Christmas is coming
Christmas is coming on apace, and now that the first pumpkin bread has been made, and we have a tree, it feels real. There's only a week left, which is a little alarming if I think about it.
Carole leaves for Tennessee tomorrow, to spend Christmas with her sister Christina and her husband Chris. She helped us get a tree, and we decided that the time had come to go artificial, because we weren't up for the process of hauling and setting up a real one. We now have a very nice, small one that doesn't look like nylon needles, and doesn't take up too much space. It's supposed to be a Virginia pine, with just a faint frosting on the tips. Now the only problem is that the one box of Christmas stuff with the ornaments that we have made, is missing in action. The lights we don't need now, those were right where they belonged. The ornaments which have seen better days, those are sitting in front of me--I have picked over them and hung some, but we need the smaller things.
It has been a little sad to know that we will spend our Christmas alone, no kids for the first time, but we have invited someone who could enjoy some company. Carole will have a great time, and we will have a good day too. Who knows where she will be next year, since graduation looms in June, but it's always possible that she could be here. Or not.
The 'famous pumpkin bread' has a story. One of our wedding presents was a ward cookbook from the old Washington (D.C.)Ward, from friends of my parents. Still in Utah, so it was in the first two years we were married, I saw a recipe in it for pumpkin bread, which I had never heard of, but I thought it looked interesting so I tried it. I thought it was delicious, so I made it again the next year. However, that second time I realized that I had made an error in using a 29 ounce can of pumpkin, which was 3 cups when the recipe called for 2 cups, or in other words a 15 ounce can. I made it as written and didn't like it at all. It was very dry. So I used the whole big can and rounded up the flour a little, cut back the oil, and we've been eating it ever since. (I added the allspice, too.) We received pumpkin bread from secret elves one year, with chocolate chips in it, which was even better, so we added those.
It is one of our signature goodies for giving at Christmas, and we had to go sing to Sister Jeanne Jordan last night before Carole was vanished away. We made our first batch of pumpkin bread and took a baby loaf along; I don't think we've ever gone caroling so early, but this was mandatory, after all. A big loaf is going on the plane, there's one more to give away, and some we get ourselves. I promise, we'll be making more.
Carole leaves for Tennessee tomorrow, to spend Christmas with her sister Christina and her husband Chris. She helped us get a tree, and we decided that the time had come to go artificial, because we weren't up for the process of hauling and setting up a real one. We now have a very nice, small one that doesn't look like nylon needles, and doesn't take up too much space. It's supposed to be a Virginia pine, with just a faint frosting on the tips. Now the only problem is that the one box of Christmas stuff with the ornaments that we have made, is missing in action. The lights we don't need now, those were right where they belonged. The ornaments which have seen better days, those are sitting in front of me--I have picked over them and hung some, but we need the smaller things.
It has been a little sad to know that we will spend our Christmas alone, no kids for the first time, but we have invited someone who could enjoy some company. Carole will have a great time, and we will have a good day too. Who knows where she will be next year, since graduation looms in June, but it's always possible that she could be here. Or not.
The 'famous pumpkin bread' has a story. One of our wedding presents was a ward cookbook from the old Washington (D.C.)Ward, from friends of my parents. Still in Utah, so it was in the first two years we were married, I saw a recipe in it for pumpkin bread, which I had never heard of, but I thought it looked interesting so I tried it. I thought it was delicious, so I made it again the next year. However, that second time I realized that I had made an error in using a 29 ounce can of pumpkin, which was 3 cups when the recipe called for 2 cups, or in other words a 15 ounce can. I made it as written and didn't like it at all. It was very dry. So I used the whole big can and rounded up the flour a little, cut back the oil, and we've been eating it ever since. (I added the allspice, too.) We received pumpkin bread from secret elves one year, with chocolate chips in it, which was even better, so we added those.
It is one of our signature goodies for giving at Christmas, and we had to go sing to Sister Jeanne Jordan last night before Carole was vanished away. We made our first batch of pumpkin bread and took a baby loaf along; I don't think we've ever gone caroling so early, but this was mandatory, after all. A big loaf is going on the plane, there's one more to give away, and some we get ourselves. I promise, we'll be making more.
SISTER STODDARD’S FAMOUS
PUMPKIN BREAD
Combine and mix well:
3 cups sugar
½ tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. soda
3 ½ cups flour
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp. each cloves,
cinnamon, nutmeg
¼ tsp. allspice
Mix in with above
ingredients:
4 eggs
½ cup salad oil
1 29-oz. can pumpkin (3 cups)
Add and stir in thoroughly:
1 cup miniature chocolate
chips
(regular chips are too heavy, and will fall
to the bottom)
Grease and flour loaf pans, 2
large or 6-7 baby loaf pans.
Bake at 325o for 90 minutes
large, 60-65 minutes small. Test with
toothpick in center to see if done—toothpick will come out clean, and bread
will pull away from edges when done.
Turn out of pans immediately
to cool.
Your comment about Christmas alone brings me to say that Cliff and I faced Christmas alone -- until yesterday, when a friend phoned and invited us to Christmas dinner. I accepted with alacrity!
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