When I was a kid, my mother did her best to provide my siblings and me with a Normal American Childhood. In part this involved eating Normal American Meals between helpings of shrimp balls. For instance, we usually had cereal with milk for breakfast. Of course, the cereal and milk were kept separate; I didn’t learn that they were meant to be served together until my friend’s mother served me a soggy white mess for breakfast after I’d politely requested Cheerios.
My Normal American Childhood was also full of American Holiday-Themed Foods. My favorite Holiday-Themed Foods accompanied Halloween. Like those ultimate Americans canonized in first grade classes across the nation — I speak, of course, of the Native Americans — my mother would use every part of the pumpkins we carved into jack-o’-lanterns: she’d scoop out the seeds, clean them and bake them, then use the meat to make pumpkin bread.
Or so I thought. Years later, when I asked my mother how she prepared the pumpkin for the bread, she absentmindedly replied, “Oh, I always bought the canned kind.” And thus another childhood dream vanished, flicked away by an offhand remark.
Until I came across a free pumpkin sitting outside the neighborhood garden store. I wasn’t sure of its provenance, as the garden store hadn’t been selling pumpkins during the build-up to Halloween, but I’m not one to pass up anything free.
It turns out that pumpkin purée is very time-consuming to make from scratch. Luckily (for me), another free thing I’m unwilling to pass up is my poor exploited boyfriend’s labor. This made the task much simpler:
Pumpkin Purée
1. Cut the pumpkin in half and clean out seeds and pulp.
2. Cut the rind off the remaining pumpkin and chop it into pieces small enough to fit in microwave-safe bowl. Cover bowl with saran wrap and poke holes in it with fork. Microwave until soft, about 5-10 minutes depending on microwave strength. Repeat until all pumpkin is soft or microwave dies.
3. Have boyfriend mash softened pumpkin with potato masher until his hands are tired, then blend in food processor until relatively smooth.
However, because you’re not a Victorian capitalist, you’ll have to reward your exploited boyfriend with more than a scant bowl of gruel. I suggest you put that pumpkin to good use:
Pumpkin Bread
Serves one jillion.
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups pumpkin purée
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- optional: 1/2 cup shredded coconut
1. Preheat oven to 360ºF.
2. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 cake pan. Or two bread loaf pans. Or two 12-muffin pans, or any other combination of pans adding up to a similar volume.
3. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl. Mix in eggs and pumpkin and beat until smooth.
4. Mix in dry ingredients and vanilla. Mix in coconut, if using.
5. Bake about 40 minutes if using 9 x 13 cake pan. Muffins will take 15-20 minutes. Bread will take longer, perhaps 50-60 minutes
Tags: childhood, halloween, pumpkin bread, pumpkins
