the best pumpkin spice bread EVER

When fall starts rolling around, I find myself wanting fall flavors. And nothing fits the bill better than pumpkin bread. But for the longest time, I didn't have a pumpkin bread recipe, but now I do. And it thrills me to make it. Shhh.. don't tell anybody, but I make it year 'round. It's soo yummy I can't save it for one season!

It's called Pumpkin Apple Spice Bread. I found it in a cookbook called Eating for IBS, but don't let that scare you off. It's completely delicious and moist and definitely worth the work. I'm not gonna sugar coat it.. this recipe is some work. Nothing about it is hard, but it just takes some time and measuring. But your patience will be rewarded!


First off, preheat your oven to 350. Also get out 2 loaf pans and spray them with non stick spray. There is no need to flour them. The bread comes out just fine without it.



I included a fun pic of most of the ingredients. I think I forgot the flour, sugar and apples. But it's most of them anyway.



For the topping, combine in a small bowl and set aside:

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

5 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon canola oil



Put the following in a large bowl and whisk together:

3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon ginger



In a large bowl beat together well with an electric mixer:

16 ounces can pumpkin

3/4 cup canola oil

2 1/4 cups granulated sugar

8 egg whites (2 tablespoons of carton egg substitute equals 2 egg white)



Fold into we ingredients:

2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped (about 2 cups)



With a wooden spoon or spatula, add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring the batter by hand until well blended. Pour batter into two greased loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle crumb topping. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool on racks for about 15 minutes. Invert from pans onto racks and cool completely. Slice. Freezes well! As a matter of fact, I always freeze both loaves and we just pop off a slice and zap it in the microwave to warm it up. Yum!!!



For more fall flavors, head on over to Linda's place at 2nd Cup of Coffee!

foliage

Fall "foliage". This is the prettier pretty tree in our front yard.

This is the ugly not quite as pretty tree in our front yard. Ah... Texas in the fall! This is the part where y'all that live somewhere with nice pretty fall color can really "laugh out loud".

get one free

It must be teeth season at our house. She had two pulled on Tuesday. I guess that made one of it's long overdue neighbors get the wiggles. It came out last night after a little Anbesol and some tugging by Daddyman. Hurray... that one didn't cost us big bucks at the dentist.

Or under the pillow.

We told her this one was a freebie after the payment she received for the other two that just got pulled. That brings our average back down into reasonable territory. It's not a quarter like I got growing up, but it's also not so much we have to put it on a debit card for her either.

2 for 10

Boo had to go to the dentist the other day. You see, she's 13 and she's only lost 4 teeth. Yeah.. four! Her future orthodontist checks her teeth periodically so he'll know when she's ready for braces. We saw him a few weeks ago. She had some internal crowding.

So she had to have two teeth pulled. We did that Tuesday. Her dentist gives them their teeth in a teeny tiny treasure chest. My husband was asking me where the teeth were because he wanted to see them. Ya know.. the guy thing.. like looking at a train wreck. (well they were kinda cool because they still had the roots attached) I told him the little yellow chest was on our dresser. Yep.. our dresser.

My husband got a ten out to put under her pillow. I asked him why he wanted to put a TEN under there. He said it was either that or a 20. It was all he had. oh. I guess it's ten. He put it under her pillow while she was brushing her teeth. She found it. All over. I guess we just need to write her a check or something next time.

The pretense fun is all over!

what's normal?

I've had the classic, The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee for years. But never read it.

Now I'm reading it.

Wow.. it's very good. He is very detailed in some things that if you aren't careful you could think are too simplistic for an explanation etc, but the more I read, the more I'm reminded there's more to things than what is on the surface. I am becoming more and more drawn into this book. Sometimes when I read books like this, I almost feel like I'm sitting down to a feast. Delicious!

And yet, I get sad sometimes. Because when I read these types of books, I know I'm the only one my age reading them.. or so it would seem to be. You see.. I read a lot of books by people like Andrew Murray and E.M. Bounds etc. What is one of the major things they have in common...??? They're long dead! LOL I don't read much umm current writing. There are some exceptions, but not many.

I feel people today are missing out on so much by not giving these older writings a chance. I came to know God through this type of writing. It is Life to me. So much that's written today is for women only or men only or teens only or this group only or that group only. And I just don't get it. Walking with God is not a gender specific thing. I don't know how to get into this mindset that God has a special word for me because I'm a female. I know that sounds strange. But to Him, there is neither male nor female. (Galatians 3:28) And yet when it comes to study, we so often segregate. I don't read as a female, but as a child of God. And He never fails to show me Himself.

So next time you want to read something that nourishes your soul, take a stroll over to the 'classics' section at your Christian bookstore and try something different. It might just change your life!

travel tips

Antique Mommy is doing a carnival today about travel tips. She's got some great ideas of her own, but has invited others to join in. It took me a while to decide if I had anything to share. But before long, my mind went into travel mode and I thought of several things we just naturally do.

There's the easy stuff like DVDs and CDs. One thing we did with our daughter was give her a brand new spiral notebook when we went on a road trip. I included a zip pouch of pencils, map colors (they don't melt and don't make a mess like those awful markers) and those crank up crayon things. Love. Those. She could write, draw.. whatever she wanted to do. I would include books she's currently reading and maybe a couple of kids magazines too. I used to put all of this in a tote bag and that bag never left the van the entire trip. Those things were ONLY for the van. And so when we got in to go, she was ready to play with them again.

Now that she's older, Nintendo DS and movies work well. But mostly just DS. She will play for hours. Since she's older and school work and study take up so much of her time, she's delighted to spend several hours hooked up to the DS and we don't mind, since she's quiet and not asking how much longer 'til we get there.

But to answer that dreaded question... how much longer 'til we get there... enter the GPS. I totally 'heart' our GPS. Even though we've had ours a while and it's not the newest or the fanciest, it does show the ETA (estimated time of arrival) in one corner. So our daughter can glance up at that and know what time we should arrive. Of course, stopping for meals etc bumps the ETA a bit. But even that is a good lesson... don't piddle. It's almost like a game for us sometimes.. how fast can we eat so we don't ruin our ETA. My husband has commented that it's cut down on MY complaining and wondering about how much longer we'll be in the car too. A-hem.. I guess I'm not that great a traveler either.

the holiday blues

The holidays are coming. Every year around this time I begin to get a little sad. I haven't liked the holidays since I grew up. There is a lady I know at church and she and I talk about how we're both scrooges when it comes to November and December. So I know I'm not the only one.

I just get tired during this season. Everything is go go go. And I'm just not much of a go go go kinda girl. And everything points to 'the perfect family' and there is no such thing as 'the perfect family' and sometimes that is a struggle for me. I'll want things to be just a certain way and it will never be that way. And I remember when I was in high school and both my grandparents died on one side.. that just radically changed everything. And then years later my mother died. And right after that, Bub died. And it changed everything again. And the same happened on my husband's side as well. As the older generation died, it left the younger generations wondering what to do with themselves at times... not really knowing how to carry on the things of the past. And it just comes off feeling awkward and sad sometimes. I don't even really know how to explain it.

I just never look forward to this time of year. I guess I mean Christmas mostly when I say this.. but Thanksgiving is just weeks away, so I guess in my mind it's all coming. I go through the motions. We do all the decorating, shopping and cooking. We try to make it 'fun' for BooBoo. She loves it. This is all she's ever known it to be. But I am always secretly happy when Dec 26 rolls around and it's over. Gosh, that sounds sad, doesn't it? I don't mean for it to. This is just what's on my mind today. Boo's out of school today for a break and I just haven't felt like I had anything to post lately. I don't know if the holiday blues will cut my postings down or not. I certainly don't want to post how much I dislike the holidays and am counting the days til it's over every day til 12/26, ya know?

Anyhoo... like I said.. I pretty much just got nothin' today. Hope my posting mojo gets back soon. I think mojo is a blogging word.. I would never say that in real life. :-D