Glad Tidings of Comfort Food & Joy

When I left Utah to go on our vacation the weather was the usual end of summer oven-fest. It was in the 90's and just far too hot for humans. When we got back 3 weeks later it was already fall! It was nice to say the least. The trees were turning beautiful autumn red and orange. It was like the mild Scottish weather had followed us back...minus all the cloudy and rainy. Nice. :)

I was lucky enough to get the night off work yesterday because one of the younger kids wanted my shift (hurrah!) so I decided, between crunching leaves, buying pumpkins and going swimming, that I wanted to have a cozy homemade dinner in celebration of my favorite season. I bought some sparkling cider and made lasagna and pumpkin bread.

Needless to say when Ray got home from work the whole house smelled like heaven. I'd also be lying if I said we didn't start hacking up the pumpkin bread, still warm, and eat 2 or 3 slices before dinner was even being made. You know, just to make sure it was good.

Pumpkin bread is nice on it's own but made even more fantastic with the addition of chocolate chips the way I know and love it. The original recipe calls for walnuts instead. Or you can just leave them out altogether and slather it with cream cheese. Either way, it's a good way to get ready for winter hibernation. Bring on the sweater weather!

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts -or-
1 (11.5 ounce) bag of milk chocolate chips (optional)

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Grease and lightly flour the bottom of 2 loaf pans (9x5x3).
-Beat sugar and oil together in a large bowl to blend.
-Mix in eggs and pumpkin.
-Stir together the flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt in another bowl.
-Stir into the pumpkin mixture in 2 additions until just mixed.
-Stir in walnuts or chocolate chips if desired.
-Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans.
-Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about one hour. (My oven takes about 55 minutes. It may take shorter or longer depending on your oven, so watch during the last 10 minutes or so to make sure you don't burn your bread.)
-Let the bread sit in the pans for 10 minutes, run a knife around the edges to loosen.
-Remove from pans and let cool on racks...if you can wait that long. :)

Makes 2 loaves.