Summer and fall obsessions.

Hello! I'm slowly resurfacing and it's taken longer than expected. But, here we go. Up and at 'em.

Let's see. I think I still had a few posts left on Japan, but it's friggen' November for Pete's sake. I might do a wrap-up later.

For now: A few summer obsessions that have trickled into fall.

YummyEarth Organic Hot Chili Pops


Particularly, the Chili Mango Mambo pop -- a sweet, fruity sucker with a hot chili kick. And it's organic and natural and made with real, good stuff. Win! I get them at my local Sprouts.

Breyers Rocky Road Ice Cream


I practically lived off this during the hot summer months. I originally thought I liked Breyers ice cream in only strawberry and mint chocolate chip, and that the more traditional, richer ice creams just weren't.. rich enough. But their good ol' rocky road proved me wrong. Maybe it's just 'cause Breyers makes rocky road just the way I like it -- marshmallow swirl instead of whole marshmallows (a pet peeve of mine), chocolate-covered toasted almonds instead of just plain nuts, all in creamy chocolate ice cream. Mmm mm.

Pumpkin and chocolate

Oh, man. I have been craving this combo like mad recently. My boyfriend even offered to stack a brownie on top of a slice of pumpkin pie to help satisfy my craving, and I probably would have eaten it if it weren't for the root canal I had earlier that day.

Terrible experience, by the way, that root canal. I do not recommend it.

Rutabegorz has pretty much saved my life on more than one occasion with its gargantuan iced pumpkin cookie. It is thick and soft, almost cake-like, and my attempts to savor it slowly are always met with utter failure. I only wish chocolate milk was at the ready to wash it down.

The other weekend, I trekked out to Claremont for Some Crust Bakery's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.


These are perfection -- the texture emulates a chocolate chip cookie over pumpkin cake, and the chips are always warm and gooey. I wanted to buy a hundred of them, but I walked away with only two. Whyyy did I buy only two?

It's ok though, because the following week I made these:

Pumpkin whoopie pies. Here's the recipe on MarthaStewart.com. When making the cookies, drop the batter in little spoonfuls unless you are planning to undertake whoopie pies the size of burgers.

I have been going pumpkin crazy -- expect future pumpkin posts.