Let me just make it clear from the start that I love shopping at Trader Joe’s. Even when they pull the old cancel-your-favorite-product act (which has happened more than once), I still keep going back. But this season’s pumpkin invasion is Just Too Much.
Walk in the Rockville store and you are greeted with pumpkin decorations everywhere. On every aisle end, hanging from the ceiling, at the checkout stands, totally orange. And at every turn, pumpkin products.
Pumpkin Biscotti
Hot and Cold Running Pumpkin Cereal
Pumpkin Spice Coffee – And Did I Forget To Mention The Pumpkin Panettone?
Pumpkin cereal – hot and cold. Pumpkin-spice tea. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin-seed brittle. Chocolate pumpkins. Caramel pumpkins. Raw pumpkin seeds! Pumpkin Ice cream. Pumpkin tortilla chips. And the most egregious? It’s a tie between pumpkin-spiced coffee and pumpkin-spiced pumpkin seeds.
Mix and Butter (I’m Tired Of Typing The P-Word)
New Products – Yes, Lots of P’s
TJ’s helpfully provided a list of seasonal products in the latest Fearless Flyer. By my count, there are forty-nine (49) pumpkin-related products on it, not including those with other types of squash. I may have missed some in my pictures.
Tortilla Chips!!!
Also, real pumpkins – both large and small. Thank heavens! They haven’t totally lost touch with the reason for the season. Plain canned pumpkin, also good.
Picking One Out
Cute Little Minis
Good Ol’ Pure Plain Canned
Of course, TJ’s aren’t alone there in the vat of pumpkin pulp this Fall. I blame Starbuck’s pumpkin-spice latte for starting the whole sorry mess; it even has its own acronym. I could have sworn I heard a story about a pumpkin shortage on NPR, but you couldn’t prove it by cruising around any given grocery or convenience store in the last month or so.
I haven’t had my personal favorite pumpkin product in years. Horn and Hardart’s restaurants in Philadelphia and New York used to have a wonderful pumpkin pie on the menu, and it remains the standard by which I judge all others. Google is my friend, however, and a search for the recipe has turned up several purportedly authentic versions, all slightly different. I think a little experimental baking is in my future. Of course, I can always fall back on TJ’s pumpkin pie – right there in the cooler, between the pumpkin cheesecake and the pumpkin macarons.
Backup Pie
