Growing up in Pennsylvania was fabulous for several reasons, but specifically because we had seasons….and the best season of all was fall. I highly anticipated that moment when the hazy days of summer transformed into the crisp, see your breath in the air mornings. I love everything about fall – the weather, the leaves, the smell (campfires mixed with loamy earth and just a touch of cinnamon and coffee), and the treats. Fall embraces, nay – expects, a celebration of flavor with all the combined efforts of a world on the edge of the holiday season – cloves and nutmeg and warm bread from the oven, s’mores and hot cups of tea and cocoa and coffee to be enjoyed with a nip in the air and a warm shawl snug around your shoulders and a napping cat in your lap. And while it’s not fall in PA (yet) and certainly not crisp and cool here in Georgia (and won’t be until winter!), a little taste of fall and what’s to come was delivered to my doorstep in time for my late summer birthday: Sweetzels Spiced Wafers. I am not certain you can buy these anywhere but in the tristate region where I grew up (they’re another Philadelphia favorite right up there with Tastykakes, which fortunately are now much more national), but if you can I don’t know about it. And so, every year (and fall stock comes out earlier and earlier), I look forward to visiting home and storming the grocery store in search of these crispy, nutmegy, spicy browned cookies, or I beg and plead for someone to send them to me. I’ve not had to beg this year, and so in my air conditioned splendor I brewed a cup of Earl Grey, sweetened just a smidge with honey, opened the box, and enjoyed my first crisp, gingersnap-like bite of autumn in a box. Dunked in my tea. Delightful, yes? Exactly as advertised by my blog title? Maybe not ; ) But if you want to add a little spice to your life, consider this delicious addition to your cookie repertoire…
