Zen and the Art of Baking Pumpkin Bread

For Halloween, I bought a perfectly cute little organic pumpkin, that sat on my pretty granite counter. I knew better than to leave it outside, where the squirrels could it eat. I knew, eventually, that I would eat this pumpkin, but for a while it was just a beautiful thing to see sitting on my counter.

A few weeks ago, it was time to cook the pumpkin, or it would end up rotten. So, I cooked my pumpkin, pureed it and froze it. Over a week ago I took it out of the freezer and put in the fridge to thaw. Wow, time flies, and once again, if I don’t cook it, it will rot.

Megan, my dear youngest, has taught me the art of following a recipe, exactly, and I will be the first to admit, that things do turn out rather consistently, better, when you measure. Unfortunately, my bread baking this morning was inexact. But it was pleasant in the making.

I plugged in my laptop by my only kitchen window. I could see the beautiful new dusting of snow on everything in the alley. I listened to jazz from Ella to Chet. I lit some candles. I measured the white sugar, hmm, not enough, ok, substitute more brown sugar. I measured the baking soda, oh crap, more than I intended fell into the batter. Oh well, spoon that part out. What do I do with this extra 1/4 cup of nummy pumpkin, throw it in rather than throw it out. It’s taking a bit longer to bake, but it smells awesome.

The recipe calls for glaze for the bread, and it’s amazing with the glaze, but I’m now out of white sugar, and the orange that I bought to zest for the glaze has such a funky soft rind that there is just no zesting of it to be done. I’m letting the bread cool, so I have no opinion on the goodness of this yet. It will have to be good enough without the glaze. Sometimes you have all the ingredients, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you can follow the recipe, sometimes, you just have to improvise.

I am making time to bake. I have to, even when I don’t have time. It grounds me, it connects me to this cycle of growing, and cooking and eating and doing it all over again. It is not an exact science, although the right amounts of the right stuff make it better. It is nearly Christmas, a week away. We put up the trees, take them down, we give gifts, we remember, we celebrate. We hold each other near, or as near as we dare, this time of year.

Next year is for more new adventures. Light more candles, bake more bread. Decide to love one or two more people next year, or love the ones you already love, better. And cherish your one dear self. Take a bite of warm pumpkin bread, inexact, but delicious. Find the recipe at Orange-Spice Pumpkin Bread, Williams Sonoma (online).