an ode to pumpkin recipes

I'm awfully tired. There's "I just didn't get my full eight hours last night," and then there's how tired I am today. I looked so worn out this morning, in fact, that my usual 7am coffee buddy walked past my desk, and said "well I was going to ask if you wanted to get coffee, but you look like you NEED it."

Point is, my ability to articulate myself has been compromised, as it's taking all I've got right now to keep my head up at work. So, I'll be brief in my praises of pumpkin. 

Recently I've tried two new pumpkin recipes, one for bread, and one for gelato. A friend of mine is deploying, and gave me about a dozen cans of pumpkin that he won't be able to use while he's away. Hence the seasonally appropriate kick I seem to be on, here.

Anyways, the bread was light but full of spicy goodness (as in, lots of good spices, not lots of crushed red pepper, because that would just be disgusting). I read most of the notes attached to the recipe, and followed the common suggestions of cutting down the sugar to 1 cup (a mix of white and brown, too), and upping the spices. I made a normal size loaf, and a baby loaf, and tossed a handfull of chocolate chips into the latter. The baby loaf was far more popular than the plain one, so if/when I make the bread again, I'm including the chocolate chips, no question. Wild woman right here.

The gelato was something I originally tried a couple weeks ago before Thanksgiving. I not only had the excessive pumpkin supply on hand, but a lot of leftover milk and cream from Friendsgiving. So I gave the recipe a shot, adding the spices suggested at the end of the basic instructions. It was delicious! So rich and creamy, and just the right amount of pumpkin and spices. I made it again at our family Thanksgiving celebration, and it came out grainy, which was disappointing, but it's entirely my fault for being beyond impatient and not letting the cream/egg/sugar/pumpkin mix cook long enough on the stove (cooking on an electric stove is such an adjustment for me).

And in case you're wondering, somehow I haven't ballooned by 20 pounds this season. I think I have my coworkers, the ever-willing guinea pigs, to thank for that...

ps-I have no cloves on hand, so any recipe that includes those, just assume I've left that spice out, and that the world did not stop spinning, nor was the dish a failure.

pps-recipe page updated to include these beauties