I love fall. Not just for the cooler weather, but at the store tonight I found Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. They usually have it around Thanksgiving. I haven't been able to find it throughout the rest of the year. I also saw peppermint mocha coffee creamer. Also one of my favorites. Are there any foods you only see around thanksgiving or Christmas that you love?
I love the fall too. I don't do well in Summer heat. One of the things I also look forward to is the holiday specials and goodies that come out. I don't do Starbucks often but I like their Peppermint Hot Chocolate. I like Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin muffins this time of year too.
Interestingly, in Texas, the food I see most often when I attend holiday gatherings (Thanksgiving through Christmas) is homemade tamales. All of the usual fare is present - turkey, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, etc. - but the tamales are what I remember most vividly. When I was in high school, I always looked forward to the call from one of my Hispanic buddies informing me that his "abuela" (Spanish for grandmother) was getting ready to make tamales and needed to know how many dozen I wanted. This is making me hungry!
Starbucks has a pastry called the cranberry bliss bar that's just to die for but they only bring it out around the christmas season.
I bet that would be great in a punch. We would normally put something like ginger ale mixed with a sherbert, but that would be a great variation. I just love fresh turkey. Sometimes I will make a boneless skin on turkey breast a few times for myself even before Thanksgiving, just because they have so many of them out at the grocery store this time of year.
I love fall, just like you do! The best thing about fall is apple cider and pumpkin-everything! I have a Keurig and I've loaded up on boxes of the apple cider- what a great drink. It is so great on a cool day and different from tea or coffee. I love the taste of apples, so apple cider is perfect. Just like how you saw peppermint mocha coffee creamer, I saw for the first time in my life some pumpkin spice coffee creamer! You bet that I bought two of those. Now, I must admit it's not the same as getting a pumpkin spiced latte at Starbucks - but it comes pretty dang close.
I like to make marrow chutney, and I also cook stuffed marrows, and fall is the only time I can get really good ones. I do make enough chutney to last the year, though. Pickling onions is another thing that's only around for a couple of months of the year. I always make lots, but I can't make enough to lost through the year, as they go soft. Store bought pickled onions just don't have the flavour of home made ones.
I like this time of year, although we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in the UK - we still have food available around that time that is not available throughout the year. Christmas is my favorite time of year because I love mince pies and some of the seasonal specials available at Starbucks.
