The memory of my mother tastes like pumpkin with hints of cinnamon and bites of semisweet, chocolate chips.
Six years ago this month, while sitting at our neighbor’s kitchen table, a sheriff’s deputy told my brother and I he was sorry for our loss. Our mother had died unexpectedly and our lives were forever changed. Since then, she’s been missing from countless phone calls, my wedding, her granddaughter’s birth and first year of life, multiple graduations and dozens of holidays.
But she’s never truly missing from Thanksgiving. You see, nearly six years ago, hours before she died, she put a package in the mail.
I received it a few days later and with my heart racing, ripped open the handwritten envelope to find candy, knee high socks (my favorite) and her famous pumpkin bread recipe. The recipe card was decorated with orange and yellow dotted vines drawn with thick marker and the title at the top said “Mom’s Famous Pumpkin Bread.”
That Thanksgiving and every year since, I make that famous bread.
And no matter what state I’m living in at the time, or who I’m celebrating with that year, I’m transported home. Home, where adding chocolate to a recipe wasn’t ever second guessed and something delicious was always baking in the oven.
Mom’s Famous Pumpkin Bread
yields 2 loaves
1 small can (about 2 cups) pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup melted butter
⅔ cup cold water
3⅓ cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
Chocolate chips
Mix dry ingredients. Beat eggs and add pumpkin, butter and water. Add dry ingredients to wet, mix and fold in chocolate chips. Bake in two floured loaf pans at 350 degrees until cooked through, about 45-60 minutes. The bread is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out cleanly. Enjoy!
