Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

For thanksgiving morning I wanted to try something different so I found a recipe for pumpkin cranberry bread. This was a nice change to our normal pumpkin bread. The texture was moist and not too dense.




Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Recipe adapted from epicurious.com

1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup picked-over fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 350° F. and butter a loaf pan, 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 3/4 inches.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs, and oil. Sift in flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and spices and stir just until batter is smooth. Stir in cranberries and spoon batter into loaf pan, spreading evenly.

Bake bread in middle of oven 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean, and cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Turn bread out onto rack and cool completely. Bread may be made 4 days ahead and chilled, covered.

Friday fragments - Post Holiday Stuff

I'm joining up with Mrs. 4444 for another edition of fragments.



Can it really be called Black Friday if it starts on Thursday?

For all the Walmart employees thinking of striking today because you have to work...think about it. You work for Walmart...of course you have to work. You always have to work busy holiday seasons. That's what Walmart does.

Can you tell that I'm not going to do the crazy shopping today? Although by the afternoon most place have calmed down and it can be compared to a busy Saturday.

We planned on seeing Skyfall last night but the theater was sold out. So we are going today.

Good thing about that was Glee ran late because of football. If we hadn't been here we would have missed it because we didn't have the DVR set to go that late.

Today is leftover turkey day. We have lots of turkey left and I made extra mashed potatoes yesterday so we've got plenty to sustain ourselves.

Turkey Brine Recipe

Do you brine your turkey? I had never heard of it until years ago watching Alton Brown on Good Eats. We've done it ever since and it always is a moist bird.




This is the bird after it brined for 12 hours.

We tried a new recipe this year. What I liked about it was the we had everything for it already. That's the best kind of recipe.

Turkey Brine
Recipe courtesy food.com

2 gallons water
1 cup kosher salt
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 T black peppercorns
3-4 T chopped garlic
2T Worcestershire sauce


Warm the water enough so all the salt and sugar dissolves. Add in the rest of the ingredients. Cool this mixture completely.

Rinse your turkey after it has thawed. Place your turkey in some kind of device that will hold the brine and be able to keep cool for 12-24 hours. We put ours in a big trash bag with the brine, then put that bag in a big ice chest. Then we put 2-3 bags of ice in the ice chest.

The next day take your turkey out of the brine. Completely rinse the bird and pat it dry. Then prepare the bird however you normally prepare it. This year we cooked ours with a butter soaked cheese cloth on top.



This was one moist bird.


Doesn't it look beautiful.

Hodgepodge - Happy Thanksgiving!

Another week of Hodgepodge with Joyce. Happy Thanksgiving!

1. Turkey-love it or leave it? White meat or dark? What's your favorite thing to make using leftover turkey?
I like white meat on turkey day and the dark meat in turkey noodle soup.

2. Gotta burn off all those carbs the day after a holiday feast so which would you rather do-run a 10K or climb a mountain?
This is a loaded question. I choose none of the above and maybe I'll work up the energy to WATCH someone else doing either of those activities. :)

3. Do you feel like social networking has made your relationships better or worse? Explain.
I think in many cases it is better. I have several co-workers as Facebook friends and I find out all sorts of stuff about them that I never would normally. They are pretty funny people!

4. How do you find and express gratitude for the hard things in your life?
Understand that the hard things in life make the good things seem that much sweeter.

5. In the US, the day after Thanksgiving has been dubbed 'Black Friday'. Is most of your holiday shopping done live and in person, or is it done more through the magic of the Internet? How do you feel about stores opening at midnight Thanksgiving night? Will you be out amongst the masses on Friday?
I avoid the stores like a plague. I've never understood the logic behind waiting in line to save some money. I never seem to want to buy anything that is on sale, plus we've never spent huge amounts of money on holidays. So the day has always seemed a waste. I spend the day usually decorating for Christmas. And I LOVE internet shopping.

6. Speaking of the color black-which black item in your wardrobe would you say is your favorite?
I love black clothes. I gravitate to black tops/sweaters every time I'm in the store. I'm wearing a black shirt as I type this. But my favorite would have to be a super soft black sweater I bought years ago.

7. What do you appreciate about your life today?
That overall we are healthy.

8. Insert your own random thought here.
Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be on both Wednesday and Thursday nights. How many people want to go have dinner with Snoopy serving toast, jelly beans, popcorn and pretzels?

Post-it Tuesday

Benjamin Moore Aura paint - Product Review

I'm a Bzzagent and was asked to join a campaign about Benjamin Moore's Aura paint. I had never heard of this paint before I started so I learned about it before accepting. Benjamin Moore has the Green Promise with Eco friendly products. It claims to have low odor and low VOCs. So I signed up and got a coupon for a free gallon of paint and several coupons. They sent a big color sample book but it comes in over 3,000 colors so I'm sure I could find something.

After much discussion I decided to paint my utility room. We built our house 19 years ago and have never changed its color. Let me tell you the room looked dingy and dirty. It was quite an embarrassment.


That's the wall behind where my trash can sits. Yucky! I went to the local store that carried Benjamin Moore paints and got several samples. I settled on Melted Ice Cream for the color. The paint store people were super nice; I had never been to that store. I was asked where I got the coupon and I explained the program. Come to find out that the paint costs $63.50 a gallon. That's twice what I normally pay for paint. Sure glad I got that for free.

Since the room was so small I decided to paint by myself. Normally I tape and paint the edges and Dan does the roller. So it took me twice as long as normal to paint the room. Plus we had to move the washer and dryer around a couple of times.

Five hours later I had a fully painted room that I am no longer ashamed of.



Yes, that's the same wall. Minus the dirt!

So here's my product review. There were plenty of colors to choose from. It was easy to use. I had closed the door so I could paint so I was in a low ventilated space and I wasn't knocked over by paint fumes. It dried really fast and true to the color sample. I was able to do just one coat even over my nasty walls. The paint has a built in primer. The only negative was the cost.

Would I buy it if I didn't have a coupon? I don't know. I would really think about the cost benefit compared to the normal paint + primer I get from a big box store.

Disclaimer: I did receive a coupon for a free gallon of paint from bzzagent in exchange for my opinion, as you know I'm more than free with my opinions!

Friday Fragments - It's Almost the Weekend!

Joining up with Mrs. 4444 for the weekly Friday Fragment segment.





Last night at church we had a comedian named Michael Jr. perform. He was really funny and we had 2,500 people show up for the free show. I ushered and I knew within 5 minutes that it was going to be insane. We set up all the extra chairs and then sent people to one of the side theaters. He did two 45 minute sets. Most people came back after intermission. Best part was that over 50 people raised their hands to accept Jesus. I counted 16 in my sections. Totally amazed at that.

Youtube video

I got my oil changed this week. I had to wait extra long. The dealership recently built a new building and moved down the street. It has a cafe and this:

Yes that is a wall of Chihuly glass. Not what I expect at the Honda place. It also had free wifi.

My job finally got reclassified after 10 months of paperwork. I didn't get the exact title that I wanted but I did get a higher one than I have now. Of course it really doesn't matter since we can call ourselves whatever we want and I already got the salary increase. But it is the principal of the matter.

I keep breaking my nails halfway down and then they rip. I've gone such pretty nails to a hand of stubs. I'm not happy about this and hope that it is not a sign of the upcoming winter. I keep them full of lotion.

Super proud of Whitney. She is the social chair for Relay for Life at OCU. Last night they had a rally and she was live tweeting during it. I love her enthusiasm and commitment.