Chocolate-chip pumpkin muffins

These muffins are one of my very favorite "signs of fall." The recipe is my mom's; if you don't know her personally, rest assured that she is a fantastic cook. She does cool things like persuade ethnic grocers to give her cooking lessons; then we all reap the benefits (not that these are ethnic grocery muffins, but you get the idea). The point is, while I usually only post recipes here that I've made up or adjusted, these muffins are just dandy the way they are.

So here you go.

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. oil (I substitute applesauce)

2 eggs

3/4 c. canned pumpkin (about half of a 15-oz can, although I generally use leftover sugar pumpkin puree)

1/4 c. water

1 1/2 c. flour (I do 100% whole-wheat but you could substitute in white flour for part)

3/4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. ground cloves

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. chocolate chips

Combine wet ingredients, then add dry, then add chocolate chips. If you care about perfect;y rounded muffin tops, don't overmix; I prefer knowing that everything is well mixed, and (as you can see in the picture), I really don't care about peaked muffins. Except that one time when I was seven or eight and I had to make about four batches of muffins for the state fair in order to get twelve that were perfectly rounded. I think that's why peaks are fine with me now.

Spoon into muffin tins (I just grease the muffin tins and don't bother with wrappers, since I don't want to lose any goodness that's stuck on a wrapper) and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.