Simply The Best Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin bread is one of my all-time favorite Fall treats.  (Do I say that about all Fall treats?  Can you guess what my favorite time of year is?)

I have been making this pumpkin bread for the last seven or eight years and it is always everyone's favorite.  It is probably the recipe that I have been asked for more times than any other recipe.  I based it off of a recipe that I found in a cookbook that a friend gave me years ago and made a few tweaks that make it fit my families taste and my style in the kitchen a little better.

I often make this for my kids' teachers in the Fall or for friends or play dates.  When I am making it for others I often cook it in the cute, small disposable paper bread pans that you can get at the grocery store or craft store.  In fact, I should probably just start attaching the recipe to the loaf because of all of the loaves of this that I have handed out I think that I have only had two people not ask me how to make it.  

One year for Thanksgiving I made four loaves and they were all gone in mere moments.  The bottom line is that if you make this, it will be a hit.

A few things that I think that you should know...

1. The sugar and oil mixture will look like crushed ice when you mix it...it will never get creamy...don't worry.

2. This is my favorite "dry ingredients" bowl.  I don't even know if you can still buy it, my husband got it for me 4 or 5 years ago, but you can find one that is similar.  It is melamine which makes it really easy to handle, and it has the great pour spout which makes dry ingredients pour easily into wet.  It is technically a batter bowl, but try it for dry ingredients and you will see how well it works :)

3. I love Libby's pumpkin puree.  Like the old jingle says, "When it says Libby's, Libby's, Libby's on the label nothings better, better, better on your table, table, table."  A few years ago there was a canned pumpkin shortage and I went to the store nearly every day looking for it, when it finally appeared I became a hoarder and bought almost a whole case.

Simply the Best Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2  teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

3 eggs

15 ounces of pureed pumpkin

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two loaf pans.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  

Beat the sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl until well combined. 

Add the eggs and beat well, then add the pumpkin and continue beating until incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well by hand.  

Pour the batter into two the two loaf pans and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle of the loaves comes out clean.

Let the loaves cool for 10-15 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack.  Wait twenty minutes, or as long as you can stand it (for me this is about 5 minutes) before slicing and eating.

Freezes well. 

Note: If you decide to cook this in smaller disposable loaf pans shorten the cooking time to 35-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the loaves comes out clean.

An Apple A Day...

When we lived in Wisconsin we had a beautiful old apple tree in our backyard that produced an insane amount of apples.  Like Strega Nona's pot, the supply of food from my tree was never ending.  For several weeks every Fall we would pick apples and make fantastic creations with our bounty.  My favorite by far though was always making apple sauce...

I am not a canner...I worry too much about food safety and was paranoid that I would not get it right and kill us all, so I almost always just made my applesauce for the refrigerator or freezer (except the one year when my expert canner friend offered to come over and help me...thank goodness for people who know things that I do not).

After trying a few different ways to make applesauce, I realized that my favorite is skin on, no sugar, touch of cinnamon, true perfection.

I love Texas, but I really miss my apples...

Elizabeth's Applesauce  

Ingredients:
However many apples you have (usually 3-5 pounds works best), cut from the core in a large dice
1-2 cups of water, you can always add more if needed
2 cinnamon sticks

Directions:
Place the apples into a large pot and pour in 1 cup of water.  The water should just cover the bottom of the pan around the apples.  If the water does not quite cover the bottom of the pan add an additional cup of water.  Bury the cinnamon sticks in the apples and place the pot over medium high heat.  When the mixture starts to bubble turn the heat down to medium low and simmer.

Cook the mixture until the apples are quite tender and then remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for 5-10 minutes.  When the mixture has cooled removed the cinnamon sticks and discard them.
Place an immersion blender into the applesauce and blend until you reach your desired consistency.  Spoon the applesauce in freezer safe jars and put them in the freezer until you are ready to use them.  (Make sure that you leave at least an inch of headspace for possible expansion during freezing.  They can also go straight into the refrigerator if you plan to eat it immediately...

But...

I feel that I would be remiss if I did not mention that the absolute best way to eat this applesauce is warm from the stovepot.  Try it, you won't regret it.

(NOTE: If you do not have an immersion blender you can use a potato masher, or you can put it into a regular blender.  If you put it into a regular blender you need to cool it for an additional 10-15 minutes and use caution as hot items in blenders can cause burns.)

Crock Pot Chicken

The crock pot is not my friend.  People are always raving about these awesome crock pot meals that they make and I can never seem to make it work when I try them.  Often I find things get bland, or that everything made in my crock pot tastes the same.

I dislike my crock pot so much that I was actually excited when my old one broke during our move...like so excited that I didn't even file a claim about it with the moving company.

But...

There always comes the point where I want to make pulled pork, which actually tastes really good from the crock pot, and that point came last Fall during football season.  So...I went to the store and bought a new crock pot and recommitted myself to a cycle of trying meals I did not like.

But an amazing thing happened.  I have actually found several meals in the last 11 months that are turning out well in my crock pot!  I have discovered that I can make chicken and brisket and soup and other things that I never seemed to like that way before.

Maybe my old crock pot was just cursed ;)

This chicken that I started making in the crock pot is actually good for two meals.  I like to eat one on a Monday and one on a Wednesday...on the night in-between we eat something that is not Mexican food.  (Cook once, eat twice is one of my favorite rules).


Night #1--Chicken Tacos

Ingredients:
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar of your favorite salsa
2 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning (I like Penzeys)
Flour or Corn Tortillas
Shredded Cheddar or Jack Cheese
2-3 Chopped Scallions
Sour Cream

Directions:
Place the chicken in the crock pot.  Pour the jar of salsa on top of it.  Sprinkle the Taco Seasoning all over.  Cook on low for 4-5 hours or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Remove the chicken from the crock pot and shred only the amount that you need for the tacos.  Put the rest aside to cool and then refrigerate for dinner tomorrow night.

Heat the tortillas in the oven or the microwave.  If you heat them in the oven then wrap them in aluminum foil and put into a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.  If you want to heat them in the microwave put them in a stack on a microwave safe plate and cover them with a wet paper towel.  Heat for 20-30 seconds.

Fill the tortillas with the chicken, cheese, scallions, and sour cream and eat!

Night #2--Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:
Leftover chicken from the recipe above, shredded (at least one cup is needed, but you can have up to five cups and the recipe is still great).
1 box of Spanish Rice, prepared according to their instructions (if you are supposed to add a can of tomatoes, like with Zatarain's which is my favorite, do that)
1 cup of salsa
10 ounces of frozen corn
6 ounces of cheddar cheese, cubed

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl, then pour into a greased 9x13 casserole dish.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake 30-40 minutes until it is heated through.  Makes 8-10 servings.

Rice Krispie Treats For Adults...And Kids...

I have an unhealthy obsession with Rice Krispie Treats...like a six year old girl style love for this bad for you treat.  My friends used to wonder if I had some form of arrested development, but eventually they gave into my problem and started buying me the super big kind that you can get at the gas station whenever they saw them.  I found over the years that I was willing to try almost any version that I could find of this delish goody, but they always fell a little short of something that I would actually serve at a party...for adults...like next to the tarts and the cheescakes and all of the other adult food.

Enter my insomniac idea...

I was laying in bed the other night going through the thousand things on the "to do" list and I remembered that I have to make the regular version of Rice Krispie Treats for my kids' school next month.  For some reason, with my eyes closed the treats looked different in my head than they normally look in the pan.  They had pretzels and m&m's and marshmallows, oh my!  And so was born this creation...

Adult Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of salted butter

10 ounces of marshmallows

6 cups of Rice Krispies

1/2 cup of broken pretzel pieces (not smashed, just broken)

1/2 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup mini m&m candies

Cooking spray

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium high heat being careful not to burn it.

When the butter is melted add the marshmallows and stir until they are all melted.  If the marshmallows start to bubble, turn down the heat. 

When the mixture if fully melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the Rice Krispies.  Stir for 20-30 seconds, and then add the pretzels, marshmallows, and m&m candies.  Continue stirring until combined.

At this point spray the bottom of a 9x13 pan and turn the mixture out into the pan.  Spray a piece of waxed paper and use it to press the mixture evenly into the pan.  At this point the recipe looks like chaos...there are broken shards of everything...just ignore that and keep going.    

Wait 10-15 minutes for the treats to cool and then cut and serve.  Eat slowly and enjoy feeling like a kid again :)

These can also be frozen to savor later.  If freezing, cut the treats and put them on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper.  Freeze for 4-6 hours and then place in large ziploc baggies.  Freeze for up to two months.    

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to our Penzeys Spices giveaway winner Kristin!

We will have another giveaway a week and a half from today :)

Thank you to all who entered.

XO,
The Kitchen Tart

Give Away--Penzey's Spices!

Please leave a comment below telling me what your favorite spice is to be entered into a drawing to win this awesome pack of Penzey's Spices!

Penzey's is in no way sponsoring this, I just wanted to share some of my favorite spices with my readers and viewers!

You can enter through Friday at noon.

Happy eating!

XO,
The Kitchen Tart

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