Pumpkin Cornbread (with Pumpkin Chili, of course)!

It's seriously pumpkin season in full swing. Pumpkins have arrived at our markets, and the makeshift pumpkin patches are getting ready to set up their little scenes in empty lots here and there around town. We'll be making our annual trip to Bates Nut Farm sometime soon to pick out the best pumpkins in the county from a real pumpkin patch.

It's a bit too early yet to purchase pumpkins with the intent of decorating, but I've had *pumpkins* on my mind and therefore have been cooking and baking away with this favorite fall flavor.

A newly discovered recipe for me this year: Pumpkin Cornbread.

This sounded so odd to me that I just had to make it. I wondered... would it be sweet? would it be more like a breakfast bread? or would it be appropriate to pair with chili- like other cornbreads?

I went for the chili... Pumpkin Chili (of course). You can't really taste any pumpkin in it. It just has canned pumpkin puree in it, which basically serves as a texture enhancer to make the sauce smooth and velvety. It's good stuff.

The slightly sweet Pumpkin Cornbread was amazing. Our whole family gobbled it up with smidges of honey-tainted butter. It was terrific with the chili too. If you look closely at that top picture, you'll see little grains within the bread. I used whole-grain cornmeal (Bob's Red Mill brand), and it added a little crunch to the bread. We liked that, but you could certainly use a finer grain cornmeal if you prefer a smoother, softer bread.

And the leftovers were also perfect for breakfast the following morning... still moist and still delicious. We topped our breakfast cornbread with Apple Butter for a little morning treat.

The Pumpkin Cornbread recipe can be found HERE.
The Pumpkin Chili recipe can be found HERE.