time to get pumpkin spicy

plus, all the deets on my website

Happy Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I recently released the beta version of my website (zoebarrie.com) 🥳

If you missed it, no biggie, you can find it here :)

We’re still making some edits, like adding a section to put the yield & time for each recipe, fixing the mobile version, and of course, adding old recipes.

But, in the meantime, I’ll be making my usual content, while also testing/developing the old recipes you all wrote to me about. BTW - thank you to each and every one of you who took the time to message me regarding what recipes you’d like to see on the website. I wrote them all down and have already started re-testing/re-shooting/re-writing.

ANYWAY…

Before we dive into the real substance,

I went to Trader Joe’s this week to get in the ✨pumpkin spice✨ spirit (highly recommend doing this if you’re having a hard time accepting the fact that summer is over) and I had a spur-of-the-moment idea that I felt was newsletter content. After roaming all the aisles, I compiled the top 5 items/things that I specifically go to Trader Joe’s solely to buy, just in case you were interested…

1. Gone Bananas (Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas)

2. Cranberry-Clementine Sparkling Water

3. Super Sweet Marzanino Tomatoes

4. Elote Corn Chip Dippers with Street Corn Seasoning

5. 10-Minute Farro

Honorable Mentions: Hot & Sweet Pepper Jelly, Everything and the Elote Greek Style Yogurt Dip, and the Original Savory Thin Crackers

Okay, no more small talk - let’s dive into the real substance, shall we?

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Cinnamon Pumpkin Bread

If you don’t follow me on TikTok, then you are probably very unaware of my dessert jar. My ✨dessert jar✨ is exactly what it sounds like - a place to store desserts. In the midst of moving constantly, I thought it would be a fun way to make the places we lived in feel more homey…and in my completely biased opinion, it has 100% made the places we’ve lived feel more like a home. Plus, it’s given me a reason to make (and a place to store) the desserts I dream about.

This week’s dessert was this Pumpkin Cinnamon Bread - it’s a hybrid of your favorite, dare I say, moist coffee cake and pumpkin spiced bread. And it’s fabulous. So here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

Pumpkin Bread

½ cup unsalted butter, melted and browned

¾ cup white sugar

2 eggs

1-15 oz. can of pure pumpkin puree

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 tsp pumpkin spice

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

Cinnamon Crunch

3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

⅓ cup brown sugar

⅓ cup all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preparation

Cinnamon Crunch

1. In a small bowl, using your hands, combine unsalted butter, brown sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until the mixture resembles and feels like wet-ish sand.

Pumpkin Bread

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together browned butter, sugar, and eggs. Add in pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.

3. To the pumpkin batter, add ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt, and flour. Stir until fully combined. 

4. Place half of the bread batter in a 9 x 5 loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Top with half of the cinnamon crunch mixture. Place the remaining half of the batter directly on top of the cinnamon crunch layer and top with the remaining half of the cinnamon crunch layer (if you’re a visual learner, watch this).

5. Bake for 55-60 minutes.

A close friend of mine went on a tour of a tomato farm, where they produce many of the big-brand canned tomatoes you see at the store. Instead of trying to share what she shared with me (because I’ll likely butcher the facts/stats and the last thing I want to do is spread misinformation), here’s a video of how canned pumpkin is produced.

The crux of what I’m trying to say is that canned produce is not bad. Most of the canned produce you see (like tomatoes, pumpkins, etc.) was picked seasonally, packaged, and placed on store shelves within 48 hours (according to the tomato farm she went to - this is the only stat I remember).

This explains why Trader Joe’s jarred peaches (another honorable mention from TJ’s essentials) and canned pumpkin puree aren’t available when they’re not in season.

One thing about me is I will be influenced by Jennifer Aniston. This all started in the 7th grade when I got my first real haircut done by a professional/someone other than my dad and I showed a picture of Jen Aniston’s face-framing haircut as inspiration for what I wanted. #corememory

Now, many years later, Vital Proteins sent me their collagen peptides (publically praised by Jennifer Aniston), so of course, I had to give them a try.

BTW - I was not paid to say this!!!

I tried their Pumpkin Spice Collagen Peptides mixed in my coffee this morning and it was delicious. 8.8 out of 10. My only note is that my container didn’t come with a scooper.

My BF and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary this week so we took a trip to one of our favorite Sacramento spots: Mikuni. The entire dinner was fabulous. I’ve praised Mikuni in this newsletter before, so I’ll spare you this time.

It’s so delicious that phone never eats first (picture of our half-eaten dinner below).

Just know, that it’s one of my favorite sushi places in America.

From everyone’s constant tagging of KitchenAid on my Hierarchy of Kitchen Needs video, Crate & Barrel interceded and sent me a stand mixer. I think it’s safe to say that this in itself was a top 10 moment of my career so far. If you tagged them, thank you (ILY). If you didn’t tag them, ILY too because you’re still supporting me by just reading this silly little newsletter. 💛

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Ok now, that’s it for this week 🫶

Coming soon…

1. A Dish Breakdown (I have it filmed and was supposed to post it today, but the voiceovers and video editing for these videos take quite a while 😅 - ETA is by the end of this weekend!) - on TikTok and IG

2. Sunday feast - on TikTok only

3. A stuffed vegetable - on TikTok and IG

4. Detroit-style pizza - on TikTok and IG

5. And more!!!

ILY ALL!

HAPPY FRIDAY, HAPPY HOUR!!!

💛,

Zoe