When my mother and I opened our first mortgage company together, before I'd ever heard of MUSHing, or met Fuzzy, or even owned my OWN computer, we were a net branch of a major wholesale lender with headquarters in Citrus Heights, which meant we had to go there every few months for training on new products, or seminars on things like “How to Underwrite Self-Employed Borrowers” or “Understanding VA Loans” (the latter was an all day seminar, which might have been fine for the people that still needed calculators to figure out income, but drove me nuts).
To make the trips less horrific, we developed the habit of staying in frou-frou hotels, picking interesting restaurants, and, every morning on the way to the main offices, or out of town, we'd stop at this great little independent espresso shop for triple mochas and morning glory muffins, which don't actually have morning glory IN them (you can't eat morning glories, after all). Instead, they're pumpkin muffins with raisins and nuts, and sometimes they come with a sugar glaze, and sometimes they don't.
Tonight, because I wanted to bake something kind of autumnal, and because there's been this can of pumpkin calling to me from the depths of the pantry for several weeks now, I found a pumpkin bread recipe, tweaked it by using whole wheat flour instead of white, and mixing brown and granulated sugars, and adding walnuts and raisins in place of pecans. It's cooling now, and the whole house smells of nutmeg, cinnamon, and spicey secrets. I haven't yet decided if I'll be glazing the loaves or not – I like it both ways, and as it's a breakfast bread, it doesn't need to be horribly sweet – but I'm eager for morning, when I'll get to slice the end, toast it, slather it in butter, and nibble on it while I sip my morning chai.
In honor of those muffins I used to eat in Citrus Heights, I've named this Morning Glory Bread (it's important to continue the tradition of naming the bread after an unrelated substance, and anyway, morning glories are a favorite flower in my family.) I'd invite you all to come to breakfast and try it, but my house isn't quite that large, however, I'm happy to provide the recipe for the bread – both the original version, and my own.
In other news, my interview from Wednesday the 26th has earned me a 2nd interview with the actual company, a week from Friday (after month-end reporting). I'm crediting the bread with this glorious news :)