Summer, but make it October

 Lately I've been watching Halloween Baking Championship on Food Network. On this show, the contestants will be baking a dessert corresponding to a certain theme when the host comes in and tells them they need to incorporate a weird ingredient, such as pumpkin puree, black garlic, or baby food.

This show really gets my imagination running. What could I bake with weird ingredients? Specifically, what could I bake with the home-grown produce we have sitting in our fridge, such as apples and zucchini? So sometimes I will be contemplating that while I fall asleep.

Last week, I dreamed that I was making pineapple zucchini crisp. In the dream, I was coating the fruit in mayonnaise. Then I thought, "The recipe says I can use mayo or sugar, so why didn't I use sugar instead?"

When I woke up, I thought that pineapple zucchini crisp didn't sound bad. I thought it would be funny to make it. After all, two years ago I made Cap'n Crunch stuffing after dreaming about it.

So this week, on Tuesday, I got to make this imagined crisp. I specifically bought a pineapple for the purpose, and I used the yellow squash we had in our fridge, which came from our garden. (It was the squash that came from the garden. Fridges don't grow in gardens.)

You might be wondering if I can have this dessert, since it's not a holiday dessert. But if I'm using our own home-grown produce, I can have it.

I have this crisp recipe from my book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, a book that has made me more comfortable experimenting with different ingredients. I have made cherry crisp, apricot crisp, plum crisp, grape crisp, and apple crisp, all using our own produce, and I have also made cranberry-orange crisp at Christmastime. But pineapple zucchini crisp was a first, obviously.

So how was it? Surprisingly good, especially when it was fresh out of the oven. The zucchini had a satisfying slight crunch, and it absorbed sweetness from the sugar and the pineapple. But it got less good the less fresh it got. I don't know if I would necessarily try this again, but I do think zucchini could act as filler in other fruit crisps. It would have been bland if it were only zucchini.

Wednesday night was the vice presidential debate. I felt a connection to it, since the U was making a big deal about it being on campus (as they should have!). I did apply for the student lottery to get tickets, but only one hundred people got to to, so I wasn't surprised when I didn't get any.

It seems to me like in this debate, you saw what you wanted to see. I saw Kamala Harris as a confident, compassionate, intelligent woman, while Mike Pence was domineering and deliberately avoided answering questions that might make him or the president look bad. But others thought Kamala was condescending. The debate only solidified my voting plan—and it probably did the same for those on the other side of the aisle.

Near the freeway entrance in Woods Cross, this week I noticed home-printed signs that say, "Please don't re-elect Wicked King Noah." 😆 

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, my family went camping in our new trailer in Wasatch Mountain State Park. We camped there in September two years ago. It's a really nice campground. There are water and electric hookups for our trailer, and there are even full-plumbing restrooms and showers at the campsite. I took two showers while there, one in the public-use shower and one in our trailer, the first time we have used the trailer shower.

I got to use the nearby trails for some fun runs. I didn't do very long ones (five miles max), but they were lovely. Maples aren't great this year, but some of them were still gorgeous. And golden aspens are always amazing.

There is a little nature trail with interpretive signs. It even had an old limestone mine that you could see.

We associate camping with summer, but nearly everything is better in the fall, including camping. I highly recommend Wasatch Mountain State Park.

We also saw Cascade Springs. My parents picked me up from Provo and took me there back on September 8, 2012, a day I remember surprisingly well.

I love October, because it's fully fall, but there are still many elements of summer that have stuck around. Today I was able to make a big pot of tomato sauce with the tomatoes from our own garden.

But one thing I can do without is the mosquitoes. October is one month where I can reliably count on hearing mosquitoes in my bedroom at night. After we unloaded the car last night, there were at least a dozen mosquitoes in our house. I guess October really is the month when vampires come out.

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Time for pumpkinundation roundup!

Nielsen's Frozen Custard Pumpkin Concrete has a nice pumpkin flavor, and it's nice to know that it has less calories than ice cream (I think). 8/10.

Thomas' Pumpkin Spice English Muffins are the best pumpkin English muffins out there, with little pockets of pumpkin and spices. Since I eat so many carbs this time of year, I love to pair them with savory, protein-rich things like eggs and cheese. But I don't like that you have to cut them; they aren't presliced. 8/10.

This Good Housekeeping Spiced Pumpkin Harvest Hand Sanitizer smells more like candy corn, which is equally seasonal, so I don't know why they didn't go with that. 6/10.

I got this Bahama Buck's Caramel Apple Shaved Ice to have during the debate. I forgot to tell them I didn't need an umbrella or a spoon. I wish more businesses used biodegradable utensils. I also hate that Bahama Buck's gives these useless, wasteful umbrellas. At least they're not plastic, but they are completely unnecessary. What a waste! Also, I don't eat in my car, but I had to eat the top off so it wouldn't melt in my car. In so doing, a little piece fell off and landed somewhere, but I don't know where. So sad! That was a very long introduction to this product. It's a fake apple flavor with caramel topping. It's just what you'd expect. 7/10.

The Good Housekeeping Apple Cinnamon Cider didn't smell like anything but hand sanitizer to me. 3/10.

The Russell Stover Pumpkin Spice Caramel Pumpkin is an enjoyable chocolate-covered caramel with spicy elements. But I don't really get pumpkin. I forgot to see if pumpkin was in the ingredients, but I doubt it. 7/10.

Floss Cotton Candy is a local cotton candy company that is sold at Lee's Marketplace. I first heard of them this summer when they had a fireworks flavor (yay!). They are expensive, and they come in these heavy-duty containers. I have mixed feelings. It seems overkill to put cotton candy in such a sturdy container, but the containers are totally reusable, unlike a simple plastic bag. Anyway, they have the three pillars of fall flavors. Floss Caramel Apple Cotton Candy is an artificial apple flavor with caramel bits. The caramel bits are crunchier than you'd expect, but it works. 7/10.

The Floss Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie somehow tastes like a pumpkin cookie, with a mild spice to it and actual chocolate bits mixed in. 7/10.

And finally, Floss Candy Corn Cotton Candy is really a weird concept, as candy corn and cotton candy don't really have their own flavor. They're just sugar. But it does taste like candy corn! 7/10.

In Midway this week, we went to Süss Cookie Company, which has only two locations, but they sell their cookies other places. The Süss Cookie Co. Pumpkin Nutella Cookie had a pumpkin flavor, but I didn't notice any Nutella at all. This tasted like a prepackaged cookie, not like the fresh cookies from the various cookie bakeries. 6/10.

But the Süss Cookie Co. Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie was much better. The cookie was soft and chewy, and the cream cheese frosting was wonderful. 8/10.

Good & Gather Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa Mix is a Target brand. It tastes like dark chocolate with comforting spices. But it must be made with milk, not with water. 8/10.