Autumn has many autumnal flavors we are all obliged to indulge in. Pumpkin. Pumpkin spice. Gingerbread (which is just pumpkin spice but more ginger). (Also, the association between pumpkin and pumpkin spice is so strong that people think they’re the same thing.)

Okay, maybe there aren’t very many flavors after all.

But I do enjoy that one flavor that we have! And since I can’t import my usual canned pumpkin due to supply chain issues, I’ll have to make due with pumpkin spice with extra ginger–also known as gingerbread.

This is why I made gingerbread men this month. 1) They’re nostalgic. Not because my family habitually makes gingerbread men–absolutely not! We are a lazy drop cookie family. Gingerbread men are a cutout cookie and much more fussy as a result. But before I moved to Japan, I’d discovered a pumpkin gingerbread cookie recipe that I adored and still adore. I can’t do the pumpkin version thanks to the aforementioned supply chain issues, but I can do the gingerbread half of that equation! Thus fulfilling my nostalgic itch. 2) They’re pumpkin spice but with extra ginger. I’m American. I am addicted to this spice. Enough said. 3) They’re delicious. Can’t go wrong with pumpkin spice on that front. And 4) they’re gingerbread men, which means I can bite their heads off. This is the only appropriate way to eat a gingerbread man, after all.

This poor gingerbread man was named Jeremy. He was delicious.