Hey Pumpkin!

When I moved here from Germany practically half of my life ago, I was immediately drawn to the vast and brightly lit grocery stores which stayed open 24 hours a day. This by itself seemed like a small miracle. Mostly, I spent my time in the produce department with its beautifully stacked shiny apples, perfectly laid out bright red tomatoes and pale green iceberg lettuce mounds. Never-before-seen items fascinated me: cilantro which tasted like soapy parsley, celery that wasn't a knobby ugly root and snow-white jicama as big as a man's fist.

I was particularly intrigued when in the fall, all the winter squash were displayed. I couldn't even begin to understand what to do with these gorgeous gourds that looked almost too pretty to eat. I loved their different shapes and colors and sizes: pumpkin, butternut, acorn, delicata, kabocha, hubbard, such pretty names! No wonder pumpkin is used as a term of endearment, which I think of as endearingly American.

Slowly but surely, I learned to tackle these sometimes unyielding vegetables, often times using great force with a hammer. I pureed, roasted, cooked in stews and baked them into silky pies or, best loved, aromatic pumpkin bread. 

Pumpkin bread to me looks and tastes like fall--not overly sweet, satisfyingly moist with a gorgeous burnt orange color and slightly darker crust, exuding aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Since most squash are interchangeable, it's just as easy to use butternut or kabocha puree and no one suspects that it is not-pumpkin pumpkin bread! Baking it slowly warms and scents my kitchen just when it starts to get nippy outside, and I can never wait for it to cool before I have my first bite.

Pumpkin Bread

1 ¾ cups flour

½ tsp salt

1 ¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup sugar

1 cup cooked pumpkin, butternut squash or kabocha puree

1/3 cup vegetable oil (canola or grape seed)

¼ cup whole milk

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground cloves

Sift together dry ingredients with spices until well combined. Use a separate bowl, beat squash puree, oil, milk and eggs until light and fluffy. Combine dry and wet ingredients gently until just blended. Fold in ½ cup of pepitas (pistachios or walnuts will work well too). Pour batter into a buttered 9 x 5 loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour or until done.