Pumpkin, punkin?

I spent the majority of the day on Sunday up to my elbows in flour, sugar and canned pumpkin as I embarked on my first-ever baking of pumpkin bread. I love baking for the Christmas holiday, so I decided to start early and bake for Thanksgiving!

It took me a while to find a recipe, but I finally settled on one from foodnetwork.com with a few modifications. I can't stand trying an allrecipes.com recipe because all of the comments are full of cooks showing off and listing their many modifications and trying to out-do each other.

Anyway. This is the recipe I finally decided on, and it made a really good, moist pumpkin bread. Double the spices if you're looking for a little more spice flavor.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (you can substitute 1/2 cup applesauce for 1/2 cup of the oil)
4 eggs, lightly bean
16 ounces canned unsweetened pumpkin
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9 by 5 loaf pans. Stir together sugar and oil. Stir in eggs and pumpkin. Sift together dry ingredients in separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients and water into wet mixture, alternating. Divide batter between two loaf pans. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes (mine took 45)or until cake tester comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool.

And here's the photo of the finished products, all wrapped up and tied with pretty fall ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby for $1 a roll.

Menu Plan Monday

And Kerfuffle returns! Sorry for the long absence - I had quite possibly the busiest and most stressful two months of my life, culminating in Haunt the Zoo and a vacation to Mexico! Photos from that trip coming soon!

Anyway, a blogger friend of mine does this "Menu Plan Monday" thing (and a LOT of other bloggers participate as well). I don't know why but it's interesting to read about what other people are eating for dinner. And since I have actually pre-planned and shopped for all of my meals this week, I decided to participate! Steven and I spent a lot of time during the past two months eating microwave miracles, frozen skillet dinners and sandwiches, so I returned from vacation determined to cook healthy, satisfying dinners. Plus, it's getting colder outside, which means all my favorite comfort foods are back in season - soups, chilis, casseroles, etc. If you have any favorite soup, stew or chili recipes, send them my way!

Here's this week's meal plan:
Sunday: Beef pot roast with carrots and potatoes
Monday: Chicken pot pie with salad
Tuesday: Quick beef stew with homemade cornbread
Wednesday: Sandwich night! (I reserve the right to not cook at least one weeknight)
Thursday: Grilled marinated chicken breasts, long grain & wild rice, steamed green beans with almonds
Friday: Pork spaghetti bolognese with green salad and garlic toast