Let The Baking Begin!

I mentioned yesterday that I'd tell my story from last year about our neighbor, a raccoon, a koi pond, and cuckoo accusations. But, I don't have time for that tonight. So, instead, this...

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Measure and combine in food storage bag the dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder; ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg & cloves. Shake bag.

Measure and combine in large mixing bowl; sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and pureed pumpkin. Spoon mix.

In large bowl with wet ingredients, add dry ingredients from storage bag. Mix well.

Lightly grease baking dish. Pour pumpkin mixture in dish. Place in pre-heated oven. Set timer for 50 minutes. Done when inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I know, this is your basic, everyday pumpkin bread recipe that everyone makes around this time of year. My son prefers this recipe - nothing too complicated.

Tomorrow, I'm making it my favorite version... adding chopped walnuts, semi-sweet chocolate chips & chopped dates. Yum.

Let Me Start By Saying...

... I'm no expert. No, really. There is nothing that I could honestly say that I'm an expert at. I'm okay with that; there are plenty of brilliant minds, accomplished, and creative people out there to fill that bill: Expert   insert expertise here  . Nope, not me. I'm more of a, "Let's see what I can come up with in a pinch."

One thing I will admit is that I am a tryer. (That's not a word, me.) Oh, an even better way of putting it... I'm a failure! A big one. For example: Once attempted to make a layered German chocolate cake from scratch for my husband's birthday; it ended up a tort... a cement tort.

One time, I tried to make delicious bbq ribs... Oh. My. God! I got nowhere near anything consumable, Instructions were, "First, boil ribs." What I didn't do was have a pot large enough to accommodate the segments of ribs I had plans of turning into bbq feast main event. Everything was super tight in the, what I thought was a more than adequate, pot. That pot was filled with water to the brim, ribs where tightly packed in it and lid placed to seal in all the goodness. Thing is, there was no such goodness to be had... the moment I lifted that lid, barbecue over before it began.

The smell in the house was horrible, the burnt-stuck-to-the-bottom-of-the-pot segment of ribs... they never had a chance. I had never seen or smelled anything like it. How does stuff burn while boiling!? I seemed to have nailed that. I was worried I'd never be able to get the stench out of the house. My kids were positive that would never be possible. Way to go with the encouragement, children o' mine.

See, I try. But boy can I fail.