They are orange, cheap, big, heavy and everywhere—pumpkin season is in full swing.
They are small, colourful and sold by boxes of 100, 50 or 30 pieces—Halloween candies have taken over the aisles in supermarkets.
This is the time of the year when your food is pumpkin-flavoured, sugary, spooky and scary.
Mark begs Feng to go hang out at Walmart and check out “monsters”—plastic ghosts, Frankenstein heads and other creepy creatures that adorn most front yards. Shoppers’ carts are full of red lettering “caution tape,” spider webs, fake tombstones and bloody body parts to be displayed outside just for fun and to scare the neighbourhood kids.
Halloween is a strange tradition and I’m always surprised to see how popular it is among adults. Indeed, Canada goes wild, maybe to forget that summer is over and we will all need to throw a winter coat over the costume.
Holiday events are always extravagant in North America. “Evil sugar is killing us and should be banned”, except for the entire month of October when you’re encouraged to buy boxes of 30, 50, 100 or 200 treats. Sure, most of them are supposed to be given out on October 31 but they will haunt school lunches and office drawers long after the last ghost showed up at the door.
Unsurprisingly, popular treats include candies (M&Ms, Skittles, etc.) as well as candy bars like Snickers, Oh Henry, Kit Kat, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and the classic made-for-Canada Coffee Crisps. Other food brands—Pringles, Doritos, Bear Paws cookies, Goldfish Crackers—also jump on the bandwagon and introduce “spooky” limited editions of their savoury snacks for Halloween. They are super popular with kids because they are acceptable school lunch box items (e.g., shitty nutritional value but peanut-free).
If you’re not into classic Halloween treats, you’d better develop a taste for pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice, the trendy flavours of the season—pumpkin spice latte, cookies, muffin, pancakes, breakfast cereals, pop tarts, oatmeal… and of course, pumpkin pie.
I’m partial to chocolate so I’m patiently waiting for Christmas, which should start in grocery stores on November 1.
L’automne est là pas de doute! And it’s f*ing freezing! Nouveau look du blog ou j’ai la berlue?
You’re not dreaming! I redesigned the blog this WE. It’s a work in progress, some fine-tuning required, but I think it loads faster and reads better.
Love the blog redesign! Well done 🙂
I used to buy boxes of Halloween candy for my ex (weed does that to you apparently…) but now that I am on my own I found that I don’t notice them as much since I never buy that sort of things. Also, not having kids means I can pretend Halloween isn’t happening haha even if a lot of my (adult) friends are gearing up for it.
Apparently pumpkin spice hummus is a thing this year?
I have to admit I enjoy the whole pumpkin spice flavour, as long as it’s not too sweet. It’s really good in smoothies or a lightly sweetened homemade pie.
I’ve never tasted pumpkin spice but strangely, I find the idea of pumpkin spice hummus appealing. Didn’t find it in store around here… must investigate! I do make a great oatmeal with pumpkin sauce and veggies, though 🙂
(Thank you for the comment about the redesign! Still doing some fine-tuning but I’m quite happy with the result)
La citrouille est la seule protéine autorisée en octobre selon le guide alimentaire canadien.
Tiens, ya un truc qui a l’air d’avoir changé, je ne suis plus obligé de passer en mode privé pour accéder aux dernières mises-à-jour du site. Sinon, j’aime bien la nouvelle présentation, mais je trouve qu’il y a un peu trop de blanc, non ?
J’ai explosé de rire, merci. Can you rewrite the food guide for us? 😉
Tu devais être en mode privé pour voir les derniers articles? Bizarre! J’comprends pas…
The redesign is still a work in progress. Some fine-tuning is needed but I think it’s easier to read and it loads faster, especially on mobile devices. I’ll add some colour for you 🙂
J’aimais bien le léger brun pour le fond, c’est moins agressif pour les yeux le matin quand je me lève. Gnîîî …
Et c’est moins tristounet qu’un gris, plus classe qu’un bleu, moins jaune qu’un jaune.
En fait, il y a 2 sites qui me faisaient ça. Le tien et bugmartini.com (celui-là me le fait toujours), mon navigateur refus(ait)e de reconnaître qu’il y avait eu des changements.
Mais seulement sur ma tablette, je n’ai pas ce problème sur mon ordinateur principal.
Bon, je vais me repencher sur le sujet. En fait, j’ai profité du WE dernier où c’était calme pour mettre en place ce que je préparais depuis des semaines, puis là je suis redébordée de travail donc le fignolage doit attendre. I like tweaking the blog, it’s relaxing… but I need time.
It’s not important, just a thought.
But your thoughts matter! I rarely get feedback so it’s precious. I have to admit I did think of you, tablet user, when I redesigned it. I wanted it to load faster and better on devices.
awww….I have sweet tooth! forgot that I’ll be 42, should cut sugar. I think Kit Kat in Japan still win!! If only Japan celebrate Haloween as well….
Japan seems to have the best sweets according to the Internet. There’s quite a following for Japanese candy bars including exotic Kit Kat flavours!
Yay pumpkin season!
It’s pumpkin everyday here! In everything!
And pumpkin spice!
😀 😀 😀
And I agree with everyone, new design is great!
Ah, a pumpkin lover!
Do you cook with pumpkin or just enjoy pumpkin-flavoured products?
I mostly cook,
that way I can add even more spices! 🙂
Any recipe you’d recommend?
Let me check… I will post something about it
There are so many recipes! And so little time 😀
Sorry for giving you homework! But if you get the chance to share, that’s awesome 😉
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