Fall Cooking

There's something about the fall that inspires me to cook and bake. It's probably the scents that come with the fall - cinnamon and apples and such.

Every Monday night over the summer, our neighbor has held an informal kickball game at our local park (one of them - there's about 3 within walking distance). The nice thing about this park is that it is very central to our neighborhood and one of our good friends even lives on the park (yup... it's basically their backyard). This past Monday was the last kickball of the year. I will miss it a lot - it was a great way to get to know neighbors and know the kids. The best thing I saw this week was my son running up to another boy who was in his grade last year, but is now home schooled, and telling him how happy he was to see him. It warmed my heart.

Anyway -- food. Food was a big part of these nights. Some nights, people went to the store and bought a pack of cookies, but usually people made something. This week there was a great pasta with homemade organic pesto, and some cornbread (which was good - very sweet - but very good!) and lots of other things. Sometimes when I brought things, it was barely touched - other weeks - I had a decent amount of left overs. However, this week was an exception. I made some pumpkin bread. I had a prized can of pumpkin - which is apparently high in demand until the people in Central Illinois get this years crop canned - that I used for this bread. I wanted to make a spread to go with it so I sought out a recipe that did not use the whole can. I found this one at simplyrecipes.com . I liked that it used 1 cup of pumpkin puree and I thought it was cool that it used olive oil! I tend to shy away from recipes that get the bulk of the fat from vegetable oil - I'd rather get some flavor with my fat through butter, thank you very much! Olive oil is delicious. I figured this would add a nice earthy taste to the bread.

Now, I am not a big pumpkin bread eater, but I tasted it and liked it. The best thing was that the entire loaf was gone after kick ball!! Since I made it in the afternoon, I turned the oven off a little before it was completely baked and left the loaf in to stay warm. I think this is what made it so appealing.

I wish I had some pictures of the delicious bread, but I don't I assumed that I would have some later. Surprisingly enough my son loved it. He was hesitant, but is asking now when I will make more! I better find some pumpkin, huh?

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (210g) flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (1/4 L) pumpkin purée*
1/2 cup (1 dL) olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup (1 dL) chopped walnuts
* To make pumpkin purée, cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lie face down on a foil or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use. Or, if you are working with pumpkin pieces, roast or boil them until tender, then remove and discard the skin.
(or you can be like me and go by Libby's canned pumpkin!)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.
3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
Makes one loaf. Can easily double the recipe.