No Pumpkin Shortage Here

Hi, all!  A few weeks ago I over-heard a woman in Aldi's saying that there's a canned-pumpkin shortage due to some sort of pumpkin blight.  Well, all you have to say to me is "shortage" or "discontinued" and I will buy it.  Anything from pumpkin to yarn (or best of all: pumpkin-colored yarn).  So a week later, when there was a flat of canned pumpkin in the front of the store, I bought enough pumpkin to last until times get better.  Now, in a normal year I might make a couple of pumpkin pies if the mood strikes me.  But say "shortage" and I am certain the holidays will be ruined without pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies...  And I don't even eat this stuff!  But the children...

The result is another picture of non-raw food.  The second batch of pumpkin pies this year along with my pumpkin-scented candle, my beautiful bowl from Ginny, my Twinings Christmas tea, and my Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies book that I inherited from Saadia.  (Thanks Saadia!)

I am so psyched about the holidays!  I looked through the cookie book and made my grocery list for holiday treats, especially the making of the plum pudding this year.  I negotiated a deal with Cathy that if she buys the tins for the steaming of said puddings, I will buy all of the ingredients.  I found good tins on Amazon for 13 bucks, so I didn't take liberties.  My folks are springing for the brandy and are providing the silver coin.  I'm just giddy at this point.  I've been browsing for Christmas crackers, too.  They are pretty spendy, especially when all that's inside is a paper hat along with a joke and a silly prize.  However, I think it's a swell tradition for an Anglophile like me.  At least 50% of my readers think so, too.  That's you, Christina ;)

P.S.  Here's the pumpkin-colored yarn: