Third time is the charm

Happy pumpkin (and pattern!) found here

I don't always finish a recipe I start...or that I start to start...or that I think about starting.  Part and parcel of my scatterbrain, and the distraction that chasing 4 kids of wildly varying ages can cause...

What was I saying?

Oh, right, pumpkin bread!!  You may recall a quick tip about pumpkin in applesauce.  It was supposed to be pumpkin bread, but I boo-booed.

The second time I started to make pumpkin bread, I was derailed by sick kids.

Today, finally I made pumpkin bread!  Well, sort of...

I had my recipe, I got the butter out of the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature.  I started gathering my ingredients...whoops, where's the pumpkin?  I dug all through the pantry, but no canned pumpkin anywhere!  Then I noticed this line above the recipe:

You can make this loaf with any cooked mashed squash, yams or sweet potatoes.

Perfect!!  I had half a package of squash leftover from the Mini Chili Bowl recipe, and since the pumpkin bread called for 1 cup, I filled in the rest with applesauce!

Do you own this cookbook?

If not, go buy it.  Now.  Stop reading, step away from the computer, go to your nearest used bookstore (I'm a fan of Half-Price Books), and buy it.  It is the best all-purpose cookbook ever.  Any time I have a basic recipe I need, banana bread, frosting, baked squash, or anything else, this book is my first stop.  It also has great tips about how to work with different ingredients, like kale, parsnips, and basic information about just about anything, including various oils and spices.

Back to the bread!

I followed the rest of the recipe exactly, except for the flour, I used TJ's White Wheat flour instead of all-purpose.
The one other switch I made was to replace raisins with chocolate chips.  I figured that raisins would just get poo-pooed by #1 and #2, and chocolate chips would make everyone more excited about the bread.

#1 did bust me putting the squash in, so she was quite suspicious, but she still liked it!  She said she couldn't taste the difference at all.

Looking for chocolate chips?  Turns out they sink!

The official tally: