Pumpkin Scare

This is a very scary but true story. This really happened to me. No, I'm not talking about jack-o-lanterns or a headless boogy man. I'm talking about it's fall baking time and there was no canned pumpkin. anywhere. if you know me and pumpkin you know this could get ugly. but don't get too scared. (spoiler: it all worked out in the end.)

here's how it went down:
I had one can left over from last year's stash which I used to make Pumpkin Sausage Penne. yum yum. A good way to start out my yearly pumpkin fettish. I'll have to post the recipe sometime. I planned on stocking up for another year of pumpkin recipes but when I went to the store they only had the big size cans. I bought just one thinking I'd stock up on the small cans later since that's the amount that many of my recipes call for. You follow?

Well, the next time I went to the store all the big cans were gone and there were still no little cans of pumpkin. I went to all four grocery stores in our town and all four had nothing but empty shelves where the canned pumpkin should be. Talk about panic attack.

What about my pumpkin muffins?

What about pumpkin pancakes?

What about the pumpkin lasagna recipe I keep meaning to try? Maybe I was actually going make it this year.

What about my pumpkin cake? pumpkin bars? pumpkin ice cream?

What about those pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with the cream cheese frosting?

You see the state of emergency I was in. I quickly decided that the one can I had at home was definitely gonna be saved for two Thanksgiving pies. I could maybe survive the season if I at least had that. maybe.
My lonely can of pumpkin:

So, I was very sad and kept checking for pumpkin every time I went to the store but with no luck. Then, one day we were at Sam's Club and I scored big time: a 3-pack of the big size cans. cha-ching!! There were only about 4 or 5 of these packs on the shelf and I thought about buying them all but I thought I'd better save some for the other pumpkin freaks out there desperately searching.

I now had 4 big cans of pumpkin. It would be tight but I could still squeak out a happy season of Fall baking. Then, just when I least expected it I found this at our local grocer:
life is good.
oh. and these lovely cans of pumpkin even had a good recipe on them.
see? how do you like those profiles on the can as well?
but i'm not knockin' it. pumpkin is pumpkin is pumpkin.
and guess what i had for dessert tonight?
this very yummy, very easy, very pumpkiny cake. i'll post the recipe soon.
Now get out there and stock up on your pumpkin so if this happens next year I can come borrow some from you.