Fall Festival Recipe Exchange

Fall is my very favorite time of year. I grew up in New York and lived on a tree-lined street. The colors were glorious every year! There was a certain smell in the cool air....there were huge piles of leaves everywhere...some poor soul had probably spent hours raking, only for us kids to jump into the piles and scatter leaves everywhere. Fall is a beautiful time of year that I look forward to each year. I also have certain recipes that I prepare each fall. My Pumpkin Bread is one of them. I actually came across this recipe when I was living in Florida. I missed the seasons terribly. Each year when I prepared my bread, I imagined myself being back up north, with the leaves and cool air.

PUMPKIN BREAD

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1/2 cup of oil

2 eggs

1 cup of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix!)

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup water

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix all ingredients together!

Makes 3 large or 6 small loaves

Butter loaf pans then pour mixture about 1/3 to 1/2 full, depending on how thick you want the loaves. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Watch them! Ovens differ...my oven bakes them perfectly in 25 minutes.

I go a little heavy-handed on the spices because I love cloves, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. At Christmastime, I buy the tiny aluminum loaf pans to use, then wrap the mini-breads up as gifts. People love them. :)

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!