Rant...and Recipe

Mr. M, husband of the ever-charming Kim asked for my chocolate chip (pudding) pumpkin bread recipe. Seeing as how it's that time of year, and it's one of my most favorite recipes ever, I thought I'd post it here for everyone to see. I was going to go home and include a picture of the 2 large and 8 mini loaves I baked last night (family baby naming ceremony this weekend -- have to distribute to multiple family members), but alas, as always, lab experiments have gone awry, and I'm still in lab at midnight. So, you'll get the recipe, but no picture.

But first, you get to listen to my rant. This morning, once again, I returned to the lab at 4:30am to repeat my protein dialysis, and spent the day doing CD. Seeing as how I am no CD expert by any stretch, and really had crap training, I mostly fiddle my way through trying to improve my spectra with really low concentrations of protein (the pain-in-the-ass protein cannot be concentrated any further without precipitating). In fact, the training I received was so bad that the answer to my question regarding what the various settings for scanning speed, response, etc. were was simply "don't change them", when in fact changing these settings is precisely how you improve the look of a bad spectrum. However, since I'm no expert, I'm not great at predicting how the raw data will look once the buffer is subtracted and everything is analyzed. So, I played around with everything, picked the settings I thought would be the best, and settled down for eight hours of CD with my small molecule.

Of course, as it turns out, once I came back to analyze all the data, it looks like I picked incorrectly. Another setting with a different bandwidth gave me a much better looking spectrum. Groan. Fine. It may have been 7pm, but if I went ahead and dialyzed more protein (roughly 8 hours of buffer changes), I would just stay overnight and do more CD. I stay overnight every other week anyway, so why should this week be any different? All I needed to do was change the nitrogen tank, because for some reason, the lab that maintains the CD machine continues to insist that I use compressed nitrogen gas, rather than liquid nitrogen, meaning that I run out of nitrogen ALL.THE.TIME. But, as luck would have it, one of the nitrogen tanks I ordered actually happened to be IN the same lab as the spectropolimiter, so I thought it would be a piece of cake.

45 minutes later, drenched in sweat, with aching arms, peeling skin on my hands, cursing in frustration, I finally had to give up. Whoever put the pressure gauge on this tank must resemble Hulk Hogan, because I have never encountered a gauge screwed on so tight. One of the post-docs and I absolutely, positively could not, no way, no how, with all of our body weight combined, get the wrench to budget a millimeter. And thus, I am here, at 12:45am, dialyzing my proteins, and I can't even change the damn nitrogen tanks, because apparently I missed the memo that bodybuilding is a prerequisite for a Ph.D. in science. I hate my life.



And now, the recipe. Make this ASAP. You won't regret it.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Pumpkin Bread

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin (I make my own puree from gutting pupmkins and freeze it, but you can use canned pumpkin as well)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup fat-free vanilla pudding
• 4 egg whites
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 8x4 inch loaf pans. (Note: I always make 1 large and 4 mini loaves -- just remember the mini-loaves need significantly less baking time. It's wise to set 2 timers, because if you're like me, you'll be so into your data analysis that you'll forget, and the first batch of mini loaves will come out a bit... crispier than desired.)
2. Combine the sugar, pumpkin, oil, pudding, and egg whites in a large bowl, and stir well with a whisk. (If you like pumpkin, this is an excellent point for tasting.)
   
3. Combine flour cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well.
4. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients, stirring until just moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Spoon batter into loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pans on wire rack and remove from pans. Cool complete on wire rack.