Betty Crocker Quick Cookies

Weird Ass Candy

Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows

 

Holy crap these things are awesome! They add to pumpkin to everything. I've used them in my hot chocolate and I've made two batches of Rice Krispy Treats with 'em. Maybe I'll try some s'mores!

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Wasatch Pumpkin Ale

Beer from Utah. Gift from my boss. Decent pumpkin ale, good pumpkin flavor, but doesn't mix well. A lot like the Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale, like soda water with pumpkin flavor. Worth a taste, but not much of a repeat purchase.

Planters Pumpkin Spice Almonds

And another food manufacturer jumps on the pumpkin bandwagon. Well, hello Mr. Peanut! Mr. P is happy to present his "Pumpkin Spice Almonds" for your consumption.

Damn, these things are good... they remind more of cookies than nuts. Heavily dusted with the pumpkin spice mixture, these things are just phenomenal. Brilliant even. So good that, I'll have to try the next Limited Edition Seasonal Flavor, Creme Brulee!

Fried Pumpkin Pie from some place attached to a gas station off I-45

So, stopped for a leg stretch potty break while transporting 2 Pit Bulls from DFW area shelters to rescue group near Conroe. The gas station where I stopped (in scenic Buffalo) had this Fried Pie Store attached to it. Normally, I don't pay much attention to roadside pie shops because, well, THEY ARE ROADSIDE PIE SHOPS! But this one caught my eye with the handmade "We have pumpkin and sweet potato pies."
Now, from my experience, most "fresh" or handheld fried-style pumpkin pies are generally on the low end of good (Whataburger, McDonald's) although the Northern TastyKake pies are actually pretty decent. I think I have an idea why that is.
In my neck of the woods, there is a Mindy Lu pie factory/outlet store where they make the pies that the ship out to local shops (for local people). They also keep some on hand that are fresh and hot for folks to pickup. I had bugged these folks 2 or 3 times about making pumpkin pies and they finally explained the problem. Apparently, fresh pumpkin has a short shelf life unless it is all preservatived up. They haven't come up with a recipe they deem worthy of selling.
But that doesn't stop Gas Station Carnies from doing it.
As you can see, it's a large half moon thing, kind of like a calzone. Since they also make meat pies, that isn't surprising (I thought about trying one of those too, but didn't want to wait). The crust is pretty good... Very similar to funnel cake. That is a major yum factor.
The pumpkin filling was disappointing and pretty much supported Mindy Lu's assertion. It did have some pumpkin flavor, but it was also heavily influenced by a lemony citrus flavor, which I'm pretty sure was something to give it a longer life. Also, it had the consistency of apple butter... And some of that flavor too.
This will never replace a good ol' fashioned pumpkin pie. Still, I don't regret getting it because it was the only thing I had to eat while I sat in traffic while the idiot holiday drivers made fools of themselves.

Blue Bell Spiced Pumpkin Pecan

I think this first showed up last year. I didn't try it because I really didn't want to buy a full half gallon of it, mainly because I hate pecans.

Yeah, yeah... I live in Texas, pecan country and it's Texas ice cream blah, blah, blah... I don't like 'em. Pumpkin desserts and pecans are like beans and chili... I don't care how one area of the country likes it, they don't belong together.

So, anyway, I finally broke down and bought one because it's pumpkin ice cream and that is Kryptonite to me... I can't fight it, it's going to win sooner or later. It was on sale this week for like $5 or something, which made me think, "You know, back in high school, Blue Bell was usually like 2 for $5... and when it went on sale for like $1.50, I went nuts!" Makes me want to go OccupyBrenham just so I can help them eat all they can before they sell the rest to the 1% that can afford it.

Whatever.

Popped it open and scooped out some. First thing I noticed was that it had swirls of caramel. Well, that's a plus.. pumpkin and caramel do go well together. So I grabbed a spoon and a plastic cup and went to watch those wacky Ghost Hunters investigate Waverly Sanatorium in my ancestral home of Louisville, KY.

Both the ice cream and the show were pretty much what I expected. The BB entry into the pumpkin ice cream category is pretty standard. It has a nice pumpkin pie flavor with the right amount of spice and the caramel was a nice touch, not overdone. And the pecans were annoying.

If you paid much attention to the paragraph just before the last paragraph, you may have asked yourself, "Why did he get a plastic cup?" That was for the pecans, which I would spit into the cup upon melting the ice cream in my mouth. EFF YOU, pecans!