Pumpkin Bread

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 (16 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

1. In a mixing bowl, dream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Stir in pumpkin. Pour into two greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until bread tests done.

Applesauce

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1 T cinnamon
  
• 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar (to taste)
  
• up to 1/2 cup of white sugar (to taste)
• pinch of nutmeg
  
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat. Blend to desired consistency with a hand mixer.

Recently, I had a rare Thursday night off of work, and to celebrate, I had people over for fall-things and the Office. Well my tv broke and so we missed the first 5, crucial minutes of the show, but we did enjoy some darn good pumpkin bread. For serious, this stuff was bank. Nothing I love more than a good, moist loaf cake. And the applesauce? Easy as pie (far easier, actually. Pie is hard!)