Mmmmmm, pumpkin

If you were in my class when me when I was little, then two things are almost definitely true:

1) You are not reading this blog*, and 2) you got to eat pumpkin cookies when it was my birthday.

My mom would always bake pumpkin cookies, never sugar cookies or cupcakes, when it was my birthday. I loved bringing them in because a lot of people had never had them before, and I hated bringing them in because then other people got to eat my delicious birthday cookies. The cookies were cakey and fluffy, perfectly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and allspice, with that amazing pumpkin flavor. Even the pickiest kids liked them, even if they were a bit hesitant to try them.**

I still love those cookies, although I don't have the time, energy, or money to bake them often. I also can't seem to make them as well as my mom can, but I still love eating them, perfect or not (in my old apartment, it was more likely that they were burned and flat because of the nature of the oven).

I was talking with our receptionist the other day about how where she grew up in the South, while everyone had pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, that was it. Pumpkin cookies? Unusual here, practically nonexistent in the South. Pumpkin cake? Bread? Coffee? Donuts? Nope. And those are just the widespread aspects of pumpkin up here. Today's Globe has a great gallery feature listing some of the more interesting pumpkin concoctions, including one of my favorites: pumpkin ice cream (although buying it from JP Licks is a mistake, and it just makes me wish Kimball's were open in the winter).***

Here's the feature; enjoy! I like the Goldschlager comment. And when I can get my newer computer working, I'll post the pumpkin cookie recipe for kicks.

* It is common knowledge among many of my friends from elementary and middle school, and among many of my high school and college friends, that I didn't have friends before 3rd grade. I was constantly bullied and teased and ostracized, and to this day, I still have no explanation as to why. And it wasn't just me; my brother suffered through the same crap, my parents weren't liked at all, and while it happened only a few times, we had our property vandalized. So I highly doubt that the people in my K-2nd grade classes would be reading this blog, seeing as none of them liked me.

** The pickiest kids tried and liked the cookies, but The Pickiest Kids (tm) would not eat them. The Pickiest Kids are my siblings, but that's okay because it means more cookies for me bwahahahaha!

*** While, taste/texture-wise, JP Licks (a Jamaica Plain based ice cream shop) and Kimball's (a Westford based ice cream farm stand) are really pretty comparable, and while JP Licks is open year round, Kimball's, without a doubt, is better. I prefer most of the Kimball's flavors, the ice cream is slightly cheaper, and you get so much more OF it that it's laughable to say that you're getting good value at JPL. At Kimball's, I have to order a kiddie cone (slightly cheaper than a small at JPL) in order to have a shot at even finishing my ice cream, but at JPL, I have to buy a medium just to feel satisfied. The last time I ordered a small at Kimball's, it was by accident, and the time before that, my friend and I couldn't even finish the whole thing together.