Monday, October 18, 2010

Fall Festival Festivities with Freddie

Did I ever tell you how I love alliteration?

Other things I love: fall festivals. Especially those revolving around food. Here are a few of my favorite shots from this year's Roots N' Blues N' BBQ festival (which gave my my horrendous cold, btw) and the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival. If the shots get your tummy to grumblin' I've also included a recipe for pumpkin bread. We're one and a half loaves into the three I made Friday in my house. And go for the from-an-actual-pumpkin version. You'll be surprised how ridiculously easy it is!

Civil Liberties
I'll take two bags, please.
Momma Whitney
Corndog Candid
Smokin' Suds
Chips N' Kids
Three-for-one
His name is Gourdon

Anti-Establishment Pumpkin Bread
(named in honor of Larry)

Ingredients
1 pie pumpkin (they're small, only about 8" or so in diameter)
3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup water
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions
Wash pumpkin in warm water thoroughly. Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds and stringy pulp. An ice cream scoop works great for this. Cut pumpkin down into wedges roughly 3" x 3" (or small enough to fit in microwave safe casserole dish). Add pumpkin wedges into casserole dish along with 1 to 1 1/2 inches of water, cover and microwave for 15-20 minutes or until pumpkin is spoon-tender all the way through. Let pumpkin cool a bit, then remove rinds. If pumpkin is cooked all the way, rinds should peel off easily by hand or with the help of a butter knife. Toss pumpkin meat into food processor (or blender) and alternate running processor and stirring contents until pumpkin's consistency is a smooth puree.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease two 9x5" loaf pans. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, mix together 2 cups of the pumpkin puree*, eggs, water and oil. Slowly incorporate wet mixture into dry mixture. Add in pecans. Divide batter evenly between two loaf pans. Bake for 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let loaves cool for 15 minutes, then remove from pans and let cool completely on racks. Wrap tightly in saran wrap to store. Loaves can be frozen if you can imagine not finishing them both in the near future.

*I got three cups of pumpkin puree out of my one pumpkin. You can either save the extra puree for another recipe or adjust the recipe to utilize all 3 cups and yield an extra loaf of bread.

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