Did you know there was a shortage of pumpkin? If you are a pumpkin lover like myself, don’t fret – it is over, which explains why I had such a hard time finding canned pumpkin last month. I’m still on my never ending search for Dreyer’s/Edy’s pumpkin ice cream.

With my lone can of pumpkin, I knew I wanted to bake something and what better way to find a recipe than to go straight to the source? I love pumpkin, but dislike pumpkin pie. Its a texture thing. I decided to bake a bread since I didn’t have the patenice for cupcakes or cookies.

The end result was Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Nut Loaf Bread. I would include a picture of the final product, but there’s the whole broken computer thing.  Mine looked like the one on the link above. Really.

Here’s the recipe if you’re too lazy to click over. It turned out moist and delicious. The pumpkin isn’t too over powering and its easy to make. I found a couple of other pumpkin bread recipes, so we’ll see if this one stays in my recipe box. Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 can (15 ounces) LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Fat Free Milk
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped nuts

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

COMBINE flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt and baking soda in medium bowl. Blend pumpkin, granulated sugar, brown sugar, evaporated milk, egg, egg white and oil in large mixer bowl. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened. Pour into prepared loaf pan; sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.

On Friday before I started feeling the effects of the sickness that is going around, I whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins. My mom has a bag of dried blueberries she is trying to use up from Costco – they taste way too sweet and fake alone, but when baked in muffins they don’t taste as bad.

I used Alton Brown’s recipe (posted below) and they turned out decent. This is only the second or third time I’ve used cake flour and I like how it makes the batter light and fluffy. They have pancake tops and are a little dry, but I may have added too much flour. Next time, I’ll probably use whole what flour instead, but I’m not sure what will happen to the texture.

Somehow on Saturday I managed to get in a 3-mile run and then proceeded to be lazy for the rest of the weekend. I think I have nipped this not a cold, not the flu thing in the bud and hope I’m feeling more like myself this week.

Got any blueberry recipes? Got about 3 cups to use up and don’t want to make something blueberry-intense like a blueberry buckle.

Alton Brown’s Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
12 1/2 ounces cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Heavy pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup yogurt
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Vegetable spray, for the muffin tins

Directions
Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the blueberries. Stir mixture for a count of 10. Add 1 cup blueberries to mixture and stir 3 more times. Reserve the 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Using a #20 ice cream scoop, add the mixture to greased muffin pans. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of berries on top of muffins and press down lightly. Place into the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down on tea towel to cool completely. Serve immediately or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

Yesterday I went to the farmer’s market with my Grandma and came home with local zucchini, eggplant and sweet corn. I always bake zucchini bread, so I wanted to do something a little different with the zucchini. Enter, zucchini chocolate chip cookies from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver. This cookbook is on my wish list and I was excited to see that this recipe and others are on the book’s Web site.  Speaking of wish lists and holidays, I saw Christmas trees in Kohls today – its not even Halloween yet?

I baked these last night and I love making baked goods that are a little more nutritious and include chocolate. When I make these again and I’m sure I will, I may grate the zucchini more finely, but I like seeing the zucchini and adding color to the the cookie. The zucchini adds a lot of moisture, so the cookies are very cake-like. Delicious!

And now for the recipe…
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. honey
1 T. vanilla extract
Combine in large bowl.

1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
Combine in a separate, small bowl and blend into liquid mixture.

1 c. finely shredded zucchini
12 oz chocolate chips
Stir these into other ingredients, mix well. Drop by spoonful onto greased baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350°, 10 to 15 minutes. Makes about two dozen.

Enjoy, and let me know if you bake these. Do you have a favorite zucchini recipe? Please share, I have a lot to use!