I keep forgetting that this is Thanksgiving week. Maybe it’s because I lost a week due to the flu, but I feel like my holiday circadian rhythm is all off. To rectify this, I figured baking with pumpkin puree would get me back on track.

But plain old pumpkin bread struck me as a little mundane, and pumpkin pie was more commitment than I was willing to pony up. Then I spotted the over-ripe bananas on the counter and immediately Googled “pumpkin banana bread”. This recipe sounded promising, so out came all the ingredients.

As it so happens, Trader Joe’s was having a big sale on vanilla beans so last week, I’d scooped a couple packages up at this hitherto unheard of price of $3.99 per pack of two. The recipe is very adamant about the vanilla bean glaze, and now that I’ve sampled the bread/cake, I have to agree. It adds a flourish of fancy visually, but also amps up the flavor of the pumpkin-banana blend. You definitely don’t want to skip the glaze (though I didn’t add a full tablespoon of the paste – more like a teaspoon).

The only change I made was to add 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt. I had three bananas which is what the recipe calls for, but somehow one disappeared while I went to go run an errand before tackling the baking – these disappearances happen a lot in our household. The yogurt was a good move, and the bread has a lovely texture that’s not exactly fluffy but not dense either. It tastes like holiday cheer to me, which was exactly what I needed. Delish.