Starring Roles: Pillsbury Pumpkin Quick Bread, Dickinson’s Country Pumpkin Butter
Motivation: bread meets butter – it just seemed like magic
Flavor Combo: LOTS of pumpkin!  Said pumpkin butter actually more closely resembles some sort of pumpkin jam or preserves, for whatever that’s worth…
Combo Verdict: Better, but still not awesomely amazing.  Instead of truly melding their two flavors, I think the butter did more to merely remind me just how not moist the bread actually turned out.  And frankly, I’m not really sure what else could’ve been done to make the by the box recipe any differently, aside from possibly using jumbo instead of large eggs or maybe a different, higher-quality brand of oil.  That said, while the bread didn’t really deliver, the butter has to take some of the blame as well for this combo failure because it’s still running at less than spectacular also…

Pumpkin Bread-Maker Call-Out: Have you made truly spectacular pumpkin bread with your own bare hands?!  Something that just screams moist, delicious pumpkin with every bite?  If so, do help a fellow pumpkin aficionado out and drop me a line with the recipe so I can give it a truly for myself!  Please don’t let me go through this entire season without enjoying a truly great pumpkin bread…

Agility Note: Despite having to “make” this myself (via mix), prep time was a breeze at only maybe 5 minutes total from dry mix to oven-ready.
Taste: Nice flavor, although I’m trying to figure out how I could’ve possibly done anything different because I distinctly remember this bread being more moist when prepared in years past.
Recipe Side Note: In addition to the simple, 5-minute bread and muffin instructions on the back of the box, this one also features a rather yummy looking recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins on the side of the box that I think I might just have to try here one of these weekends! From the picture, they look like they’re intended to be similar to the bigger, almost coffee-cake-like muffins that you buy from the bakery, so stay tuned for more as that develops…

Initial Thought: “Boy, these muffins sure are small…”
Marketing Reassurance Provided by Packaging: “Just the right size!  Not too big and not too small.  Little Debbie Muffins are the perfect size to eat at home or take along.”
Actual Flavor: rich pumpkin flavor, although it could’ve been improved by being just a little more moist (…but what do you really expect out of pre-packaged snacks???)
Afterthoughts: Primarily due to their size, these are more snack muffins than they are breakfast muffins, which I guess could be assumed seeing as they were made by one of the biggest snack cake companies in the world!  The flavor wasn’t too bad, but I’d have to eat a couple of these to fill up for breakfast and that’d still end up being a pretty high calorie breakfast…

Found At: Super Target
Price: 59 cents
Disclaimer: I haven’t eaten yogurt “regularly” in several years. (It was a diet thing; it didn’t work; I don’t want to talk about it…)
Scott Says: This tastes no different than any other flavor of yogurt that I’ve eaten over the years, except for those that are designed to be flavored like things and actually do. Case in point is those Yoplait Whips things – back in the days when I actually did force myself to eat yogurt in a feeble attempt to shed pounds, this was the particular brand that I enjoyed and I’ll be damned if their key lime pie actually tasted like key lime pie. Or at least it was in the ballpark, which is more than Archer Farms can boast.
Final Fat Free Feelings: It’s tinted orange, and without an extensive use of your imagination, that’s the closest your going to get to pumpkin by eating this yogurt. A perfect example of why the store brand is usually crap, I’ll try this again next year only if Yoplait or another yogurt maker who actually knows flavors is behind the cow…

Possible Tag Line: “Almost as good as apple butter … almost.”
Medium for Sampling: Martin’s Potato Bread
Burnt Toast to Blame? not likely
Buttery Thoughts: This stuff basically has the consistency of pumpkin pie filling before it’s baked and whatnot, and has roughly the same general taste, minus the sugar (not that pumpkin pie has a lot of sugary content, but still – this is raw veggie). And given the arsenal of pumpkin-related goodies that I’ve sampled over the last few weeks, it’s still up there in terms of accurate pumpkin portrayal, but there was just something missing.
Verdict: Undecided – didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. May need to try it on some other mediums (bagels, english muffins, pumpkin bread) before a final verdict can be announced. Stay tuned for future updates…

Abridged Verdict: Not bad, albeit just a bit stale by the time I finally got around to eating it (not anyone’s fault but my own, mind you…).  Flavor was slightly pumpkin-y, but for true flavor, Dunkin’ Donuts makes a pumpkin muffin that’s much better than their pumpkin donut.

Origin: The International House of Pancakes
Taste: sweet, fluffy, great with syrup
Verdict: IHOP would get much more business from me if they sold these year-round