it wasn’t. They aren’t horrible but they’re nothing special. They made the classic mistake of using a vanilla cream cheese frosting, which I have bemoaned frequently on this blog, and the cake was dry and uneventful.

Yawn, we probably won’t be going back but it did spawn the idea that if I’m going to ask the bakers of the world to STOP using cream cheese frosting then I have to come up with an alternative. Keep watching because I’m going to try out a variety of frosting recipes until I come up with the perfect one for pumpkin cupcakes.

Rating: 2 out of 5




Name: Phenomenal Pumpkin Spice Cookie
Purchased At: Nearly Every Independent Coffee Shop in Southern California
Price: $3.00ish
Availability: Year Round

I buy the “Phenomenal Pumpkin Spice” (their use of the term “phenomenal,” not mine) cookies made buy the Alternative Baking Company too often. I see them year round and I’m always thinking that I really should blog about them but they’re just too boring to say much about. The taste is decently pumpkinish but the cookie ends up feeling like a ball of lead in my stomach. It’s probably because it’s vegan but the texture is Dense with a capital “D.” Another mark against it is that one cookie has 440 calories and it is sooo not worth it.

Rating: 2 out of 5




Name: Mini Pumpkin Pie
Purchased At: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Price: $2.25
Availability: Seasonal

The mini pumpkin pie at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf looked cute in the pastry case but was a yawner. It’s mostly crust and the dollop of whipped cream is rubbery and artificial.

Rating: 2 out of 5




Name: Pumpkin Latte
Purchased At: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Price: $3.75
Availability: Seasonal

It tasted better than the Starbucks’ version but not by much.

Rating: 3 out of 5




Name: Pumpkin Loaf
Purchased At: Starbucks
Price: Forgotten
Availability: Seasonal

There is nothing new at Starbucks in the way of pumpkin treats. It’s all the same old stuff that they’ve had for the past few years. Maybe they think they can trick us into thinking the pumpkin loaf is new because this year because they put crushed pumpkin seeds on top instead of the cream cheese frosting with the tiny candied ginger pieces like every other year but it’s soo not new. I prefer it the old way.

Blah, Blah, Blah . . . it’s fine but boring.

Rating: 2 out of 5



Wow! I’m kind of caught up now. I’ve also made some great pumpkin finds and I’ll post them soon. Hopefully you are still awake after all this boredom.

I found this treasure in my inbox a few days ago. Now if I could just find it in my grocer's freezer! Here's the word from the Ben & Jerry's website:

Fall is right around the corner. Doesn't it make you start craving foods like apple cider, butternut squash, and Pumpkin Cheesecake!? That's right!

Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream with a Graham Cracker Swirl.

This favorite seasonal flavor can be found in select retail stores for a limited time.

Name: Pumpkin Empanada
Purchased At: La Fuente
Price: $.60
Availability: Not Sure

I recently moved from my city of the last ten years, Long Beach, CA, to the Inland Empire. If you’re not familiar with these two places let me paint you a picture: Long Beach is a large urban beach town that is strongly liberal and has an ultra adorable gay ghetto; The Inland Empire is practically the desert, is hotter than freaking hot all the time, has probably never been called “ultra adorable,” is majorly conservative, and we’ve already had a “Yes on 8” flyer put on our door.

As a result, I was feeling a little homesick and wondering if I would ever adjust to this strange place when I asked Shannon if there was a place to get Mexican pastries. She took me to La Fuente, a bakery/food-to-go in San Bernardino that, in addition to selling pastries, has tamales (that are supposedly really good) menudo, rellenos, and tortillas.

I’d been waiting for a few days to get my pastry because the first time we went there was a big sign on the door saying “Back on September 1st.” Well, I was back on September 1st early in the morning to find cases of yummy looking stuff. I had a difficult time not getting one of every thing.

On the back side of one of the case were the empanadas and on the bottom shelf was a pumpkin empanada! Here it was, the first day of Pumpkin Eatin’ Season, and I’d found my first product and it was in my new hometown. I was so excited.

I can’t help but compare this empanada with the last pumpkin empanada I had at Starbucks. This one was simpler with no cinnamon sugar baked on top and the crust was moist rather than flakey. However, the biggest difference was in the filling. The pumpkin filling was simple yet delicious. If there was any cinnamon or nutmeg in the filling it was minimal and there was not artificial aftertaste like the one at Starbucks, which doesn’t look like it will be back this year.

It was pointed out to me that this was their first day back from vacation so everything was probably made that morning. The pastries were certainly fresh and delicious!

Rating: 4 out of 5

Ho-Hum, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks.




I still give it only a 2.

Name: Three Lakes Winery’s Pumpkin Wine
Purchased At: It was a gift
Price: $9.95
Availability: Seasonal

I’ve always considered September 1st to be the official kick-off to Pumpkin Eatin’ Season. To celebrate the arrival of another pumpkin season, I would like to propose a toast with Three Lakes Winery’s Pumpkin Wine. WTF, did I say pumpkin wine? Yup, I did.

This was given to me by a friend from work who also deserves a toast because he was married over Labor Day weekend. Congratulations Andrew! I wish you nothing but happiness. He got it for me on a trip to Chicago but if I’m not mistaken it was purchased on a drive to Milwaukee at a location I can’t remember.

The Three Lakes Winery is located in Three Lakes Wisconsin and specializes in fruity dessert-like wine. They have other interesting flavors like blueberry, cranberry, and apricot. The website says that the pumpkin wine was originally made only for the Three Lakes' PumpkinFest. They currently offer it in limited quantities during the fall season.

The winery describes the pumpkin wine as “It IS actually made only from pie pumpkins, and the smooth, pleasant flavor surprises all who try it at our Tasting Counter because it DOESN'T taste like pumpkin pie. It has been described as having qualities of a semi-sweet Chardonnay, and we have yet to find another Pumpkin Wine made by anyone.” Well, they weren’t kidding about the “DOESN’T taste like pumpkin pie.” Unless you saw the bottle, you would never know it was made from pumpkins but I can’t really begrudge them. Pumpkins don’t have a particularly strong taste. However, I wouldn’t have described it as a semi-sweet wine. It’s really sweet but I like sweet wines.

I shared it with three other people. One person hated it and described it as GROSS (she’s super picky) but everyone else, including myself, gave it was a lukewarm good. It tastes different than what you’d expect. There’s an indescribable aftertaste that isn’t bad but not great either. It only took one glass to get my cheeks red and to make me a tad bit tipsy.

I think the novelty factor of serving a pumpkin wine at Thanksgiving or at a fall dinner party is this wine’s best asset. I would purchase and drink this wine again but it's not something I'll hope becomes available all year round.

Rating: 3 out of 5

It seems as if others are just as eager for the return of fall and pumpkins as I am. Comments have increase this month and I appreciate every one of them.

Also, people have been sending me some interesting looking pumpkin finds. Coincidentally, they’ve both been found in other countries.



The first is from Kat who found Pumpkin Beef flavored Soup mix at a grocery store in Barbados. It’s from a company out of Jamaica called Grace. I’m not sure if she tried it or not but this website describes it as “This spicy noodle soup is great eaten by itself or to enhance the flavor of your favorite beef, chicken or vegetable soup.”



Another PumpkinPassion.com visitor, Randy, pointed out a Japanese product Pumpkin Pretz. When he first mentioned them I thought of Pumpkin Pocky, which are like a stick cookie dipped in chocolate. But the Pretz sound more like a savory cracker rather than a cookie. Randy describes them by saying, “I spend a fair amount of time in Japan and found a crunchy snack treat called 'Pretz'. Along with regular flavors such as basil, and tomato, they make a pumpkin version as well. The taste was curious to me at first and I thought maybe I didn't like it. But after chowing down a few, I could not put them down so easily.”

I’ll have to go on the hunt for both of these soon.

Name: Pumpkin Pie
Purchased At: Hof’s Hut
Price: $5.99
Availability: Year Round

Remember my last blog about early pumpkin sightings? Well, I failed to mention that I was in such a pumpkin mood that I had to run out and buy myself some pumpkin pie from Hof’s Hut. While eating my mini pumpkin pie I couldn’t remember if I’d ever blogged about them. It turns out that I never have, which is surprising because I probably eat these more than any other pumpkin product.

There are tons of different pumpkin pies in the world but Hof’s Hut pumpkin pie is my Go-To pie when I need some comfort food. It’s not fancy. There’s no pecan crust or spices plucked directly from a tree only moments before being grated and baked into a $50 pie. Nope, it’s just your simple pumpkin pie that tastes so much better than mom’s...if your mom, like mine, made hers by taking a cardboard box home from the freezer section of the grocery store.

What makes this pumpkin pie my favorite is 3-fold:

1.) Crust: There’s plenty of yummy tasting crust because it’s a mini pie and it tastes fresh.
2.) Filling: It’s properly seasoned with enough cinnamon and nutmeg plus they serve it chilled so the texture is firm like a proper pumpkin pie should be.
3.) Topping: They give you plenty of real whipped cream if you pay a few quarters extra.

There’s simply nothing to complain about. It’s a good pie but it clearly doesn’t inspire me to scream it from the mountains or even to previously blog about it.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Mostly for its “comfort food” qualities and its simplicity.