Pumpkin Farm Pumpkin Bread

Over the past several (I swear I didn't eat them all myself) times I have made this Pumpkin bread I have changed a few things and now feel quite OK with putting it up here. I changed some ingredients and feel that this recipe is actually a bit improved. So here you go, I hope that some of you will go ahead and make this delicious treat, you taste buds will thank you and your children will be begging for more "mumkin bed" like little P keeps doing.

Pumpkin Farm Pumpkin Bread

3c. sugar
2/3 c. oil
1 c. water
4 eggs
2 c. mashed pumpkin (1 15oz. can)
3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves (I didn't have these, so I just used 2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)
1/2c. raisins (optional, but yummy)

Struesel Topping (optional, but I did it and it's really good)
1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c. finely chopped nuts (if you don't have any double the amount of brown sugar)
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Grease and flour either 2 9x5" or 3 8x5" loaf pans. Combine sugar, oil, water, eggs, pumpkin: beat 1 min at low speed. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off. Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; blend at low speed until moist. Beat 1 minute at medium speed. Stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into pans

Topping: Combine all ingredients until crumbly; sprinkle over batter

Bake for 60-75 minutes (It takes the full 75 for me) or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then turn over onto tea towel or wire cooling rack. Allow to cool a few minutes longer (if you can control yourself) because it is so moist it can be hard to cut hot.

Pie Night

A while back I remember reading about someone doing Pie Night for dinner and thinking Wow that is a great idea. I then cataloged it into the "cools things to do someday" closet in my brain (this is also wear underwear out of old t-shirts and making a knitted sleep sack live). So as I was preparing for dinner the other night with Quiche on the menu I decided that it was a great time to give Pie Night a try. I can't tell you how thrilled my husband was. So last night we had our first official Pie Night.

The quiche I made quick and dirty (as in not neat, still sanitary though). The crust is all funky and I should have added an extra egg, but still quite scrumptious.

For dessert pie we had Pumpkin Pie which was absolutely nummers. This was it right out of the oven still a bit puffed up, but as you can see my crust was a bit better here. All in all I have to say that Pie Night was a success.

In non-pie related news, I finally got something finished out of my overwhelming pile of half finished projects. I was starting to get in a bit of a funk about it, not wanting to do anything because it all seemed like to much. Today I was bound and determined to get something done, anything. So of course I tackled the easiest one and finished up the little scarflette I had half finished in my knitting bag.

It's made out of a beautiful variated wool that was gifted to me. It was a very small ball, but I finally found a good use for it. Waste not, want not. I used one of my favorite buttons from my small button stash, I love how quirky it is.

Last Weeks Goodies

This past week did not end up being the craft catch up I needed and had hoped for (sigh). It was a good week, a productive week, but still a lot of my projects lay unfinished yet not forgotten. These are things I completed the week before. This cape, this simple thing proved to be very difficult indeed seeing as I broke 2 machines trying to make it! I'm taking my old Singer to the shop this week, but in the mean time I have the new (very basic) one my mom bought me. The other one that broke was the POC Brother that I had learned to sew on.

With all the mishaps it's not a perfect cape, but at least the girl can fly with it.

These are some emotional beanbags I made for the swap. They were a special request and I had the felt to make them so here they are. Not an original idea or anything, but fun to create. I also made this bag to go with them using the same pattern (with a few modifications of course) as my doll diaper bag.

Now for non-crafty news, check out the gorgeous hand blown glass pumpkin I scored at our church auction yesterday for $20!!!!

I'm so in love with this. We also ended up with a entire home carpet steam cleaning gift certificate for just $40, yippee!!! So all in all, we are ahead financially from this weekend, if not by crafts.

Christmas Craziness

I got a email from a friend today saying that she noticed I hadn't done a blog post all month and wanted to see how we were doing. I shook my head, with confusion, no couldn't be I just posted last.....oh. Apparently in my Christmas frenzy I have forgotten to update in almost 2 whole weeks. Here is why my friends, in the past week and a half I have:

Made M a really cool gift (mum is the word though, so I can't share it)
Made a cool bag for the swap
Done some knitting for me
Made P a superhero cape
Worked on Ls gift (will show more on that this weekend)
Broke my sewing machine
Bought another sewing machine
Spend countless hours surfing the web for gifts
Done quite a bit of baking
and taught L how to write her name

Now not all of that has to do with Christmas, but dang I've been a girl on a mission. My plan every year is to finish my Christmas crafting and buying by Thanksgiving day, therefore freeing myself to enjoy the season. Though this year I have seen the major flaw in this thinking, where the heck is my autumn? So, my new goal is for this year to finish up the last remaining things by this weekend and spend the rest of the month not thinking about Christmas at ALL! I need to soak the last bits of autumn, making autumn crafts with the girls, going on nature walks, baking with cloves and cinnamon, and maybe even apple picking. If anyone knows of any places to go apple picking around here please please let me know....