October and Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Muffins

October is here! This is my favorite month and has been since I was just a tiny girl. It might have something to do with the fact that it contains both my birthday and my favorite holiday, Halloween. The two days are linked in my mind because almost all my birthday parties had a Halloween theme.

I could get happy just walking into the downtown Woolworths (or as we insist on calling it in Biloxi, "Woolsworth") and smelling those gory latex rubber masks mingled with the scent of fresh mini chocolate bars.

A few of those celebrations took place on my grandparents' front porch at Point Cadet. I can still see the black and orange crepe paper streamers fluttering against the screens and those artfully designed gift bags my mother made to hand out as party favors. She also baked free-form jack o' lantern cakes. The year birthday pinatas became the rage she made a pumpkin pinata out of papier marche and and a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket. It was a big hit.

My birthday parties were usually just family affairs, but with 18 cousins (and that's just first cousins, not even counting the second, third and fourth cousins I grew up with), it was quite a crowd for that little porch.

I don't really have birthday parties anymore. Nowadays, I just celebrate the entire month of October.

I put potted mums on my porch along with pumpkins in all their guises -- fat, skinny, tall, squat, orange, white, green and warty. I decorate the house. And I make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I know. It sounds gross, but don't knock 'em until you try 'em.

I came across this recipe in a muffin cookbook almost 20 years ago and it's become my "must bake" October treat. As improbable as the flavor combination sounds, even people who hate pumpkin usually love these. I've tinkered with the recipe over the years to make the muffins even richer and spicier. These keep well; in fact you should make them a day or so before you plan to eat them for optimum flavor. They are addictive.

Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Muffins

1/2 cup of sliced unblanched almonds

1 2/3 cups of all purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 T pumpkin pie spice (I use 2 T)

1 t baking soda

1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2 large eggs

1 cup plain canned pumpkin ( You can usually find this in the canned fruit aisle. 1 cup is about 1/2 of a 1 lb. can. Note: You want plain canned pumpkin, not canned pumpkin pie mix which won't work in this recipe)

1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)

1 6-oz bag chocolate chips (I prefer the semi-sweet)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toast almonds on a baking sheet for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Slide them off the hot sheet so they don't burn.

Grease muffin pans or use paper or foil liners (I recommend foil liners. The paper ones tend to get all greasy.)

Thoroughly mix the flour, sugar, pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

Break eggs into another bowl. Add pumpkin and butter and whisk until well-blended. Stir in chocolate chips and almonds. Pour over dry ingredients and fold in with a rubber spatula until the dry ingredients are just blended.

Scoop batter evenly into muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes until puffed and springy to the touch. Turn onto a rack to cool. Wrap in plastic. You can reheat before serving, but they're fine at room temperature.

Recipe makes 12 regular or 48 miniature muffins. You may as well go ahead and make two batches. I mean, what else are you going to do with the leftover half- can of pumpkin?