Pumpkin Bread

Instead of pumpkin pie, I present you with pumpkin bread. And just in time for Thanksgiving! This bread is pretty amazing. It tastes just like pumpkin pie, but has a bread texture instead. The texture is similar to banana bread. So if you enjoy that sort of thing, you should absolutely try this.

I made this pumpkin bread a few weeks ago as a single loaf, but the middle remained a gooey mess. I made another attempt the following week, but split the batter between two bread pans, and it was a wonderful success. I can't remember where I found this recipe, I just remember that when I went back to check it, the website was down. If I find it again, I'll share the source.

Pumpkin Bread
2 1/2 C flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
3t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t salt
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled
15 oz can of pumpkin
3 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prep the bread pans

Place the first seven ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, salt) into a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar, white sugar, and butter. Mix in the pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla.

Combine the contents of the two bowls together until just blended.

Split the batter between the two bread pans. You can put it all in one, but I didn't have success with that method. Don't let that stop you, though.

Bake for 45 minutes (2 pans) to 1 hour (1 pan). Test with a toothpick to determine doneness. (The toothpick test can lie, just so you know.)

Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from the bread pan.

Optional: Drizzle the bread with a simple glaze made from 1 cup powdered sugar, a bit of vanilla, and almost 2 tablespoons of milk. Be sure to place a paper towel under the cooling rack unless you want to scrub a sugary mess off your table/counter.

Chocolate sugar cookies with mint chips

I made these cookies again, but I changed the recipe a bit. I think they are a lot better now! I increased the amount of flour, swapped the butter for shortening, added a bit more salt, and completely neglected to measure the vanilla when I added it. (You can never have too much vanilla.) I will include the new recipe below.

Did you know that teaching is a very time consuming occupation? I have to write out lecture notes, create exams, and then, the most time consuming part, grade the exams and homeworks. And quizzes! So much grading. So much.

And that is why I haven't been updating too often. I haven't even really had time to bake lately. Until this past weekend, that is. I baked these delicious cookies again and both of the posted recipes of banana bread. I will let you know which version of banana bread is better, if I can figure that out.

Chocolate sugar cookies with mint chips (updated!)
1 C sugar
1/2 C shortening
1.5ish t vanilla
1 egg
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 to 1t salt
1 1/4 C flour
1 C Andes Creme De Menthe baking chips
Some sugar for pressing

The method follows the same as before (can be found here). It still only makes about 3 dozen cookies, which is probably plenty for most people.

Chicken & Rice Soup

Now that I've survived grading nearly 100 exams plus homeworks during the first exam week of the semester, I can get back to cooking and baking. I'm lucky that my phone has a super awesome camera or there would be no pictures. Technology isn't always my friend, but everything is working out fine so far.

Today was the first day of fall, so I wanted what I made to reflect that in some way. It was a rainy, cloudy, and cool day: a perfect day for soup. I've recently discovered that I enjoy chicken and wild rice soup, so I attempted to make some. I looked for a recipe online, but ended up combining bits and pieces of different recipes into my own version. It is essentially just chicken noodle soup with rice instead of  noodles. This makes a lot of soup, so feel free to cut the recipe in half!

The only problem I had with making this soup had to do with the rice. First, I had no idea they only sold itty-bitty boxes of wild rice and that each box was $5. I discovered this lovely fact at the grocery store. I decided to buy brown rice instead. And... then I burned the brown rice because I forgot to turn down the heat. I finally gave up and used minute rice.

Chicken & Rice Soup
6 C chicken broth
2 chicken breasts (more or less depending on how much meat you want)
1 C carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 T butter
1 C long grain rice, uncooked
Salt & pepper to taste

When you cook the rice depends on what type of rice you are using. Cook the rice according to package directions and add to the chicken broth after everything else.

Boil the chicken breasts in the chicken broth until fully cooked. The length of time will vary depending on if the chicken has bone in or not.

Meanwhile, cut up the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic.

Melt the butter in a pan and saute the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic until the onion is tender. This will take about 10 minutes.

When the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the chicken broth and cut or pull it to pieces. Return the pieces of chicken to the broth.

When the onion is tender from being sauteed, and the chicken is fully cooked and pulled apart, add the veggies to the chicken broth as well.

Add the fully cooked rice. Bring the soup to a low simmer to continue cooking the carrots. As you can see, I added way too much rice to my soup (1.5 cups instead of 1). It is more of a casserole now, but still delicious!

Eat while warm and enjoy!

Garlic Bread Sticks

I eat a lot of pasta. I could easily live on pasta. I enjoy pasta so much that I've even had pasta for breakfast many times. Besides the combinations of noodles and sauces, the bread that goes with the pasta is very important. Different sauces and noodles go better with different sorts of bread, although any freshly baked bread will be just fine.

I love the bread sticks from Olive Garden, so I wanted to give one of the many recipes online which claim to be "just like the real thing!" a try. I got this recipe from The Country Cook. They are delicious and relatively easy to make.


Garlic Bread Sticks
1 1/2 cups very warm water
1 package active dry yeast 

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, sotened

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

Garlic Butter topping:

1/2 stick unsalted butter 

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon table salt

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water with a bit of sugar until nice and foamy.

Place the sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl. My softened butter melted a bit, but that is okay!

Add the remaining 1 1/4 cup of warm water to the bowl of sugar, salt, and butter. Mix in one cup of flour.

Add the yeast and mix. Slowly add the remaining flour until a slightly sticky dough is formed.

Knead the dough until smooth.

Break the dough up into several pieces and roll these pieces into strips. The size and number of strips will depend on how many bread sticks you want and how big you want them.

Cover with a non-fuzzy towel and let rise until doubled in size.

While the dough is finishing it's rise time, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake the bread stick dough for 6 minutes. 

While the bread sticks are baking, melt the 1/2 stick of butter and mix it with the garlic powder and salt.

Remove the bread sticks from the oven and brush with the garlicy butter. Return bread sticks to the oven for an additional 6 minutes.


Remove the bread sticks from the oven and brush them with the garlicy butter yet again. 


Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

Quick Rolls

These rolls are quick to throw together... compared to the other dough that I have made. No kneading is required, so that is nice. You just mix up the ingredients, let it rise, make whatever shape of roll you want, and bake. The entire process still takes at least an hour and a half.

I didn't think these rolls had enough flavor, but other people absolutely loved them. Putting butter on them is a good idea. They would most likely go well with anything that tends to go well with bread or dinner rolls.

Quick Rolls

1 C milk

1/4 C sugar

1/4 C shortening or butter

1/4 C warm water

1 packet dry active yeast

1 egg, beaten

3 to 4 C flour, sifted

1 t salt

Scald the milk. Proof the yeast in the 1/4 C water (add 1/4 t sugar if you want).

Meanwhile, assemble the ingredients. Sift the flour into a bowl and put the butter/shortening, sugar, and salt into another bowl.

Pour the scalded milk into the bowl with the sugar. Stir until the butter/shortening melts almost completely. Let cool to lukewarm.

Add a cup or two of flour and stir until well mixed. Add the proofed yeast and stir.

Mix in enough flour to make a thick dough. This will take nearly 4 cups of flour and you may have to mix with your hands near the end.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with a non-fuzzy cloth, and let rise until 3 times the original size (around an hour or so).

Shape the dough into a roll shape. I greased two muffin pans and made cloverleaf rolls (place 3 small balls of dough in each cup).

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until lightly browned.

Enjoy!