Is it just me or does everything seem to be flavored with pumpkin this year? I mean I realize pumpkin is always popular this time of year but this season there seems to be pumpkin mania. Really it seems completely out of hand. It’s like pumpkinpalooza. I guess it finally dawned on everyone how truly special pumpkin can be and they just can’t get enough.
I was having my daily phone conversation with my mother and was going over my plans for apple crumb cake bars. You see, I always talk through my recipe plans with my mother before I start. I am convinced it bores the hell out of her but she always so politely pretends to care. (She has zero interest in baking. Zero.) So I am discussing my plan to cut up the apples when she interrupts me and says “What if you use apple butter? No working mom wants to slice apples.” “Hmm good point” I reply. “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
Not sure if I mentioned it yet, but I think everything tastes better with chocolate chips. Everything. Recently my husband and I were at a party and I challenged the other guests to come up with any food that isn’t improved by chocolate chips. Of course there was silence because, well, there simply isn’t one. However, one girl’s eyes lit up and she proudly said “tuna fish.” My smartass husband didn’t miss a beat and replied “mole sauce.”
My friend Big Red is the consummate foodie. By the way “big” doesn’t refer to her size (she’s only 5′ 4″) but to her large personality. She is the only one of my friends who everyone instantly remembers. I say, “You know, the one with the red-orange hair.” And the response is always “Oh yeah” followed up with some story that she told.
My two grandmothers could not have been more different. One had a German mother so she was very precise. Consequently, she was an exceptional baker. My other grandmother had a Russian mother and is the opposite of precise, whatever you call that, so not a great baker but an amazing cook. I guess I learned the precision thing because my Russian grandmother finds cooking or baking with me “exhausting.”
