During my last visit at Trader Joe’s a couple of weeks ago, I walked by a
massive basket of pumpkins that seemed to be fresh and good looking. When I entered the door, just across me was the new gluten free pumpkin cereal sitting just next to
the pumpkin jam. While shopping at the store for my TJ's favorites, I counted
over 30 items that feature pumpkin in any shape, flavor or form and some of them were: Pumpkin Spice Granola
Bark, Petite Pumpkin Spice Cookies, Sticky Pumpkin Cake with Hard Sauce, Pumpkin
Spice Caramel Corn with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds & Walnuts, Pumpkin Spice
Scone Mix with Maple Flavored Icing, Pumpkin Soup Crackers, Pumpkin Panettone (sic), Pumpkin
Pie Spice Cookie Butter, Assorted Belgian Chocolate Pumpkins, Pumpkin tortilla
chips, Pumpkin seed brittle, Pumpkin Bread and Muffin Baking Mix, Pumpkin
Pancake Mix and many more! I am not sure if these products are still available,
some are definitely there on the TJ’s shelves, others have gone.
This obsession with pumpkin this time of the year is
insane. Not only because I don’t like it but because it does not pair well with everything.
Making pumpkin the quintessential ingredient is rather unnecessary. Enjoy a
slice of pumpkin spice cookie or a pumpkin latte and stay there. Do you really need the
pumpkin soup crackers or the pumpkin panettone?