We woke up this morning to a cold chill in the air and a light frost on the ground. Chaz wore a thick sweater for the first time this year, and I'm wrapped in a quilt as I sit here and type. While I love the vibrancy of the colors and temperatures in the fall, I will readily admit that I look forward to the deep stillness of winter, the holiness of the holiday season, and the beauty of snow falling quietly out the window. I still get abnormally excited about the first snow fall of the season, and I hope never to outgrow it.

With cold weather always comes a desire to make the house as cozy as possible. If we had a fireplace or a wood stove on the ground floor of the house, it would already be lit. Since we don't, I have to resort to other things. Making pumpkin bread, for example. I was craving it this weekend after having some at church choir rehearsal on Thursday, and so I found a recipe, adapted it a little, and made two loaves. I will always choose chocolate over no chocolate, so I added chocolate chips to one. The other I left without chocolate chips, because Chaz inexplicably prefers plain pumpkin bread. And so it resulted in us eating pumpkin bread on the couch, his-and-hers style.

It made the house smell delicious while it was baking, and just like most homemade things, it tasted best when it was warm and the chocolate was gooey from coming out the oven minutes before. So in case you also want some pumpkin bread, here's what I did:

Pumpkin Bread (adapted from Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread from the always-useful www.allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Scant 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 cups chocolate chips (optional)

Process

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two large loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, water, and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, coconut flour, taking soda, salt, and spices.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just blended. Add chocolate chips. Pour the batter evenly into the two loaf pans.

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes. Pumpkin bread is fully baked when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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