eclaire (what’s in a) name?

i know pumpkin recipes are ubiquitous this time of year, but i just have to share this pumpkin bread recipe with you. it’s everything i want in a breakfast bread – moist, full of delicious spices, not too sweet, and replete with pecans and raisins to add some texture. when i realized that my weekend would be full of fun with my family – my sister flew in from michigan, my dad and b drove into town to spend some time with us on saturday, and we celebrated my mom’s 60th birthday on sunday – i decided i had to whip some of this up to munch on throughout the activities.

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a coworker kindly gave me an enormous zucchini from her garden a few weeks ago, and i spent a few days trying to decide what to do with all that zucchini…besides photograph it for posterity, that is.

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as i was grocery shopping this week, and looking through the store’s winter selection of apples, pears, and citrus, i found myself really missing my favorite summer fruits and berries: nectarines, strawberries, raspberries, and plums. as i was daydreaming about these fabulous fruits that feel months away, i absentmindedly placed a bunch of bananas into my basket. as i unpacked the groceries a little later, it dawned on me that although i miss the summer fruits, and consider the four above to be my all time favorites, bananas might actually qualify as my absolute favorite, albeit the unsung fruit in my life. since bananas are present almost all year round (thanks, global produce market), and something i never leave the store without, why don’t i think of them as my absolute favorite fruit? perhaps it’s because i take them for granted and never yearn for them in off season months. are there any fruits and veggies that you miss over the course of the year, dear readers? do you think that missing them makes them better when you actually get to eat them than they actually taste?

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