Steak and Pumpkin Bread

Mmm, bread.

Of course, out of all of the things that I could have cooked? I chose pumpkin bread. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! At least if you don't count how sinfully~ delicious it is. The day before yesterday was my first try. I followed all of the instructions, mixed everything in order of listing, baked it as long as it said -- and it tasted like paste. Fantastic.



So what did I do wrong?
Imagine a small dog. Imagine coming home to the thing after leaving it alone all day. Whip out a pack of its favorite treats and play its favorite game with it. The thing is likely running all around in a flurry, scratching and huffing and puffing and, depending upon the breed, it might even be snorting. Now. You have that image in your head?
That's pretty much my equivalent when I'm excited. I get scatterbrained and I'm absolutely everywhere. I didn't even realize I'd forgotten to buy the sugar, let alone mix it into the batch. Fun, right? Trying to save money, I'd opted out on buying walnuts and raisins as well, which are probably lending factors to all around sweetness in general. Yaaay.

DISCLAIMER: I don't snort when I'm excited, btw. Just sayin'. o3o

However, I am determined.

I tossed out the original loaf and the next day I set out to purchase another can of pumpkin -- and sugar!

(...In the pouring, Florida rain.)

So. Here's the original recipe:

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Pumpkin Bread

(Page 117 of Celtic Folklore Cooking)

Ingredients:

• 1 large can pumpkin
• 1 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup raisins

Mix together pumpkin, melted butter, water, and eggs. Blend in baking soda, flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, walnuts, and raisins. Place batter in a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until top is golden brown.

Associated Holidays: Samhain, Mabon

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When I got back, I double-checked and made sure I had everything in order. Grabbed all of the proper cooking utensils I would need and began. Just as the recipe calls, I mixed together my pumpkin and butter, etc, etc first. However, I halved all of the ingredients. I didn't want the final product to spill out of my bread pan and I wanted to be sure that it cooked all the way through.

A precautionary note here: Uncooked or undercooked food in general is just a big no-no. You can get all sorts of diseases, parasites, and tummy aches from that crap, so I'd really advise against it, ne? More immediately, if you're ever cooking something in the oven and you're afraid that it'll spill over? Put a cookie sheet under it, or something because whatever spills could end up catching fire and ultimately screwing up your dinner plans. If you assume that something isn't going to spill over but it starts to look like it might, seriously, put something under it. Don't be afraid to take your food out of the oven for a quick minute. -- So what, the heat gets let out, your souffle a little mushy. Priorities, guys! Safety first.

Anyway, when I was out picking up my pumpkin and sugar, I also grabbed some craisins. I figured, eh, what harm would it do? I'm not entirely into raisins so that was close enough. Once everything was mixed together, it made up this temptingly copper-colored batter. The entire kitchen smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg. I loved it. I'd been letting the oven heat up while I prepped, so by the time I was done with that, it was ready for cooking.
To grease my bread pan, I took a paper towel and soaked some vegetable oil into it. Rubbed all along the sides, the bottom, anywhere the bread would be touching. Once it was greased, I grabbed the flour and sprinkled a bit onto the bottom. You don't need too much, just enough to coat it with a thin layer. This should keep your bread from sticking too much, although a nonstick pan always helps. To get the flour on the sides and avoid a mess, I held it over the trash and lightly patted the sides, turning the pan over until I'd gotten every part of it.
With that out of the way, I poured in my batter, smoothed it out with my spoon--made a cute pattern--and set my timer for 50 minutes. When it was all done, the thing was gorgeous. Sadly, pumpkin bread is kind of... not quite mushy. But really soooft when its still warm? Yeah. It fell apart.




Despite that, it tasted damn good, yo.

Pumpkin bread is not~ a meal though. So, I pulled out the steaks that I'd been marinading since the day before, cooked them up on the stove, diced up some potatoes, baked them in the ovennn and. Yum. Dinner was served.


(I suppose I could go into detail on my steak and potato recipes some other time? They're not out of a book so I'm being lazy for now... Ha~.)


Here's to eating well, readers! Blessed Be!

, Shannon L. Owens
aka Rabbit / Elder