Leftovers: So here’s one that despite having picked it up for Thanksgiving, I’ll freely admit that I’m just now getting around to enjoying … and for those of you who are now scratching your heads saying, “Who in their right mind takes four days to get around to eating a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake?!”, well, my bad…

But in My Defense!: We did have a ridiculous amount of food – as in, more desserts than entries and side dishes combined-level of ridiculous!

No Excuse!: You’re right, though – there really is no excuse because even though I’ve passed on this one many times in the past simply because The Cheesecake Factory’s prices are also quite ridiculous, as all of the recipients of anyone who went out shopping on Black Friday will tell you on December 26th – you get what you pay for, and in this case, $12.95 at Target purchased us the cheesecake equivalent of heaven. And I’m sure that I’ve had their cheesecake in the actual restaurants before, though I can’t recall precisely when at the moment, but if anyone is doubting that their same signature quality could also be packaged for easy pickup at your local big box store … you’re wrong, it’s excellent.

Mmmmm: I mean, seriously – this has got to be the smoothest, creamiest cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. The graham cracker crust crumbles a sweet taste of honey in your mouth, even further accentuating the golden creme that is the delectable pumpkin filling in the center. If this website was solely devoted to cheesecakes, I could pretty much just close up shop after this review and call it a day…

…but it’s not, so I won’t! Still, it’s a delicious premium well worth saving your allowance for, and really, my only fault was being too afraid of the price tag to make this one of the very first pumpkin reviews I ever did. We’ve seen a lot of great pumpkin products so far in 2011, but this might just very well be the one to beat…

Credentials: I mean, seriously – with a doctorate in crackers, this guy has got to know what he’s talking about, right?!

Undue Enthusiasm: Ok, so I was pretty excited about this particular find, admittedly mostly just because I thought that the name sounded awesome, however unfortunately in hindsight after having tasted the results of what I can only imagine were many long and grueling years of graduate work, in reality I found them kind of dull and uninspired, and if I were Doctor Kracker I’d maybe think about finding another line of work like heart surgery or psychiatry or something that isn’t necessarily cracker-centric.

Untapped Market?: For what it’s worth, my dog liked them, but then again, she also has a voracious appetite for shoes…

Also Known As…: The Three-Dollar Pumpkin Pie

Admission: So truth be told, this particular post is actually the pumpkin counterpart to a humor column that I posted earlier today poking fun at Black Friday and the expectation of quality for something that you’re literally paying $3 for. When I saw this in the store, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself wondering just what a three-dollar pumpkin pie actually tastes like…

The Verdict: Much like I wouldn’t trust the three dollar waffle maker to not burn my kitchen down shortly after its inaugural breakfast commenced, if my choices were A) serve this $3 pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, or B) don’t serve pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, being the pumpkin aficionado that I am, the only answer I could possibly bring myself to would actually be … C) pick up a box of Jell-O pumpkin pudding and a graham cracker shell instead and make something myself because this one was just … bleeech.

The top has this creepy, sort of skin over the top that reminded me of crappily made pudding, the innards are somewhat tolerable, although it took several bites to get past the aftertaste of the skin, and the “crust” … well, as you can see in the picture, there actually really wasn’t much of a crust at all because it was either barely present or broken off long before I ever even got it out of the box.

Also, the crust on the bottom of the pie was surprisingly dry, which I found odd considering it was covered by an inch and a half of pumpkin.

It just wasn’t a good pie, ok?!

Money may not be able to buy happiness, but at least it can buy you a better pumpkin pie than this bargain basement blunder…

So I had actually heard of these guys a while ago – the idea is that they offer a new t-shirt design every single day, but they only continue to offer designs as long as they keep selling well.  And although I honestly don’t really wear a lot of printed t-shirts these days, when this little beauty was brought to my attention, well, needless to say I guess I just couldn’t say no…

Plus, it was only ten bucks SHIPPED on the first day it was released – you can’t beat that!!!

Anyways, it’s hard to say just how long it’ll continue to be around, but it’s still safely within The Top 20 Shirts right now as we speak, so if you like pumpkins and/or math, time is of the essence to jump on this amazing tribute to the bestest dessert to grace today’s dinner table!

First and Foremost…: Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Introduction: As you might expect, this was one of several pumpkin desserts on the dinner menu this holiday season at my house, and the only one that actually required assembly, in fact! It actually wasn’t too bad at all, though – aside from the actual baking (which I’ll get to in a minute…), the assembly process took a matter of minutes and even a child could’ve done it, really.  You can see from the picture that I did omit the almond topping because nobody in my house actually likes almonds, but the rest was pretty much by the book…

I Hate Convection Ovens: I mentioned earlier this year that we had moved into a house that has a convection oven instead of a traditional one, and now that I’ve had plenty of time to experiment with it, I can safely say 7 months later that I absolutely hate the thing. The majority of my pans don’t work in it because they need to be able to spin and anything rectangular can’t, which limits me to a small number of square and circle 9×9 pans at best, and a pizza pan that has become my de facto cookie sheet.  I fear the weekend when we have to bake Christmas cookies because it’s going to take forever…

But anyways, I tried using my old, rectangular 13×9 pan for this … basically because I forgot about the limitations until after I had put it in the oven … and by the time I was done, I had cooked it for nearly twice as long as the recipe recommends, including physically turning the pan around when one side was starting to burn while the other was still raw.  And maybe there are other convection ovens that don’t require turntables and as a result are awesomely efficient baking machines, but this one sucks and it’ll be the first thing I throw out the window if the house that we eventually buy happens to have one installed!

</rant>

So Anyways…: Nonetheless, despite my baking mishaps, the end result of this pumpkin/caramel/cream cheese thing actually tasted pretty good.  I was a little unsure of what to expect from the frosting because it seemed like there was a ton of it, but the flavors blended really well with the caramel and pumpkin cake – like what I would hope that one of those pumpkin roll thingys would taste like.

P.S.: My wife noticed after I had started baking that there’s also an alternate recipe on the side of the box to instead create a pumpkin roll rather than the cake that you see above, and so while I may not be picking up another box to try it anytime soon, a little birdie did inform me that her Mom – well famous for enabling my pumpkin habit thus far – may very well mix this up when we come to visit around Christmastime, so stay tuned for more of that to come shortly…

Potential Slogans:

• “Dry and a little tasteless, just like Grandpa’s jokes…”
• “Cobbler?  Wait – aren’t cobblers are normally moist and delicious???  Can somebody look up the definition of cobbler before we print these damn labels?!”
• “It doesn’t taste very good, but at least it’s cheap.”

Bleh: Yeah, so as you might’ve guessed – I wasn’t really very impressed with this substitution for Walmart’s traditional crappy pumpkin baked goods.  I pretty much picked it up thinking that because it has somewhat of a unique name, that there was a small possibility that it might be different … but I was wrong!

Final Verdict: Unless that’s your own grandpa there on the packaging and you’re trying to avoid hurting his feelings or something, it’s probably best just to steer clear of this one altogether…

Admission: I’m gonna be completely honest – I don’t normally eat at Denny’s.  I guess I’m more of an IHOP-kind of guy myself, or perhaps even Bob Evans if we happen to pass one of the relatively few in the Tampa Bay Area, but nonetheless, after a recent tip-off that Denny’s had a limited time pumpkin menu option up for consideration and finding myself in the vicinity, I decided to drop in and sample their own pumpkin pancakes to see just how they stacked up…

See what I did there?

The Review: Though the presentation was nice, as you can see, the pancakes themselves were just ok.  Not completely devoid of pumpkin flavor, but not overwhelmingly delicious, either – and to drive home that point, I should add that my wife liked them and she doesn’t really like pumpkin!  The highlight was probably the cinnamon butter dolloped on top, but it still felt like they were lacking something.

As seen in The Art of Disney at Downtown Disney – if only my wallet was big enough to afford pretty much anything found in this store!

Initial Reaction: “Holy cow – sinful doesn’t even begin to describe it!”

Explanation: Although I’ve munched on pretzels from Wetzel’s many a times while wandering around Downtown Disney, it’s always been the traditional variety that I’ve enjoyed – usually with a side of cheese of some sort for dipping at my leisure.  I’ve never had one of their cinnamon pretzels before, but in hindsight now I think it’s safe to say that when I’m considering dessert options after a long day of shopping for pins and LEGOs, this ridiculously sweetened gem of cake-like proportions definitely needs to be in the running and should have no problem whatsoever holding its own even against the likes of Ghirardelli and Goofy’s Candy Co…

The Glaze: With a faint hint of cream cheese, but much sweeter – before I realized that it was a dipping sauce, I was kind of curious to see how a drizzled concoction was going to work, but this definitely worked and I even ended up having a little leftover after the pretzel had been devoured!  Very delicious.

The Mess: So, yeah … the big difference between a cinnamon pretzel and your conventional, salted pretzel is that apparently one topping has more of a tendency to fall off and make a gigantic mess all over the table than the other.  By the time I was finished, I probably had enough sugar accumulated on the table in front of me to cover another whole pretzel!  For what it’s worth, I tried to clean it up as best I could, and ultimately I suppose that too much sugar is always better than not enough, but nonetheless, I hope that the janitor who had to clean up my mess can forgive me…

Quick Post: A pretty basic candle, really – nice fragrance, but not particularly strong unless you stick your nose right down inside the candle, which I don’t suggest that you do! Still, a good, reliable candle for ambiance around the house if you happen to live with people who might not necessarily be quite as in love with pumpkin as you are…