Purely PUMPKIN

PUMPKIN is one of the tasting team’s FAVORITE tastes, and we are SO glad that Libby’s finally returned to the grocery store shelves.

 

So, we’ve decided to give you a taste of some of our favorite pumpkin-flavored treatz.

1.      Toggy’s famous steel-cut pumpkin oats: Best breakfast evaa! In a small saucepan, cook up your steel-cut oats (follow the instructions on your container). Toggy likes them best with half water, half soy milk (light plain flavor!!) and just stir occassionally. They really do take about 20 or 25 minutes, but they are WELL worth the wait. Stir in 1/2 a banana and a bunch of canned pumpkin (and some freshly ground flax??) at the end. Toggy recommends serving with a big spoonful of almond butter and maybe even some blueberries or ground walnuts!

2.      DJ Ericat <3’s Pumpkin smoothies (and gets weird looks when she brings them to the libary):
In the Magic bullet…
•       Lots of canned pumpkin (Around ½ cup)
•       Yogurt (plain, vanilla, greek… whatever you have)
•       Milk (I use vanilla soy milk)
•       ½ banana
•       Ice
•       Cinnamon and/or brown sugar
•       Ground flax seed… if you’re into that

3.      Pumpkin Pizza! Does it sound weird? It’s not. It’s delicious.
•       A serving of mixed veggies (we like tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, cauliflower, and zucchini... but be creative!)
•       Canned pumpkin
•       Tortilla/wrap of your choice (we like Flat Out sandwhich wraps or any kind of tortilla!)
•       Shredded cheese
Preheat the oven to 400ish. Sauté the veggies in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and other seasonings of your choice. On a wrap or tortilla, spread some canned pumpkin mixed with a little salt and pepper. Then, pile on your sautéed veggies and sprinkle a handful of shredded cheese. Stick it in the oven for 10-15 minutes… whenever the cheese is melted and the wrap/tortilla gets crispy. Nom nom!

4.      Pumpkin Spice Lattes

No recipe here! Go to Starbucks (or Summit if you’re in Davidson) and fetch yourself a pumpkin spice latte ASAP.  Studying will be much less miserable, we promise!

5.      Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt (pictures to come!!)
Fro-yo is one of the Tasting Team’s true loves… so obviously pumpkin fro yo is a winner in our book. We recommend Red Mango’s pumpkin spice and Freshberry’s Pumpkin Cheesecake. These are seasonal, so get them while they’re hot (….frozen).


6. Pumpkin Cheesecake
This amazing cheesecake was crafted by Erica's mom in honor of Thanksgiving. Here's the recipe! We topped it with some homemade whipped cream mixed with a few ounces of brandy and some chopped crystallized ginger. Deeeeelicious!

7. Pumpkin Pancakes
 Nom nom PURE breakfast heaven.  Just mix in some canned pumpkin with instant pancake/waffle mix instead of some of the water. I topped them with lots of baby blueberries and a little bit of syrup.

We love pumpkin so much that even The New York Times, that guy from The Hangover, and Ke$ha agree with us!

Comment with your own favorite pumpkin creations!! What will you come up with...?

XOXO,
The Tasting Team

Thanksgiving Round 1!

FOOD COMA! (Sorry if some of the pictures are a little blurry...)

Best Thanksgiving ever. The Tasting Team and our wonderful roommates, neighbors, and friends gathered together in a home on Watson Street to give thanks for all the incredible people we have in our lives.

The gorgeous table setting! Thanks to Claudia, Jacqui, and Madison for sharing their beautiful home with us.

Some of our friends (Jacqui, Cathy, and Billy) wanted to celebrate Christmas early!

There was a huge array of wonderful food...

Claudia and Cathy provided the fried turkey, courtesy of Bojangles -- you can buy a turkey that's already cooked and fried, then you thaw and reheat...and eat! Apparently, it was delicious:

Questionable...

EXTREMELY questionable...

Voila!

Nugget carves a turkey!

Taking the first taste (!!)

Nom nom??

Success!

We started the night with Shawna's FAMOUS spinach and artichoke dip:

Toggy made roasted vegetables (Brussel sprouts tossed in EVOO and vegetable seasoning, onions with EVOO and cumin, butternut squash with EVOO, salt, pepper, and ginger (!), broccoli with EVOO, salt, pepper, and lemon juice, and carrots with EVOO, salt, pepper, and paprika). Nom nom we love roasted veggies!

DJ Ericat whipped up some delicious sweet potato casserole. Just throw some sweet potatoes in the oven, cook them until they're good and soft, and then mash up the insides. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans and stick it back in the oven:

Cornbread, biscuits, apple cider, and MASHED POTATOES (thanks to Becca, Paige, and Amanda!):

Kale with garlic, olive oil, and bacon (no bacon in the second dish -- thanks Sara and Alex!):

Beautiful food.

 Liz brought crunchy green beans, steamed and sauteed with garlic:

All the food!

My plate :)

 Cathy and DJ Ericat had a great idea for a new tradition: we each picked a name out of a mug and then went around and said what why we were grateful for that person. Hilarity and tears ensued...our personal faves? Becca's mention of Alex's frozen burritos and bathrobe, and Billy's "Working Class Appeal" Award.

Cathy and Sara both cried (tears of happiness and thankfulness, we hope!)

 Brittany made cinnamon cupcakes with HOMEMADE frosting. Liz brought some pumpkin bread with walnuts (nom nom), and Ashton baked the most delicious apple pie ever!

 Oh! Did we mention that there were margaritas, too...?

We are blessed with the most wonderful friends, who (luckily) share our love for all things tasty!

  

How better to celebrate Thanksgiving than with delicious food, laughter, and beautiful people all around us?

Eat Here

The best fro-yo ever. 

http://www.redmangousa.com/default.html

Our favorite flavors: Pumpkin Spice, Cocoa, Madagascar Vanilla, and Original -- try them all!

Watson Street Thanksgiving

Tonight, the residents of Watson Street and F are cooking a Thanksgiving feast. Connor gives thanks for all things edible.

On the menu? A fried turkey from Bojangles courtesy of the Nugget, sweet potato casserole, roasted veggies, kale, some dessert by Brosen, cornbread, and apple pie...among other things.

Get excited...! We'll post photos tonight ;)

Nom nom love,
The Tasting Team

Why Toggy Loves Food