I used to go to Starbucks every day. And before there was ever Starbucks I used to go other places for a coffee break every day. I’m talking real coffee, in a real cup, during a real break!

I think it was my own Midwestern version of café society. I knew the proprietors. I got to know the other customers. I read a little. I wrote a little. They knew my name and over time came to know my husband and my kids…

In college it was a pizza place. (I didn’t say it was always good coffee…) In my first job in Chicago it was Au Bon Pain. In my first house it was the bakery by the train station (where they had melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies…). When the girls were born it was a tea room where all the waitresses fussed over my babies!

In Boston we went to Dew Drop Donuts on the way home from school and sat at a long counter with swivel stools. Once we got to Texas we discovered La Madeleine (and cappuccino and giant chocolate chip cookies!). But ultimately, because all real moms eventually end up living in their cars, I one day began to appreciate the value of drive-thru coffee (albeit the end of coffee civilization as I knew it…)

And one day I discovered the Starbucks pumpkin bread! The day they brought pumpkin bread to their store was the day I decided drive-thru coffee was perhaps not so bad… I salute your pumpkin bread Starbucks! I love it so much I make it at home and enjoy its pumpkin goodness with my organic green tea! (‘Cuz too much caffeine in the afternoon now keeps me awake all night…which used to be the  point, but no longer…)

Gather Up:
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup pumpkin puree
¾ cup canola oil
¼ cup chopped pumpkin seeds, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan.

Combine the flour, soda, powder, spices and salt in a bowl.

Beat the eggs, sugars and vanilla together in an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds. Add the pumpkin and the oil and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into prepared loaf pan and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, if desired.

Bake 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool in pan 10 minutes, and then turn onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Cut into 8 thick slices for a Starbucks pumpkin experience!

From: Top Secret Recipes