All Things Pumpkin

I LOVE fall. I love everything about fall. Well, with one exception. I don't like it when it gets dark at 5:00! But outside of that, I love it. Love it, love it, love it! As a child, I loved back to school. New clothes, new notebooks, brand new boxes of unused, sharp, pointy crayons. As a high schooler, it was the return of football games and marching band. And as an adult, it's the cool weather, the return of jeans and sweaters, the colors of the changing leaves, and above all, the PUMPKINS.

First of all, just LOOKING at pumpkins makes me happy. Big ones, little ones. Plain ones, decorated ones. Orange, white, green, yellow. I even saw some the other day that looked like geese! But even better than looking at and decorating with pumpkins is, of course, EATING them.

Some of you may know that there was a recent pumpkin shortage. Something bad with the crop, I guess. A few weeks ago, I put out a call to all my Facebook friends asking if anyone could find some for me, because the stores I had checked didn't have any. Sure enough, 2 people each brought me 10 cans, and my amazing friend Carolyn actually bought pumpkins and cooked them up for me. So I am well stocked with 20 cans and 3 freezer bags of pumpkin. Of course, now it is readily available in my local grocery store. :)

Today I began on my adventure into pumpkin happiness. First up, pumpkin bread. I had Alex help me whip some up this morning. I planned to take a picture of the bread, and I remembered after it was too late -- as soon as I cut it a little bit to taste it, I quickly wrapped most of it up to freeze and share with friends, because it is THAT good that if it sat around in my kitchen, it would be gone by tonight for sure.

The best thing about this particular bread would have to be the spices. It's not the cinnamon, I think it's the cloves. Or the clove/nutmeg combination. It's AMAZING. It's spicy in that perfect way that just makes me want to cozy up in a blanket and pair it with a cup of spiced chai. So here it is, I share with you #1 of many delectable pumpkin recipes to come.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 16-oz. can solid pack pumpkin

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine dry ingredients, stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Stir in pumpkin. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

And that's what's happening on Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly