Fall-bulous

The fall is the most spectacular time of the year, and I feel like I have to savor every wonderful thing before it all goes away for the winter.

We have one sole pumpkin growing in our garden, and it is very slowly orange-ing. Will we make it into a jack-o'-lantern? Make it into a pie for Thanksgiving? I don't know. (Can I say that I don't like typing the word "jack-o'-lantern"? The hyphens and the apostrophe just make it a challenge.)

On Monday, I made apple cobbler from the apple tree that hangs into our yard and baked rice with our own tomatoes and mint leaves.

Since I've been so busy on weekends lately, it occurred to me that I would have to adjust my schedule to go up North Canyon on a weekday if I wanted to see it in its prime. Luckily, since I mostly work from home, I can do that. I went on evening North Canyon runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, and evening runs really are much more pleasant than the late morning/early afternoon runs I typically do there. I need to take all the pictures of October so that when it's February, I can remember that the world will be beautiful again.

One of the problems with all this trail running is that I have huge calf muscles, and my pant legs get stuck on them.

I bought my mom a raspberry bush for Mother's Day, and I was surprised to go out this week and see raspberries on it!

Before the cold weather came, I picked all the produce from my mom's garden. 

Who wore it better: This green tomato . . .

. . . or this ugly 1960s toy I found on the internet? (I just Googled "elephant with troll hair.")

(I think I'm hilarious, so I put it on Facebook too so no one would miss it.)

Yesterday I spent a few hours helping to make apple cider. The second counselor in my bishopric makes cider every year, and he invites people to bring their apples to help out. You cut up the apples, and then someone pushes them down a garbage disposal (used just for this purpose). The ground-up apples fall into a bucket that has a mesh bag.

Then he puts the bags into a press, and juice comes out. 

And the cider tastes amazing! I brought home two and a half gallons.

Those were the main highlights of the week. Here are this week's dreams.

Mark buys white Christmas lights to put outside, but there are already lights, so he puts them in his office instead

Nancy tosses globs of pumpkin spice frosting for Mark to eat

adults tell children they can eat pyrite (I love that it made up a story about it being "a magical golden rock that can grant wishes when eaten")

Mark leaves his bike attached to a fence while he goes on a long run

Rose Art makes special Halloween-themed crayons

Mark drives on a lawn because the road is narrow and curvy, and people have put decorative tombstones on the lawn

Linnea puts up Happy Birthday and heart lights in the LDS conference center

Mark sleeps in a bunk bed outside. There is a beautiful spiderweb next to the bed and frogs in the bed

Mark can't figure out the parking at Lagoon amusement park

Eighteen years later, Mark's family still owns his late grandparents' home

Russ talks about buying the DVD of "Over the Garden Wall"

there is too much liquid in the KitchenAid, so Mark drains some

Mark gives a cake to a bad guy, and it makes the bad guy unconscious (This one cracks me up. I love that it made an entire comic strip with nonsense words, but I can tell it's talking about "ethically ambiguous," and there's a random pumpkin emoji)

a small snake follows Mark into the house

Mark tells Harry that Taylor's tomatoes are red enough to go in the fridge, so Harry puts them in the cooler

LDS general conference has a host interviewing people live during the conference

Mark almost photobombs the gay pop singer's selfie

Sadie cuddles with Ya-ping in Mark's bedroom while Reggie the cat hides in the closet

***

And here's this week's pumpkinundation roundup!

First I'll tell you that I finally finished Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon by Cindy Ott. Since I mostly read academic history books, this book seems tailor made for me. Some of the analysis was a little far fetched for me. But it was so interesting to contemplate the history of this vegetable, and the author analyzes how weird it is that there is no other vegetable that we treat in the same way. It has this quote that really captures the essence of so many pumpkin products: "While manufacturers of pumpkin products make nutritional claims, the food's real value derives from what it represents. The importance of the idea of pumpkin over its substance has completely outweighed the necessity of a food's containing even a trace of the vegetable" (157). 8/10.

I had these Rowley's Red Barn Apple Cider Donuts in a dimly lit room, hence the weird picture. Apple cider donuts are weird to me, because they don't actually taste like apples. But these were really fluffy donuts. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Fall Leaf Corn Tortilla Chips use pumpkin just for coloring, but they are so cute that I feature them here. 7/10.

I like to have the chips with Trader Joe's Fall Harvest Salsa, which has pumpkin, apples, and other things. There are better salsas, but this one is still enjoyable. 7/10.

Brach's Mellowcreme Autumn Leaves are adorable! And I love the texture. Red is caramel apple, and there have been various caramel apple candy corn/apples for a while. I like them best. 8/10. Orange is pumpkin spice, and it's kind of weird. 6/10. Tan is sweet maple. I don't get why maple is considered a fall flavor, because it's collected in the spring. 7/10. Yellow is salted butterscotch, which I don't consider a fall flavor, but it is delightful. 8/10. And green is spiced cider, which is OK. 5/10. All together, this is a fun candy. 8/10.

Sugar Fix is a cookie company owned by a gay couple, and the cookies are sold at Holiday gas stations. The Sugar Fix Brown Sugar Pumpkin Cookie is OK; it's not as good as others of theirs. 6/10.

The IHOP Caramel Apple Lemonade has a nice flavor, but I wouldn't necessarily peg it as caramel apple. Lemonade has been a traditional drink for the Fourth of July and Pioneer Day since the nineteenth century, so it's fun to see the holidays collide like this. 7/10.

IHOP Pumpkin Spice Pancakes are fine and basic. 7/10.

Innkeeper's Pumpkin Spice Bread is like cinnamon raisin bread, but better. I'm glad it does have actual pumpkin. 7/10.

Taco Time Pumpkin Empanadas have been around for a long time, and with good reason. The filling tastes just like pumpkin pie, nice and pumpkiny. 8/10.

My mom took me to get The Smoked Taco Pumpkin Spice Churro Fries. The churro fries are amazing. The pumpkin spice dip was just OK. 7/10.

I believe this is a Kirkland Signature Pumpkin Pie, and they do a great job. 8/10.