Tis better to have loved...

I need to make 15 loaves of Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread this week.  I have double ovens, each batch makes 2 loves, so honestly, it's not that much of a chore.  I'm happy that we have cooler weather, and baking pumpkin bread is a celebration of Fall to me.  Yay!  I've been making this pumpkin bread recipe from The Lady and Son's Savannah Country Cookbook by Paula H. Deen for a LONG time.  I really didn't know how long...and it didn't really matter.  I pull out the cookbook, and honestly, it could fall open to that recipe, I've used it so many times.  But for some reason, I flipped the cover and saw this.

Oh my how my heart sank.  And yes, tears filled my eyes.  What a sweet memory!  Doug had purchased this cookbook for me for Mother's Day 1998.  I had never heard of Paula Deen at the time. This was long before Food Network, or at least long before I had cable TV!  I am so grateful that he had the boys sign the book! Instantly looking at this signature page brought back memories of our little family, just the four of us, before my daughter came along.  Memories of Disney World (we lived in Orlando), the boys swimming in our pool, Cocoa Beach, Bay Meadows Elementary, Premier Academy.... The more I pondered on my life at the time I received this sweet Mother's Day gift, the sadder I became.  It's over.  Never to return.  Gosh, this is hard.

Alas, with the purpose of this blog, I submit today's Sweet Fringe Benefit...MEMORIES...even if it is with a longing heart.  Sometimes lingering on those memories is really painful, because they're memories, never to actually be alive again.  And the older I get, the more memories I have, until one day I suppose I will stop remembering the memories.  So for today, I will smile that I can look at my cookbook, see the innocent signatures of a 4 1/2 and 7 year old and a thoughtful caring husband that did it right.  I will linger on those seemingly endless days of sunshine that I thought would never end that now seem so long ago.  “Tis better to have loved and lost. Than never to have loved at all.” ― Alfred Tennyson.  My "little boys" are certainly lost forever.  But the memories live, and I'd rather have the memory, than never have lived it at all.




So I thought I'd include the recipe so you can celebrate Fall too!

The Lady and Son's Pumpkin Bread

3 Cups Sugar
1 Cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin (1 can)
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 bag of oversized milk chocolate chips (12 oz)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two loaf pans.  Mix sugar and oil with mixer.  Add eggs and blend.  Add pumpkin and blend.  Add water and blend.  Combine remaining ingredients and add slowly.  Fill pans equally and sprinkle chocolate chips evenly on the top of the batter.  Lightly push some of the chips down in the batter.  Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown.   

It will be almost 80 degrees today, but I'm thinking this is probably my last time to wear my white jeans. I know...it's after labor day.  But I figure if I still have summer weather, I'm going to wear them, at least in September.  I've paired them will fall colors though...so I don't look too summery.

Loft Curvy Skinny White Jeans, The Limited blouse (early spring item), Loft lightweight loose cardigan in a taupe, Talbots Floral Statement Necklace.  If you are a 40 something...or 50 something, with a body to match, you might go try the "curvy" skinny jeans at Loft (or a Julie cut, as they are sometimes labeled). They have a little extra is the rear end and thighs. Like I've said before, you can adapt most of the current trends for our age.  It might take a little more work, but its doable.   

I'm not going to dwell in the past, I have more memories to make today...