'TIS PUMPKIN SEASON

'Tis the season for all things pumpkin: Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie, pumpkins leftover from Halloween.  It's almost Thanksgiving, and Son #2 is having a Thanksgiving-style luncheon at work tomorrow.  He wants to bring pumpkin bread and pumpkin butter.

For those not-in-the-know, pumpkin butter is the consistency of applesauce, but it's made of pumpkin and spices and brown sugar and honey.  Then, it is spread on pieces of pumpkin bread.  It is best served warm, but it totally rocks cold, as well.

So, tonight in between my meetings and between my son's work and lacrosse schedules, I help him make two loaves of pumpkin bread and the pumpkin butter.  Really, though, he does most of the work.  Okay, we cheat a little bit by making the boxed-brand pumpkin bread.  Every time I make pumpkin bread from total scratch, I screw it up somehow.  Two loaves later, my son is a successful baker.

The pumpkin butter, though, is a special art.  One wrong move and the whole thing will be scalded and trashed.  I walk my son through the treacherous steps of tending the watched-pot of mixed spices and sugar and honey and pumpkin.  He is on it, though, totally and completely.  Twenty minutes later, the pumpkin butter is cooling, and it looks and smells fantastic.

This is proof-positive that I don't have to do everything around here, and a damn good thing it is, too.  You see, I get distracted this evening, and I forget to stir the pumpkin butter.  I also forget to set a second timer, so I do not hear when the pumpkin bread is done in the oven. 

My kid is all over it.  He moves the wooden spoon in the saucepan with careful diligence, and, when I remember the bread is still baking, I rush downstairs to find him already taking the perfect loaves out of the oven.  After all, 'tis the season for all things pumpkin; might as well train a minion to carry on the tradition.