Fall Fever

Fall is a much loved season in the Bowcut household. Well, actually, it's MY favorite season and by default everyone else's. I anticipate it all summer long. What better way to inaugurate it with some yummy chocolate chip pumpkin bread. Here's the recipe--which is actually for pumpkin-walnut bread, but I thought chocolate chips sounded much better. Not terribly healthy, but it's very moist, and not too sweet (except for the choc. chips). I made a second loaf with walnuts to prove to my husband that I am actually capable of not altering a recipe.
Pumpkin-Walnut Bread (from Bon Appetit--October 2000)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 1/2 tsps. grated lemon peel
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (or 1 cup chocolate chips)

Preparation
Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 325F. Butter 9x5x3-inch metal loaf pan. Sift first 7 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until light. Gradually beat in 3/4 cup sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in pumpkin, lemon peel and vanilla. Whisk sour cream and milk in small bowl. Beat flour and sour cream mixtures alternately into batter in 2 additions each. Fold in nuts/choc.chips. Transfer batter to pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. sugar.Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 1o minutes (I FOUND IT TOOK ABOUT 15-20 MINUTES BEYOND THIS). Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn out onto rack; cool. Wrap in foil; store at room temperature.

And a thumbs up endorsement:

PS- Working in the kitchen is a much sweeter experience when your children actually entertain themselves. (of course I would prefer it was outside of the kitchen, but I'll take what I can get.)
Making alphabet soup (totally Ella's idea after I kindly asked her to play with her sister so I could get dinner on). I thought that was rather clever.

Samantha's new favorite hat

PPS- I'm off to the Exponent Retreat tomorrow for a girls' weekend! Wahoo! Brian and the girls will be partying hard while I'm away. In fact, after I handed him 2 pages of neatly typed instructions with accompanying maps and driving directions, Brian said he wouldn't even have to exercise any kind of independent thought or judgment the entire weekend! What can I say...I'm thorough.