Halloweek

This is the first time I've ever blogged on Halloween. We haven't had a Sunday Halloween since 2010, and I didn't start this blog until 2011. Sunday Halloweens are weird. It's like you have two half-Halloweens, not one full one. It's also kind of a weird Halloween for me, being in grad school and also having a pandemic. I want to watch all the spooky movies, go to all the fall attractions, bake all the pumpkin stuff, etc., but homework and projects get in the way. Oh well, next year I'll be done with school. (I also shouldn't get too content thinking about that, because I may have a difficult job or something, and I might miss my schooling schedule, which is more open.)

On Monday, we didn't have my evening class because my professor wants us to work on our research papers, which are due in two weeks. (I'm not done yet, but I feel like I'm in a good place.) I scheduled an appointment at the Church History Library to look at the Lehi Relief Society minutes, because I found an interesting account where the women organized and spoke at the 1883 Pioneer Day celebration, a break with tradition. But alas, the minute book said nothing about that, so I feel like my trip to the library was a waste. Oh well, I didn't need the information, I just thought it would be interesting if I could find it.

Monday night, I was happy that my favorite contestant won Halloween Baking Championship, which might be my favorite show right now. She almost won last year, but everyone liked her so much that they brought her back this year. Once Halloween Baking Championship is over, it's time for Holiday Baking Championship. When that ends, I have to wait two months for Spring Baking Championship. And when that's over, I have to wait another four months for Halloween again. Why don't they have a Summer Baking Championship?

On Wednesday, I picked the pumpkins that we (my mom) grew in our own yard. Well, I left one on the vine because it's mostly green and I want to see if it will ripen. Then we (my family) carved them. 

Mine is on the right. My niece's is in the middle; it accidentally broke, so it had to be a Cyclops. And my sister opted to feature the "scar" on the big pumpkin (second from right).

All week, Jimmy has been extra affectionate and needy, coming onto my lap multiple times a day and my bed multiple times a night. But his arthritis pills don't appear to be helping, unfortunately. We kind of don't trust our vet.

I was also happy to add some new 2021 favorites to my Halloween playlist. 

 

On Friday, I had my last day working at This Is the Place for the season. But I will be back in December, which I haven't done before, and I probably won't have a chance to do so again. I am looking forward to not working in November, because I have some freelance work to do, not to mention school projects.

That night I wanted to watch the new Addams Family 2, which I expected to be terrible, just because I'm kind of a completist, and I've seen most versions of the Addams Family. It was worse than I expected, and I would go so far as to say it's the worst of the entire franchise. I rate it 3/10 if I'm feeling generous. And I have a very high tolerance for low-quality things.

Saturday was part 1 of half-Halloween. I wrapped up some assignments, then I ran up North Canyon. Most of the leaves are gone, but I still adore that place.

 I was disappointed that the logs and boulder that were blocking an unofficial shortcut had been moved. Did someone move them? If so, I don't understand why they didn't also move the rocks and branch at the top of the shortcut, which would be easier to move. I found the boulder and logs on the other side of the trail, so I moved the logs back to be a blockade. (The boulder would be too hard to move by myself.) If it was erosion, then that proves why there shouldn't be a shortcut. And if it was a person, it was obviously very deliberate, so I hope they sprain their ankle.

Then Saturday evening, I lit the jack-o'-lanterns and put one of my Google speakers outside so I could play my Halloween playlist both inside and outside. I also made popcorn balls, which are a forgotten Halloween tradition. I just made them with marshmallows, like Rice Krispies Treat—I think the more traditional route with corn syrup would taste better but be worse for you and be more difficult.

My parents had bought a small bag of Halloween candy, then ate more than a third of it. They would have run out of candy if I hadn't bought more. But I feel bad that the candies I bought are relatively small, and it kind of stresses me out. I hope we don't get many trick-or-treaters for Halloween part 2, simply because we don't have a ton left. Next year I'll have to remember to get more, because we cut it close this year, as well as in 2019. We don't get many trick-or-treaters, so we don't need much candy, but I think it's better to have too much than not enough.

But I still have a few more Halloween festivities to do tonight!

***

The final pumpkinundation roundup for Halloweentime, but it continues through Thanksgiving.

These V Chocolates Apple Cinnfuls were expensive. They are freeze-dried apples with caramel and white coating, then dusted with cinnamon. I love the candy part; the apples are weird. 7/10.

I've had these Apple Cider Vinegar Kettle Brand Potato Chips before. I remembered that there wasn't really apple flavor, but I didn't remember them being so vinegary. I don't love vinegar chips, but these will be a good standby when I'm craving something salty. 6/10.

The 7-Select Pumpkin Spice Flavored Snack Pie has less than 2 percent pumpkin, yet somehow it tastes like actual pumpkin, a very squashy flavor. These snack pies are a guilty pleasure. 7/10.

Since I like supporting North Salt Lake businesses, I was happy to try Mrs. Cavanaugh's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Sometimes when you add chocolate chips to ice cream, they get hard. That wasn't the case here. It was a nice ice cream, but nothing spectacular. 7/10.

Great Value Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa Mix is generic and passable, but I wouldn't call it pumpkin spice–flavored if I didn't know. 6/10.

I often get Sunbelt Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars, but this is my first time trying their sister product, Sunbelt Bakery Apple Spice Chewy Granola Bars. They taste pretty similar to the pumpkin version; I don't think they're very appley. 6/10.

The Chick-Fil-A Autumn Spice Shake is being tested in Salt Lake City. It has speculoos cookie bits, spices, and it tastes like orange flavor, but maybe that's just the color messing with my mind. As far as shakes go, it was really enjoyable, but it doesn't really seem like autumn to me. 7/10.

For some reason my phone likes to take blurry pictures of drinks.

Jimmy's anniversary

 On October 21, 2017, I brought home an eight-year-old kitty and renamed him Jimmy.

Words cannot express the joy this cat has brought me. I know it doesn't make sense for this mostly useless creature to make me happy, a little animal that I have to feed and clean up after. But whether it makes sense or not, I do love him. It's so endearing and adorable to have him sit on me and rub his head against my face while he purrs. 

But 2021 has not been a good year for him. In February, he hurt his leg while jumping, so we took him to the vet in March, and he was diagnosed with some arthritis. We took him back in April because he had been drinking a lot of water, and he was diagnosed with diabetes. He had lost a pound in a month. We opted not to treat him with insulin. He doesn't let us pick him up, so giving him shots twice a day would be very difficult, and the vet said it would be worse to give him insulin inconsistently than not at all. It would also be expensive, and he has other health problems (arthritis and missing teeth). 

His arthritis has gotten progressively worse. It is hard for him to jump up on furniture, and even simply walking appears painful. He still does what he needs to do, but he's not as active as he once was. So we decided to take him back to the vet, and they had an opening on Thursday, which was his fourth anniversary.

Getting him to the vet is always a hassle, but I think it was easier this time. Last time, he meowed sadly on the way to the vet and sounded simply annoyed on the way home. This time, he was merely annoyed on the way to the vet, and he didn't meow at all on the way home. 

It's a little annoying when one particular vet sees him. The vet is evidently hard of hearing, so when we ask him a question (especially while wearing a mask), his answer is only somewhat related to what we asked. 

But they gave us some pills to help with the arthritis, so we will have to break them up and sneak them into wet food. Hopefully that will help. He has also lost two pounds since April, and the vet said he has started to develop cataracts.

I hate to say it, but I doubt Jimmy will be around for his fifth anniversary. So I will continue to love him while I can. I love him more than I have ever loved any nonhuman.

***

Time for pumpkinundation roundup!

I had this Sprouts Apple Cider Spread on some apple pancakes I made. It has a smooth texture and a fine apple flavor. It's fine, 6/10, but it's not as good as...

Trader Joe's Apple Cider Fruit Spread, which has apple chunks and a tasty, sweet apple flavor. 8/10.

I have had these Lily's Pumpkin Spice Flavor Baking Chips in the cupboard for more than a month now, but I haven't tried them because I was worried they would be gross, and I need to figure out what to put them in. But they were better than I expected. I can't say it tastes like pumpkin spice, but it tastes good, and it has no added sugar! 7/10.

I wanted to try a Granny B's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie, since they're the company that makes those giant pink cookies. Sadly, this cookie tasted like you would expect from a mass-produced cookie with a long shelf life. It's not as good as Dunford Bakers, or even as good as Granny B's sugar cookies. 5/10.

I wanted to get Bahama Buck's proprietary candy corn flavor, so I got a Bahama Buck's Candy Corn Hot Koko. It was hard to taste the candy corn flavor through all the chocolate, but sometimes I could taste a sweet, almost buttery flavor. 7/10.

I cooked up some onions, carrots, potatoes, and green peppers with this Trader Joe's Spicy Pumpkin Curry Simmer Sauce. "Spicy" is right—it has jalapeño puree, so there's definitely a kick. I really enjoyed it, but it didn't really taste like pumpkin to me. 7/10.

These Great Value Pumpkin Spice Pancakes are fine. They're tasty, but not spectacular. 7/10.

7-Select Caramel Apple Flavored Snack Pie has a caramel-esque filling with the apple filling. It tastes so cheap and fake yet tasty. I think it's better than plain apple snack pies. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Greek Nonfat Pumpkin Yogurt is fine if you like Greek yogurt, but I don't really like Greek yogurt. 5/10.

Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Soup has tomatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash, and more. It's really tasty. 7/10.

This Pumpkin Pie Perfect Bar is the first one of these bars I have ever had. They are energy bars that need to be refrigerated, though they can be taken out of the fridge for a week. I really liked it! But that was because of the peanut butter. It reminded me of those orange-and-black-wrapped peanut butter taffies, or even like a Reese's without the chocolate. But I didn't really taste pumpkin pie, even though pumpkin is in the ingredients. 8/10.

The Pumpkin Spice RXBar is fine. 6/10.

I got a Pumpkin Taste Off Kit this week.

In the top left is the Great Harvest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin. It was OK. Not as good as Maverik's. 6/10.

On the top right is the Batch Pumpkin Sweet Roll. I loved the texture, but it didn't taste like pumpkin, and I thought the frosting was overly sweet, like what you'd get on a cupcake, not a cinnamon roll. 7/10.

In the middle is Kneaders Pumpkin Pie, which is a typical pumpkin pie. 7/10.

On the bottom left is the Twisted Sugar Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie, which was my favorite, and it won the Taste Off, but I think ours was a little underbaked. 8/10.

And on the bottom right is the RubySnap Pumpkin Whoopie Pie. I loved the pumpkin spice flavor. But a lot of RubySnap cookies have this strange tang to them, as did this one, which I find mildly off-putting. 7/10.

On Thursday, our professor ended class early, so some of us grad students went to a coffee shop on campus. I didn't get coffee, obvs, so I got this Two Creek Coffee House Pumpkin Spice Steamer. I think they just used Torani syrup. I should have got it in hot chocolate instead. It's just warm milk with some flavoring. Why is that a thing? Maybe steamers are better with different syrup flavors? 3/10.

I forgot to take a picture of this Sprouts Pumpkin Spice Spread last week. It's OK. 6/10.

I guess it was a mistake to have this Yogi Pumpkin Spice Herbal Tea late at night when I wanted to get to bed. It just seemed so bland; "pompous water" is an apt description. But I guess it's better to sit and savor when you're not in a hurry and when you don't want extra calories. 4/10.

For some reason Blogger didn't post this Subway Caramel Apple Cookie last week—so I'll see if I can remember it. The apple pieces seem candied. It's fine but not fantastic. 7/10.

Fall break

 This week I had fall break. It was the first time I ever had a complete week for fall break. When I was in the public school system, we had UEA, which was only two or three days off. BYU didn't have fall break. And last year, the U didn't even have a fall break because of COVID. It was less epic than I hoped, but I still had fun.

Last Sunday, I made ice cream with my new ice cream maker. I only eat holiday-themed desserts, except I can have desserts that are made with our own home-grown produce. And we have tons of mint growing in our front garden, so I used the leaves to make mint ice cream (there was a recipe in the manual that came with the machine). It also used peppermint patties. Then I shared it with my sister, niece, and grandparents (and my parents the next day). There were mixed reviews from my family about the mint leaves (I could have strained them out), but overall it was a tasty treat. This ice cream maker is really easy. You freeze the bowl, which has some kind of liquid in it, so all you do is turn the machine on and put the mixed ingredients in. There is no ice, salt, or cranking!

On Monday, my parents came home from their vacation. They ended a few days early so they could avoid the snow in Wyoming. Before the freezing temperatures, I had picked a watermelon from our garden, so I cut it when my parents got home. It was small, but I was pleased that it was an enjoyable melon. I've had better melons before, but this one was special, because it's the only one I ever remember from our own garden. (We had another one that rotted on the vine.) You know how the whitish-greenish part of a watermelon is really bitter? On this one, it wasn't—it tasted just like cucumber. It was a watermelon and a cucumber in one!

But most of my Monday was spent studying.

Since Tuesday was rainy, it was a day of cooking with the apples that grow on our neighbors' tree, which hangs onto our property. I cooked some apples with cinnamon and butter, then I put them in homemade vanilla ice cream. It was OK; the apples could have used a little more cooking and sweetness. And I made apple crisp, which was amazing. I make a lot of crisps, but this one was especially good—maybe because I used oats, which I don't usually do. And then I made apple sauerkraut soup. I know that sounds gross, but it's really not. 

Wednesday, I was glad to get one long run in for the week. Hopefully, my days on the trail are numbered—I say "hopefully" because we need all the snow we can get, even if it disrupts my hobby. 

When I woke up in the morning, there was a dusting of snow on the ground and the roofs, so when it melted, I ran to Ensign Peak from my house, because that trail dries out faster. It's around nine miles round trip, though I don't know the exact miles this time because my watch battery died near the end. I go to Ensign Peak a few times a year, usually during the seasons' transitions. It is a fun run, though there are others that I like more.

Thursday was another day full of studying.

Friday I worked at This Is the Place, which was surprisingly busy for a cool fall weekday.

And Saturday was another day of studying. One day I will be done with school and I will have more time to take advantage of perfect weather.

Then today I rode with my parents down to Delta, because my youngest cousin just finished a service mission, so he was speaking. Almost no one there was wearing masks. You would think they would pay more attention to a variant that literally has their name on it. I guess we're better at following the prophet in the city. But I got to pet cats at my aunt and uncle's house!

***

I had to tell myself no to a few pumpkin things this week, but I still have plenty to show you for pumpkinundation roundup.

I got this Trader Joe's Pumpkin Body Butter back in 2018, and I still have a lot of it. It's gloppier and oilier than most lotions, so I don't look forward to using it. And it really has nothing to do with pumpkin—it has pumpkin seed oil, but that's only one of a huge list of ingredients. Coconut is the dominant scent. 3/10.

Sprouts Organic Pumpkin Spice Apple Sauce is like typical cinnamon apple sauce, but it's noticeably more orange and has some pumpkin flavor. 7/10.

Chef Shamy Fresh Churned Pumpkin Butter with Honey tasted more like pistachio ice cream to me. I enjoyed it, but I've never been a big fan of butter. I preferred to eat this bread (see below) plain. 7/10.

I first had Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts in 2013, and I've been hooked ever since. They are better than the brown sugar and cinnamon ones. But I've come to like Pop-Tarts themselves less than I used to. 8/10.

Sprouts Pumpkin Spice Almond Butter has spices but no pumpkin. It's fine, but I am annoyed that I have to stir it to get the oil back in. 6/10.

Lee's Marketplace Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Bread was better than I expected, and I was expecting it to be good! It's like a fancy bread, but it has little cinnamon pockets, and it's made with pumpkin. It's like Great Harvest Cinnaburst Bread but better. 9/10.

Sprouts Organic Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cider nicely blends apple cider and actual pumpkin and spices. 8/10.

Ever since I had Thomas' Pumpkin Spice Bagels, I don't bother with others, because these are clearly the best. They're soft, and they have little pockets of pumpkin. Since I eat so many carbs at this time of year, I love to pair them with savory foods (in this case cheese and egg). 9/10.

Jojo's Pumpkin Spice Guilt-Free Chocolate was expensive, but luckily it doesn't disappoint. It has a nice dark chocolate flavor with spices, and it also has pumpkin seeds on top, but it doesn't have much sugar. 8/10.

When I got these Sprouts Roasted & Salted Pumpkin Chips, I expected they would be along the lines of parsnip chips or carrot chips, which aren't my favorite, but I still wanted to try them. They were way worse than I expected. Imagine you are carving pumpkins, and you taste one of the raw pieces, and it's crunchy. That's what these tasted like. I could only handle one. I still have this container, and I don't know what to do with it. I might be able to put it in chili or something, but I definitely can't eat it as is. 2/10.

Trader Joe's Honey Roasted Pumpkin Ravioli is yummy, but it's so sweet that I think it will clash with most sauces. Luckily, it's good on its own, though the texture could use something moist. 7/10.

I went into Trader Joe's Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce expecting not to like it, because I don't like alfredo sauce, and I was right. But my parents liked it. And to be fair, I didn't have it on regular pasta—just spaghetti squash and the above ravioli. 4/10.

I like to get Annie's Bunny Grahams at Eastertime, for obvious reasons. I was eager to try Annie's Caramel Apple Bunny Grahams, but they aren't as flavorful as other varieties. The red ones have a mild apple flavor, and the brown ones have a mild caramel flavor. They're good as grahams, but not so much as a caramel apple product. 6/10.