Thanksgiving: A bountiful feast!

Now that I can actually think about food again after stuffing myself on Thursday, let's cover some pumpkin stuff that I ate recently.

Dreyer's Slow Churned Pumpkin (Limited Edition) - This stuff is awesome. It mixes two of my favorite treats together: ice cream and pumpkin. It's smooth and creamy and has a great pumpkin flavor! Plus, it's a lower fat product (Dreyer's also makes a regular pumpkin ice cream, which is quite good too, although I like the slow churned better) so you can feel a little less guilty about eating it.

Libby's Pumpkin Bread Kit and Einstein Brother's Bakery Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread - Libby's, maker of fine canned pumpkin products (and pretty much the only maker of canned pumpkin products), put out this pumpkin bread kit that I found at Target for about $5. It makes two loaves worth of pumpkin bread (I used one big 9 x 13 pan and made a big cake like loaf). Since it uses real canned pumpkin (as opposed to dried stuff in a mix), it came out pretty moist and flavorful. Plus it's really easy so most anybody could make this stuff without screwing up. I will admit, though, that I added tiny bits of some other stuff to the mix like some extra Pumpkin Pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, a shot of the Archer Farms Pumpkin Nog Milk, and a shot of amaretto. MMMMMMMM!
To top it off (literally), I gave the bread a nice frosting of the Einstein Bros. Pumpkin Cream Cheese. Normally, I get this and spread it on the Einstein Bros. Pumpkin Bagels, but I haven't actually seen any of those this year. This Cream Cheese Spread is excellent. It's very light and fluffy and is a near perfect blend of pumpkin and cream cheese. There are other pumpkin cream cheeses out there, but this on is by far my favorite.

Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice Cake Donuts & Holes - For the record, I actually bought a box of the donut holes, but this can cover both items since they are basically the same food, just in a different shape.
Donuts are a nice treat, although I've lost some interest in them over the years. These Pumpkin Spice donuts are not bad, but not really a winner. Sure the donuts themselves are good (granted, I don't really see the big deal about KK), especially since they are cake donuts which I prefer, but they just don't pack a powerful pumpkin punch. Sure you can taste the pumpkin, but the whole thing is a just a step or two away from a regular cake donut.

On Thanksgiving, we took my family out to lunch at a Fort Worth restaurant called Ferre. I think the missus tends to enjoy this one more than me, but it's not bad (personally, I prefer Saint Emilion). There were a couple of gourmet type pumpkin items on the three-course menu, so I was forced to try them.
The first, an appetizer, was a Pumpkin Gnocchi with pancetta, brown butter and sage. First off, I am not a fan of bacon and bacon related foods. Meat should be tender and juicy and should not crunch. Pancetta, while not bacon in the strictest sense, is still a bacon-y food and so the flavor ran amuck in the bowl. The gnocchi was not bad, but failed to impress. It was chewy but lacked any real flavor of it's own (largely tasted of pancetta). This could have been better. More pumpkin, butter, and spices, less pancetta.
The other menu item, a dessert, was Pumpkin Ricotta Cheesecake with candied pecans and maple whipped cream. This was fantastic... one of the best pumpkin cheesecakes I've ever tried. I can't stand ricotta, but it was blended together so well that the entire cheesecake came out smooth and creamy and not overpoweringly rich as cheesecakes can tend to do. They maple whipped cream was a treat too. Definitely made up for the gnocchi.

Okay, that's about enough for now. Time to hit the mountain bike and work off all these calories!

Dr. Pepper is insane!

So, I'm at the grocery store, buying spinach or something, and I see this crazy item up by the checkstands.

Diet Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper. Well, that sounds ludicrous, thus, I must try it.

It really wasn't that bad. It tasted very much like chocolate AND cherries. It did not taste like pepper. And, like most of the Diet DP line, it didn't taste much like diet either.

It's one of them "limited edition" flavors, so keep and eye out and grab one if you get the chance.

We're going out for pumpkin!

Today there are a couple of pumpkin things I want to mention, both from restaurants.
One is the Pumpkin Pancakes from the International House of Pancakes, or IHOP, if you get excited about acronyms.
These were fantastic. The were light and fluffy, moist enough to not need syrup, and came topped with some whipped cream. The pumpkin flavor was better than expected. I don't know how many truck drivers, old people, or intoxicated youths but these, but if they don't, their missing out.
The other item is the Pumpkin Muffin (Seasonal selection) from Mimi's Cafe. I did not actually order this one, it came as part of Mrs. Rotten's meal, but she was gracious enough to give me a bite after I stared and drooled at it for a good two minutes. Perhaps it was because this was dinner and they had possibly baked them earlier in the day, but it was a little dry. It wasn't bad, but not the best muffin ever. A quick reheat in the microwave probably would have done wonders for this one.
Anyway, 4 pumpkins for the pancakes, 3 for the muffin.

Whataburger Fried Pumpkin Pie

Today's pumpkin entry is the Whataburger Fried Pumpkin Pie.
Whataburger makes some tasty food that will make any dietitian or nutritionist fly into an uncontrolled rage. The line of fried pies is no exception.
You can typically get apple or maybe cherry and sometimes they have lemon. For the fall season this year, they have pumpkin.
I was quite excited when a co-worker told me about them. So, we went to Whataburger for lunch, mostly to try the pie.
Well, the pie was.... okay. It was fried, it was hot, and it was not quite what I was expecting. The pumpkin pie filling was not so amazing... it was too liquid-y and didn't have a strong flavor. Plus, it was still way to hot, even after a good 15 minute cool off period while I ate the rest of lunch.
Still, if you are at Whataburger, it's worth trying. If you are driving around and need pumpkin, it'll do. Is it the greatest dessert invention ever. No.
3 out of 5 pumpkins.

Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup

Today's pumpkin thing is actually a recipe I got from some stupid calendar they gave us at work. It's Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup. It's not too difficult to make (other than chopping the onions and garlic... burn!). It tasted okay, but I have to admit, I really am not a soup guy. I like chili and stews, but for whatever reason, eating liquid with a spoon just doesn't appeal to me. I will say that I enjoyed it more as a Creamy Pumpkin Curry Sauce that I poured over chicken and veggies. For my taste though, I think I'd like it a little less creamy. I don't think I'm done with this one... perhaps some tweaking and experimenting is in order. I'm giving it 2 out of 5 pumpkins, but that's largely because I think the "creamy" and "soup" parts got in the way.
If anybody wants the recipe.... let me know.