Bumper crop

Do you call the store Cost Plus, or World Market? It used to be Cost Plus, and now it’s Cost Plus: World Market. My theory is that they’re shying away from the affordable angle, because it’s impossible to walk out of there without spending $50-$100.

Cost Plus: World Market is always packed with pumpkin stuff in the Autumn. If you like baking and cooking mixes, they have a ton of interesting ready mixes that aren’t available in regular grocery stores. I didn’t photograph those because there were SO many of them. Scones, waffle/pancake, muffin, cupcake, etc.

Here’s the one that got away:

I really did want this, but there was just so much of it. I can’t eat all this taffy by myself, and I don’t like taffy enough to try.

 

But I am totally going to eat all of this by myself. Here’s what I brought home that is seasonal.

L-R: Caramel pumpkin coffee, seasonal pumpkin-shaped Peeps, Pumpkin Pie almonds, pumpkin butter, Pumpkin Crunch popcorn, Caramel Apple Sugar Babies, World Market brand pumpkin gnocchi, and Torani coffee house pumpkin pie sauce. That thing in the front is a Cadbury crème egg knockoff meant to look like a bloody eyeball with strawberry goo inside. Charming, no?

 

The pumpkin pie almonds are wonderful. Wonderful. Whole, unsalted almonds covered with spiced white chocolate. They did a good job with the spices. It doesn’t reek of one specific flavor, it has a rich blend. The white chocolate isn’t super sweet, which is nice.

The Caramel Apple Sugar Babies are a fun, artificial treat. They are the same Sugar Daddy base – overly sugary “caramel” - but they’re coated with a bright green artificial apple flavor that tastes just like this gum from my childhood. I really like them!

I don’t really like the pumpkin butter. It’s grainy, and it doesn’t have a lot of flavor. I loved the pumpkin butter I bought in Indiana last year, but I ate it all.

In addition to this stuff, I finally got the Eggo brand pumpkin waffles, and spotted America’s Favorite Cookie, the Oreo! Now tainted orange for your digestive pleasure.

Caramel Apple Milky Ways continue to elude me, but I think I’ve got my work cut out for me with this stuff.

Things I want to eat (and some I don’t)

The Impulsive Buy is full of good news for pumpkin lovers:

Spotted on shelves: pumpkin yogurt, pumpkin coffee creamer, pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin Kisses, and caramel apple Milky Way bars. A review of Dunkin’ Donuts Pumpkin Coffee packs, news about pumpkin spice Pringles, and a review of candy corn Oreos.

I’m not interested in the yogurt (I make my own pumpkin yogurt parfait), or the coffee creamer. I don’t like the pumpkin Kisses since they taste like too much cheap cinnamon, so I don’t need to buy those again, but I really want caramel apple Milky Ways. The candy corn Oreos interested me until I read this review – I don’t need to eat anything that tastes like BLECH canned frosting.

I am most curious about the pumpkin spice Pringles. From the Kellogg's press release: “A Pumpkin Spice flavor from Pringles will also appear as a limited edition offering at Wal-Mart.” Which means, shit, I have to go to Wal-Mart.

Yesterday I made iced coffee and added a splash of Pumpkin Pie syrup. It was delicious, and it kept me up until 3am.

Pumpkin Chowder

SAY IT, FRENCHIE!

I’m not through demeaning you!

One of my super awesome cousins got me this pumpkin sheow-derr packet during her trip to Boston. It was my first experience with dehydrated pumpkin powder.

New England Pumpkin Chowder from Bountiful Pantry

I really appreciate the lack of salt

 

The final product with some finely chopped onion, shredded chicken, salt, pepper, and toasted chopped almonds. It was really good! Not home-made good, but really good for pre-packaged food. It had a hearty texture and smelled like a wonderful combination of cinnamon, spices, and pumpkin.

The dehydrated carrot was better on the second day. I don’t think it had fully re-hydrated, even after 30 minutes of simmering. If I could do it again, I think a little diced celery would be nice; maybe celery would have offset the sweet dried carrot taste a little bit.

The best element to this soup was the texture. Because it isn’t made from fresh or canned pumpkin it is smooth with none of the usual pumpkin graininess. I give it a 4.5/5

I just spent an exorbitant amount on dried pumpkin powder ($2/ounce. what the eff!?), so I’m excited to try it in baked goods that won’t benefit from the heaviness of canned pumpkin. I have always wanted pumpkin cookies that don’t have a cake texture. I’ve also read about people using it in coffee, which I am suspicious of.

Halloween Time

This year’s gingerbread house looked (and SMELLED) fantastic.

Even though it is officially Halloween Time, there were no special seasonal eats yet.

Go away, summer.

Oh, kale no*

Sometime last year I ate an entire bag of “cheesy kale crunch” – dried kale with flavoring. The kale part was crispy and delicious, but the vegan "cheese crunch” was disappointing. Not surprisingly, it didn’t taste like cheese, and it was loaded with salt. To quote Homer, the cheesy kale crunch was not undelicious, I just hated the salty fake flavoring.  I ate the whole bag, drank a gallon of water, and swore to never eat kale chips again.

…which means, of course, that I would soon eat kale chips again. I saw this kale post, and set off to make my own, non-cheez kale chips.

Someday I’ll stop taking pictures with my phone.

The light texture makes kale chips fun to eat. I couldn’t get enough. My Mister was suspicious of dried kale as a snack food, but after he tasted them I had to share. Next time I’ll make two bunches (or I won’t share).

It’s so easy:

Ingredients
1 bunch kale
Oil
Seasoning
Parchment paper

Method
Pre-heat oven to 250

Wash and thoroughly dry the kale
Cut the thick center stalk out of each leaf (or it’s stringy and gross)
Cut each leaf into cracker-sized pieces

In a bowl, mix kale and a small amount of oil (I used olive).
(Lots of recipes say to brush each leaf with a pastry brush dipped in oil. I used my hands)
Make sure each side of each leaf is coated in oil

Spread kale on parchment-lined cookie sheet
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (or whatever you like)
Bake for about 35 minutes

It’s a bit like eating seaweed, only I think kale tastes better.

There’s a malanga in the fridge, patiently waiting to be turned into chips. Every time I open the refrigerator door, I try to remember when I bought a tiny ham.

*Alternate title: Oh, here go kale come

Mini pies

I’m generally really happy with Breville products, but I don’t know how to feel about the Personal Pie cooker.

The positives:
It makes adorable pies

The negatives:
Forced to store a uni-tasker
The edges of the crust always burn
More work than making normal-sized pies

The first thing I did was whip up 5 (FIVE!) batches of Martha Stewart’s Pate Brisee – the easiest pie crust ever. The dough was rolled and cut with the special tool that is included with the Personal Pie. It’s a round cutter that makes the “perfect” size pie crust for the Personal Pie.

I let the piemaker heat up for 3-4 cycles before pressing each mini pie crust into the machine’s cavity.

First, it was a stressful procedure. While the piemaker was cooking the bottoms of the placed crusts, I had to quickly and carefully press the next raw crust circle into the cavity. Even when I was being extremely gentle, I tore most of the crusts. The Personal Pie does include a pusher to get the crust in, but I found it to be useless until I’d mostly pushed each crust into place by hand.

I filled each pie crust with about 1/3 c quiche mixture (1oz milk for each egg, lots of herbs, bacon, shredded cheese, and some green veg), closed the piemaker, and waited…

While you wait, my favorite piemaker.

I heard sizzling and saw steam and I could not wait to see my adorable pies.

After about 12 minutes, I opened the lid and carefully extracted each pie with this specialty tool (another point against the piemaker – specialty tools are needed)

This thing. Obviously, this is not my photo.

 

It was really disappointing to see that the edge of each crust was burned. If I’d cooked for less time, the filling would have been runny. Many comments on the Breville site also complain of the edges burning. I really couldn’t see a way around it. Even with the silly pie tool, I broke a lot of pie crusts as I was lifting them out of the Personal Pie.

It tasted good, and it was adorable, but also burned.

 

When I make pies in the oven, I usually wrap foil around the edges. With the Personal Pie, there’s no way to wrap foil around the edges because the unit presses the dough at the edges, and cooks it from both sides.

 

I tried my hand at cooking some plain shells for a pudding-style pie, and those didn’t look very nice either. (lazy recipe: chocolate pudding mix, cream cheese, and cool whip. don’t judge me)

 

Chocolate pudding pies

Another annoying element of the piemaker is that the template cutter makes pie crusts that are too big. Look how much crust flash there is (outside the sculpted part of the crust).

I like double crust pies a lot, but you can’t make them in the normal way with the Personal Pie. The manual says that puff pastry should be used on top instead of regular pie crust dough, or else the pie won’t cook properly.

I still have about 14 mini pie crusts in the freezer, but I’m not in any rush to make more mini pies. It is kind of fun, and they are cute, but one big pie is a lot less work and a lot more satisfying.

You can eat mini pies with a knife and fork, but I found it to be easier to just pick it up the pie and eat it. One mini quiche with a salad was enough for a full meal.

Additionally, and I’m not trying to bash the piemaker anymore than I already have, the Personal Pie manual says that large bread can be substituted for pie crust. I call bullshit. I tried it, and it was a waste of time. Large slices of Oroweat wheat bread wouldn’t quite fill the circle template, and when I attempted to push the bread into the cavity with the pusher, it was clear that there would be no room for filling. I ended up making Mr. Crispys* the old fashioned way.

*In my house, we call Croque Monsieur sandwiches Mister Crispy. Because we’re dorks, and because I can’t spell monsieur without looking it up.