Hi Folks! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I can’t believe it was the last one of the summer. Where did the season go? How are we into mid-September already? I bet you are asking the same questions.
I’m going to interrupt the recent peach programming (Peach Pie, Peach Cupcakes) on my blog lately to bring you something completely different. Anyone else have pumpkin on the brain these days?
Well if you were in Ottawa last weekend, you probably did. We had a cold snap and it only reached 13C (8 overnight! Brrr) when it’s normally closer to 25C at this time of year. I think it was more of a shock to the system after a recent bout of 43 degrees.
But I really can’t complain about our weather because it could be a whole lot worse. I hope all my friends in the Carolinas are staying safe right now. The damage, flooding and destruction from Hurricane Florence is just devastating. I’ve been thinking of you and sending prayers your way xo.
Well summer is back with a vengeance here in Ottawa (it was 40 degrees here yesterday!) and we still have a couple of days left to enjoy it. But, I’m already in pumpkin mode and there’s no going back.
Don’t tell the Anti-Pumpkin Spice Police but I even ordered my first PSL of the season last weekend. I was meeting a friend at Starbucks and it was a bit chilly out so I caved. Plus I figured that if Mother Nature is going make me wear jeans and a sweater —when it’s still summer –then it’s okay to order a pumpkin coffee, right? (Come on fellow pumpkin lovers, I know you’ve got my back).
We sat on the patio sipping coffee and soaking up the sun while we caught up, it was perfect. Our summers up here aren’t long enough as it is so a bit of chilly weather ain’t gonna keep us indoors. Plus we had our pumpkin coffees to keep us warm 😀
And I didn’t stop there. I also baked my first pumpkin pie of the season as well. And not just any pumpkin pie, I made one based on my favourite fall drink.
Behold: The Pumpkin Spice Latte PIE!
It tastes exactly like the drink, but in pie form. (Take that Starbucks! he he)
The pumpkin filling (made with roasted pumpkin) is swirled with a vanilla bean cheesecake mixture to resemble the ‘foam’ on the drink, and then I sprinkled it with more pumpkin spice (cinnamon and fresh nutmeg) to bring out the pumpkin-y goodness. After baking it, I let it cool and then drizzled it generously with salted caramel. SO GOOD! Make this pie (recipe below post) and you might never go to Starbucks again (well, for the fancy drink, anyway).
The Story of the Famous Pumpkin Spice Latte
I find there are basically two kinds of people: 1)Those who love pumpkin spice and, 2) those who hate it.
With Fall just around the corner, the anti-Pumpkin Spice jokes are now out in full force. They started as soon as ‘the drink’ came out for the season, not too surprisingly. Some are really funny and quite clever, such as this sign for an Oil Change company I saw recently that says: ‘It’s Back… Pumpkin Spice Oil Change! hahaha
You can laugh all you want at us pumpkin fanatics, but deep down I bet you’re secretly a pumpkin spice fan, too. Sure you may not imbibe in pumpkin lattes on a regular basis, but I’ll bet you’re the first to dive into a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, right? I knew it! Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me (maybe). If you don’t really like pumpkin, then I think you’re just crazy. Just sayin’…
…