Yep, it's that time of year. It has already snowed once up here in Boston and today I was regrettably under-dressed to face the chilling winds on the corner of Tremont and Boylston. I really do love winter, though. Despite this being my second year to spend it up North, the novelty of piles of snow and icy days has still not quite worn away. To me, winter is all about cute tights, pretty scarves, frosty eyeshadow, warm drinks and spicy foods. Unfortunately it also means painfully dry skin and hair. I only bring this up because The Beauty Department did a really cool post the other day with tips on caring for one's skin. Unfortunately, I fear that next week's paycheck is going to have a chunk taken out of it to buy some of the things mentioned in that post.
But food. That's my area of specialty. I'm doing something a bit wacky for November. I'm doing a month of pumpkin themed treats. Oh, boy. Who knows how this is going to turn out. We may all detest this innocent little squash by the time December rolls around, though I am hoping this is not the case.
First up: Pumpkin bread. When you were in school, did you ever have to do that exercise in reading directions where the very first one was to read through all of them first? But you didn't, of course, so you followed a whole bunch of silly, embarrassing directions that included standing up and saying your name and all kinds of fun stuff, only to get to the end and see the final direction was to skip everything else and simply sit there. Don't worry, I was awful at those. Still am. Bear with me here, as you'll see just how goofy I am...
What you need:
1 cup oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 box brown sugar
4 cups pumpkin
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine the oil and the sugars.
Add the pumpkin. 
Combine flour, salt, cloves, cinnamon, soda and nuts. Add to the pumpkin mixture. Add vanilla; mix well. It's VERY thick so lift some weights and press those benches before stirring this concoction.
Now here is where my inability to look ahead came into play. When I set out to find this recipe, it was to look for something that included pumpkin and that wasn't super expensive to make. Which is why I never read the final step that said to bake the batter in five 1 pound coffee cans.
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| Yeah, this. Source: icollector |
I vaguely remember coffee coming in cans as a child, but now it's all bags and plastic containers with screw on lids. So I improvised.
Grease and flour three loaf pans. (This makes a lot of bread.) Try not fill them more than half full. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour and ten minutes. 
Gorgeous, right? It's a trap. About thirty minutes after these came out of the oven, they each had a giant sink hole in the center. What had happened? I had been tricked. About forty five minutes in, I checked them and they looked completely done. I even tried putting a tooth pick in, like in a cake, and it came out clean. They were definitely NOT done.
Moral of the story: Don't be fooled by appearances. Bake these for an hour and ten minutes.
The good news is, despite parts of these being underbaked, they were really quite delicious. This bread is incredibly rich with a great spice flavor. You can even freeze two of the loaves so that they don't go bad while you're working on the first.
I would certainly recommend this recipe but I would hope that my readers are far cleverer than me and pay attention to directions.
Good luck and don't forget to set those clocks back!
Rosie
Source: Favorite Eastern Star Recipes Holiday Cookbook 1970
Oh, and just because I'm vain, I'm posting a picture of my Halloween costume. I went as Rosie the Riveter! My Halloween was amazing and I was really proud of my ensemble. What did you guys dress up as?
The pants are from a vintage shop and make my rear end look three miles wide. But otherwise, I thought I did pretty well, no?
Happy baking!
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