Triple Snaps - A Cookie Trilogy

Ginger Snaps, both the movie and the cookie, are underrated. 

If you've never seen the movies, they're a female-lead, body-horror, werewolf trilogy from the early 2000's. If that sentence alone doesn't excite you, here is a very brief synopsis: Ginger and Bridgette are teenage sisters who have a morbid sensibility, making them social outcasts at school, but they don't really care because they have each other. One night, while out, Ginger experiences her first period, a milestone she has been dreading, and the blood attracts a werewolf. Though Ginger survives, Bridgette notices her sister behaves a bit differently after the attack, is it just puberty? Or something more sinister? 

I've seen all three, but the first one is the strongest in the series. (Although 2 isn't that bad.)

As for the cookies, they're a classic that has been around for ages, but, with more popular (and heavily advertised) competition like: Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Keebler, and Pepperidge Farms...Ginger Snaps are going to be the last one picked for the kickball team. They have staying power because they're a classic, they're well executed, and there's no one else out there quite like them. In fact, we even get seasonal variations now! 

I decided to pick them up and give them a try to see if the old-school Snap is still my favorite, or if one of these variants can steal my heart away. Will it be like the movies where the OG is the best of the bunch? We shall see. 

Seasonal Sippin' with Chobani? - I thought they only made yogurt?

Chobani Coffee - Cold Brew with Pumpkin Spice Creamer

How often do you need to drink coffee to be considered a "coffee drinker?" 

In college I definitely qualified. I worked at Panera bread, and between school, work, running a college club, my Etsy shop, and starting this blog...I never slept. My secret weapon? A 32-oz soda cup filled with ice, several shots of espresso (every shot is actually 2), 3 pumps of caramel, and 1% milk. Sometimes topped with whipped cream. Hate to say this, but sometimes I would drink two of those in a day. I don't know how I survived (or how I avoided lactose intolerance) but after a year my schedule lightened up and I stopped cold-turkey. I was younger then, stopping was super easy. No headaches, no withdrawals, no side effects. 

Since college I would say I drink coffee roughly 20 times a year. (Even that is being generous.) Have I lost my caffeine consumption cred? Do I no longer qualify as a "coffee drinker?" 

When I do drink coffee, you can immediately tell the difference. Normal coffee? I have a little bounce to my step and hate everything slightly less than normal. But a client of mine gifted me a few "turbo" coffee drinks with vanilla oat milk and I felt like I was vibrating! I started bouncing and dancing while I worked and felt like I was full of bees. It was awesome, but I can't imagine chasing that feeling every day.   

That said, a big part of Fall and Halloween culture in America just so happens to be coffee focused. What is fall without a pumpkin spiced latte? And I bought a decent amount of these products, and there are only a few days left until Halloween, so watch out world, I'm about to be caffeinated! 

Not Bagel Bites, but Bite-Sized Bagels

Limited Edition Bantam Bagels - Lidl

Back in 2015 I attended the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York, and there was booth for Bantam Bagels in one of the many MANY rooms of the convention center. The brand rep was baking up these bite sized bagel morsels in a little toaster oven on the convention room floor, the booth operators were really friendly, and overall I had a really positive impression of the product and the brand, so much so that after seeing hundreds of products, I still remembered them all these years later. 

I felt a twinge of happiness seeing these in the freezer section, I'm glad to see they were picked up by a few grocery chains and were expanding into seasonal flavors. So I grabbed one of each to give them a try. 

Let's Get Cozy - Lidl Pumpkin Spice Tea Review

Pumpkin Tea - Lidl

I normally like to be detached and light hearted in food posts, and I know this has been a difficult time for everyone, but somedays I'm able to take it in stride, and other days it just sucker-punches me in the gut. This month was filled with a lot of sucker-punch-days. 

But in the end, my little food blog here is one of my happy places on the internet. So let's all take a breath, get cozy, and have a cup of tea to forget about all the hard stuff for a minute.

I'm certainly no stranger when it comes to pumpkin teas. Over the years I have had three different varieties: Celestial Seasonings, Trader Joe's, and HT, and while that is but a mere scratch on the pumpkin-themed-tea surface, I still feel like I have a pretty good base to judge this new contender.   

#TBT White Pumpkin Pie m&m's, from 2019 (Because I'm a hoarder)

White Pumpkin Pie m&m's  - Target (I think)

In 2019, a simpler time, I went Halloween clearance crazy. While I totally don't regret it, a bunch of stuff ended up slipping through the cracks...like these m&m's. 

The bag says these are best before April of 2020, but do m&m's ever really go bad? They get chalky, sure, but rancid? Not really, unless they get wet.  So let's open up this (dry) bag of Halloween m&m's from 2019 and see how they've held up! 

There's no use fighting it, it's PUMPKIN TIME - Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake - Aldi $3.99

Pumpkin-pocalypse 2017 wasted no time taking over grocery store shelves. I was going to wait a little longer before dipping my toes into any pumpkin spiced products, but apparently stores have begun putting up Christmas displays?! It's insane how quickly stores cycle through holiday goods! There's no use fighting it, the seasonal limited edition product gods have spoken, it's pumpkin-time. 

I won't be going full-force into the pumpkin product reviews like previous years where I did a new pumpkin product pretty much every day from now until Christmas (and sometimes beyond), because...well, I'm sick of pumpkin. (*collective, internet gasp*) I know, I know, a food blogger, sick of pumpkin? In the fall?! I used to live for this season, and I purchased every pumpkin product that came my way, but I've pumpkin'd myself out to the point where one full foodie-cycle through the year just isn't enough time for my taste-buds to recuperate. I over-pumpkin'd, and now these items that I was once so hype for, make me cringe a little. I'm sure with time I'll be back to my basic, pumpkin-loving, self, but for now, I am taking baby steps to get myself back into the fall-spirit. 

Personally, my mind is still in summer mode. However, this was the last package of this particular flavor at Aldi, and it won't keep for very long, so my curiosity, practical nature, and frugality banded together to inform me that it's better to review it now than to let it slip through my reluctant fingers. 

Enough rambling, let's eat some cheesecake!

#tbt Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes - Walmart

#tbt Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes - Walmart

Are you ready for another pumpkin spice throw back Thursday? I know I am!

Actually, this might be the last pumpkin spiced product in my stash. I don't see anything else hiding in my cabinet, but knowing my food hoarder ways...something might pop up in a week or two.

First world food blogger problems, am I right? Oh well, let's eat some 6 month old Cupcakes!

Pumpkin Pie Almonds - Target

Double Crunch Pumpkin Pie Almonds - Target

'Tis the season to be BASIC, fa la la la la...Well, not really. 

Basic weather has come and gone, and Christmas is literally this weekend, but I am way behind on my food blogging, so we're going to dive into some overdue pumpkin spice reviews on today's #TBT.

Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn - Aldi

Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn - Aldi

Sorry Christmas enthusiasts, I've got some lingering pumpkin goodies to knock out before moving on to all things mint and cocoa related. (Not to mention my personal vendetta against Santa for turning my Halloween clearance shopping into a winter wonderland ON Halloween. Not cool, Santa. Not cool.)
For today's post I've got some pumpkin spiced caramel corn from Aldi. To be honest I wasn't too keen on buying this, because I thought it was going to be another novelty pumpkin spice product that no one wanted to eat that would clutter up my kitchen cabinets, but it proved me wrong.

Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spiced Glazed - One Day Only!!

Pumpkin Spice Galzed Doughnut VS. Original Glaze

Krispy Kreme offered a classic glazed version of their pumpkin spiced doughnuts, but they were only available for ONE DAY in October. I was hype. I posted about it on the Sometimes Foodie Facebook page, and pretty much count down the days until to was offered, reminded everyone that day that it was out..and I totally forgot to pick some up for myself. I finally remembered after midnight and I was kicking myself. Weeks later, a shining ray of hope appeared. 

Krispy Kreme was bringing this special doughnut back for another one day event in November, so I seized this opportunity and went to straight to Krispy Kreme after work to secure some of these (and a few other) doughnuts.

Project 7 Pumpkin Spice Delight Gum

Does the world really need another pumpkin spiced gum? 

Battle of the Pumpkin Teas! - 3 Teas Enter, One Tea Leafs!

(Get it? Leafs?) Welp, give me a pity laugh any way because I'm sick. It's just a head cold, but my voice sounds oh'-so sexy, and I'm pretty much bed-bound playing Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon on my 3DS until my thumbs fall off. 

The bright-side to being sick (other than playing video games) is I'm stuck at home, which gives me the time to type up some long over due reviews! I decided to focus on some sick-stomach-friendly items in my stash, and I found three different fall themed teas! So let's have a throat-soothing showdown to see which tea shall reign supreme!

Krispy Kreme! Pumpkin Spice Original Glaze - Nov 16 ONLY!

It's back! I missed out on this last month, but I've got a second chance! The pumpkin spice original glaze doughnut will be available next Wednesday (11/16/16). Are you going to give it a try?

Pumpkin Donut & Apple Crisp LaffyTaffy - Walmart

Pumpkin Donut & Apple Crisp LaffyTaffy - Walmart  

I couldn't find these on their own, so I had to buy a giant bag of Wonka Halloween candy just to review these seasonal flavors. Which means that if these suck I'm stuck with a lot of them. Well until Halloween anyway. (That's right, I use Halloween as an excuse to get rid of the B-team candy that get lackluster reviews on the blog. But last year I also handed out Giant Pixie Stix, so I think my candy karma balances out.) 

There's really not much for me to review packaging-wise, so let's read some terrible jokes and then get right into the review!

Maine Root Pumpkin Pie Soda & Fox's Rocky Horror Review

Maine Root Pumpkin Pie Soda - Aldi $4.99

Maine Root isn't the only Pumpkin Pie soda on the block, and it's actually not the first one I've ever drank either. Years ago, back in the dark-ages of blogging when everyone was on Livejournal and Deadjournal, Jones Soda would release seasonal soda sets. There would be a Thanksgiving dinner set, with gravy, stuffing and other bizarre savory flavored sodas, and a pie set with different seasonal pie flavors. My mother bought the sets from Target so she and my sister and I could try every single flavor...but that was so long ago I can't remember how any of them tasted. I have a clear warning-sign-of-a-memory saying Thanksgiving dinner is NOT a good idea for sodas, but the pumpkin pie ones were completely forgotten. Was it so bad I blanked it out? Or was it simply overshadowed by the horror that was stuffing-flavored-soda?

Time to make some new memories! (Hopefully I'll retain these ones.)

Tastykake Pumpkin Cheesecake Baked Pie - Walmart

Tastykake Pumpkin Cheesecake Baked Pie - Walmart

Hold on to your cheesesteaks Philadelphians, I'm about to say something shocking.... I don't like Tastykake. 

Tastykake is a hugely popular snack company in the NJ-PA region. The company's offerings are pretty similar to Little Debbie and Hostess, so we're talking grocery-store-quality cookies, snack cakes, pies, and doughnuts, but they're more unique items are their baked pies, "Koffee Kakes" and "Kandy Kakes." If you haven't noticed by now, the Kompany really likes Kreative spelling.   

You can find their items at every 7-Eleven, Wawa, corner store and grocery shop in the area. I grew up with this company and it's offerings but I never really understood it's devoted fanbase. When people move away from the area one of the things they always miss (other than cheesesteaks and Wawas) are Tastykake's products. I just don't get the appeal. Then again, before you all start pelting me with soft pretzels and chasing me out of town, I don't like most grocery store cookies and snack cakes. It wasn't until very recently that I was converted by the ever awesome banana Twinkie and decided to give more of these products a chance. So, here we are with another Tastykake product, will this be the one to finally make me see the light? (Or is it more like drinking the Kool-Aid...let's hope not.)

Pumpkin Spice & Apple Crisp Wafers - Happy Birthday To Me

Voortman Limited Edition Fall Flavors - Pumpkin Spice & Apple Crisp - Walmart $2.58 each

It's my birthday! Since I've been so busy adulting and dealing with mortgage stuff It really crept up on me this year. I'm totally unprepared! I've got no plans, no cake, no nothing. Thankfully my food blogging habits have me surrounded with piles of seasonal sweets, so instead of celebrating with a cake this year, I'm going to munch on all this stuff and knock out some long overdue reviews. 

First up, these limited edition fall flavored wafers!

Aldi Pumpkin-pocalypse 2016! (Coming October 9th)

Prepare your pantries for Pumpkin-pocalypse 2016! All things pumpkin are popping up at Aldi next week! There are a LOT of returning products, so here's a list of SOME of Aldi items I've already reviewed:

• Pumpkin Spiced Pancake Mix
• Sparkling Pumpkin Cider (A personal favorite) 
• Pumpkin Spiced Bottled Iced Coffee
• Pumpkin Supreme Pie
• Pumpkin Spiced Pizzelles 
• Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
• Pumpkin Spelt Risotto 
• Pumpkin Spiced Marshmallows
• Pumpkin Gnocchi 
• Pumpkin Chipotle Pasta Sauce
• Pumpkin Seed Tortillas
• Fit & Active Frozen Pumpin Squash Ravioli

Honorable Mention: Halloween Shaped Pasta (great for spooky pasta salad!!) 

Check out those reviews to see which items are worth adding to your pantry-patch!

Pumpkin Spice Twinkie-Dogs - Reader Suggested Foodie Mash-Up!

The other day I received a really intriguing comment... 

Pumpkin Spiced Twinkie-Dogs? I still had 5 Twinkies left, and a pack of hot dogs in the fridge, so I took it as a sign that I should try Caitlin J.'s suggestion for dinner when I got home from work and...

Pumpkin Spice Twinkies - Walmart

Pumpkin Spice Twinkies - Walmart

In case you didn't know, last Thursday was the first official day of fall (in America), and it hit NJ like a ton of bricks! Friday night I was driving home from work in a tank top with the windows down in 90 degree weather, and two days later I need to put a hoodie on to drive into work in the morning! I love all things spooky, Halloween-related, and pumpkin, but it's all happening too fast. It's not just the weather either, grocery stores have switched gears and we're now experiencing Pumpk-ageddon 2016. 

Anything and everything pumpkin is lining the shelves and limited edition summer flavors are no where to be found. One of the brands that has really run head-first into fall flavors is Hostess. They've released a bunch of Halloween themed items and THREE different Twinkie flavors for the fall. I figured there's no use denying it, summer is over, so I grabbed a box of pumpkin spiced Twinkies to join in with the rest of the basic food bloggers, so grab you're sweaters and let's see if this fall flavor is worthy of replacing my beloved summer Ghostbusters boxes.