friday fixations: food edition

{shredded wheat} You're probably not going to be a fan of this unless you like mushy oatmeal, but this particular breakfast has some really deep-rooted memories for me. My gram used to serve this to me with hot water and brown sugar. A couple weeks back, I saw a commercial for shredded wheat, and I just couldn't stop thinking about having some again (ah the power of advertising). My favourite way remains the same, hot water, a little brown sugar, and now I add just a dash of milk for some extra creaminess. It's so good and really filling! (Plus I like that the ingredient list is literally one word long: wheat.)

{pumpkin} Well, duh, it IS pumpkin season. Who isn't hooked on it? But I think I've taken one extra step over the edge this year. I cooked up my own pumpkin puree last year and it took a lot of time and work, so now that we're leaving, I have a lot of frozen pumpkin that I just can't toss in the garbage! I have to do something with it! Besides adding it to meat sauces (this is a sneaky way to get it into foods plus it acts like tomato sauce when you don't have any tomato sauce) and soup, I've also been baking things with it (cuz I bought a big bag of flour last month like a dummy). I love this pumpkin sandwich bread (not pumpkin bread like banana bread) and I've got my eyes on these pumpkin gingersnap cookies (because I love gingersnap cookies AND I have a box of molasses to use up, too -- naturally).

{gingerbread oreos} If this is the last Oreo cookie I ever get to eat, it was a pretty damn good choice. They were bought on a whim and now I feel like I need to smuggle a case load of them into Finland.

{clumpy cranberry spice granola} I really want to try this recipe. I love granola that's got clusters in it, but the only recipe I have (that makes really good granola) is way too full of sugar (let's face it, like all things, it's really good just because of the two types of sugar). I'd never thought to add egg whites to granola to create the clumping effect instead of using double the amount of sugar. At least with this idea, I can still tell myself this snack is relatively healthy (compared to store-bought).

{pecan butter tart ice cream} If you're not into candy cane ice cream (like me), you might be interested in this one. Butter tarts really feel like Christmas because of that whole cookie-exchange vibe this time of year gives off (I mean, what bake sale or exchange doesn't have a plate of tarts?). Besides, this ice cream really does butter tarts justice.