Slow Christmas

The spouse weighs in with a family recipe:

Close up, so you can see the naughty

My recipe for pumpkin bread is pretty simple, when you think about it. But there’s a lot more in there than flour, pumpkin, and spices.

It all started with Bill and Evelyn Pease. Bill and Evelyn were from Cottage Grove, Minnesota, but like a lot of Winter Texans, they dreamt of fleeing the harsh winters. So they would come down to Brownsville every November to spend the winter in a trailer park. One year, they met my grandparents at the Charro Days parade, and they soon became a part of our family. I was really little at the time, maybe 3 or 4, but I can still remember going over to their mobile home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Peases were aptly named. You never heard an unkind word from them. Maybe because they lived nearly half the year with only what they could fit into a mobile home, they weren’t much for material things. At Christmas, they would give out presents, but they never spent a lot of money. A wrapped present that looked like it might be a fancy toy, when unwrapped, would turn out to be a box of Whoppers. This led to no little amusement over the years. One time, their friend Mr. Mungía saw a delicate rectangular box with his name on it, and he was sure it was a watch. When he opened it, it was a Butterfinger bar. It was their way, and we loved them for it.

The original recipe card

Our strongest memory of them was our meals together. Evelyn’s baked goods were always the star of the show. Her pumpkin bread was everyone’s favorite. It was pitch perfect every time – soft, sweet, and delicious. After all these years, it’s still what Christmas tastes like to me. Before she and Bill passed away, she gave my mom the recipe. Mom still has it on an old index card, in Evelyn’s perfect schoolteacher handwriting. When Christmas comes around, we all crave it, and we share stories about our friends from Minnesota.

Here’s Mrs. Pease’s recipe. I hope it’ll become a tradition in your family too!

PUMPKIN BREAD

2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup oil
1/3 cup water
3 1/2 cup flour
3 cups sugar
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, and water. Mix well, add sugar and other ingredients. Pour into two greased and floured 9×5 loaf tins. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a loaf comes out clean (30-50 minutes).

Note: This is a very rich recipe, almost cake-like. The spouse may consider this sacrilege, but you have plenty of moisture to play with if you want to substitute turbinado sugar, whole wheat flour, or real pumpkin, before you start risking dryness. That said, I’d try it as it was originally intended once, and enjoy the goofy grin on your face.