Pumpkin Bread

Today was a sunny beautiful day in Vermont - sunny and 60 degrees in March...can't ask for a better day!  The husband and the boy are in NY working hard on the deer camp they are building, which means a very productive day at home for me :) 

Last year my New Year's resolution was to try a new recipe at least once a week.  While I didn't accomplish this goal for the entire year, I did succeed for the most part and ended up finding several yummy recipes to add to my collection.  So, I thought I would try to continue that goal for this year as well.  This week I tried a recipe for pumpkin bread pudding.  I have never made bread pudding before, so my son's reaction was "It has a weird texture"....needless to say I don't think he was a big fan of it.  He's good though and pretty much never says he doesn't like something (for fear of offending me I'm sure), and while that's sweet of him sometimes I wish he'd be a little more honest!  As for me, I didn't love the recipe because it had chocolate chips in it and I felt they overpowered the dish and the pumpkin flavor didn't really come through.  Oh well...it was worth a try! 

I had pumpkin puree left over so today while I had the house to myself I decided to use it up and make some pumpkin bread.  This will be good a snack for my son to take to school this week and I will also freeze some for the boys to take to NY with them some weekend in the future.  This is an easy recipe to throw together - no mixer required and it's super quick.  Very flavorful and moist...how can you go wrong??

Pumpkin Bread

2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 3 mini loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.  Combine in a large bowl the pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, water and sugar.  In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.  Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and stir gently until blended.  Pour into loaf pans.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tester comes out clean.