Moms Pumpkin Bread.

Cloudy, cool days are my favorite time to cook. Today because it was cloudy and cool and I want it to be fall and because it is almost fall I made my moms pumpkin bread. My mom is a fabulous cook, and an excellent baker. My mom is beautiful, and so funny. She doesn't cook so much now that all us kids are grown and moved out but she enjoys coming to my kitchen and helping me cook. I love when she cooks with me or sits and talks to me while I cook. She makes me laugh, or cry from laughing so hard, or sometimes cry just because... we are weird like that. My mom loves reality TV and The Young and The Restless. She thinks her legs are too skinny I tell her she's lucky, most people think their legs are too fat. She encourages me and tells me I'm beautiful and a great mother and that my house is lovely, I am 37 yrs old and I love to hear these things from my mom, it still means so much. Tell the people you love how much they mean to you, when someone is good at something tell them, it makes them feel good, it will make you feel good to make someone else feel good. My mom has made this bread our whole lives, it's really wonderful.  Try it...then give your mom a hug.

Pumpkin Bread
1 1/2 sticks of softened butter
2 2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cloves
2 heaping tsp cinnamon
*feel free to add some raisins and/or nuts as well, 2 of the things my kids will NOT eat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs, water, pumpkin and blend well. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cloves, slowly add to wet mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into 2 greased and floured  bread pans. Bake for about an our or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn onto a cooling rack.

When you add the water and pumpkin it will look like this, a little curdled. Don't freak out, I promise it will come together when you add the dry ingredients.