Pumpkins!!!!

Well some of you may know that October is my favorite month/time of year. The smells, the weather, the food and the preparations for the holidays. Don' get me wrong Christmas and Thanksgiving are great. I love getting together with my family and our mixture of Filipino and American cuisines and cultures. My mom getting out our old decorations (my favorite being this Jack-in-the-box that has a bunch of Christmas things in it and plays a melody), the Christmas edition Barbies my G-ma gave me, and just the simple time we spend together. The goofiness of my brothers, my dad's cooking and laughter, my mom's radiant smile, my little sister and all that she is. I enjoy the holidays but October for some reason is my favorite month. I don't know, it may be that dark, goth, emo, punk, "anti-conformist" side of me that loves this month so much but whatever it is I LOVE IT!!!!

Well 2 things append today 1) I was super excited about packing my Lily October/Halloween lunches and 2) I was completely embarrassed by one of the teacher aides. Let me say that I am well aware that I pack my daughter a fairly large lunch. Why? Sometime she is hungry enough to out eat her daddy and other times she isn't so whatever is left over she can have as a snack. She opens the car door and says, " I didn't finish my lunch all gone." M: "What? Oh that's okay now you can have a snack before we go grocery shopping! YAY! Snack!" Teacher Aid: "Yep Lily always has such a large lunch and she rarely ever finishes it. Out of all the students I have she usually has the largest." I explained that sometimes she eats a lot and other times she doesn't so I just pack enough so that if she is hungry she has enough food. I bolted out of there! Here I am the immovable object the large lady trying to cram food down my poor daughter to turn her into a fat kid. No, not what I'm trying to do. So my October happiness was squished by a teacher aid today. Even now I'm not real excited to post this blog but post I shall.


Today I made a pumpkin themed lunch for Lily. going clockwise she had "mini pumpkins" (carrots), a pumpkin marshmallow, pumpkin bread, "candles" (string cheese with a cheddar flame), a Jack-O-Lantern (Mandarin orange), and pumpkin seeds.

So here is the recipe for pumpkin bread I don't have any pictures so you will have to use your imagination.

1 pie pumpkin                                                  2 teaspoons baking soda

1 2/3 cups white sugar                                      1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce                      1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup milk                                                     1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla                                           1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 eggs plus 4 egg whites                                   1/4 teaspoon ginger

3 cups flour                                                      2 tsp oil or melted butter

1) Move the oven racks so that the top of the loaf pans will be in the middle of the oven. Cut the pie pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Place on a baking sheet and cover with foil bake at 350 degrees F for an hour. Remove from the oven, scoop out the pulp and mash or puree in the blender. All you need is 15 ounces, just a little less then 2 cups.

2) Grease the bottoms of 2 9X5 inch loaf pans with shortening of spray with cooking spray. In a large bowl shift spices, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another mixing bowl, mix sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, milk, vanilla, eggs and oil or butter. 

3) Make a well in the dry ingredient bowl and mix in the wet ingredients. Mix well. Pour into pans. Place on the oven rack and bake for an hour to and hour and ten minutes or of course until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes before removing from the pans. Place on the cooling racks until cooled completely. 

4)  Tadah! Yumminess!