Ode to Pumpkin Bread

One of the things I love about this time of year is the innate hunger that is put in me for a good loaf of pumpkin bread. There is just something about the making, baking, and eating of it. I feel a certain sense of joy in stirring the thick orange mush that miraculously bakes into a wonderful, fluffy final product. This year I decided to manipulate my recipe around so that it was lower fat and more healthy (although one HAS to add chocolate chips). It was so delicious that I just decided that I had to share the recipe and pictures.

This recipe yielded 3 loaves but I decided to make 2 loaves, 1 pan of normal sized muffins, and 1 pan of mini muffins. What resulted was a beautiful cornucopia of bread sizes. I have never made mini muffins before but as I was making and consuming them, I decided that someone in France invented the mini-muffin pan. Surely that is what the book, "French women don't get fat" is about. Honestly I have not read the book although I have heard it's a good read. Anyhow, my hypothesis is that they must eat mini-muffins (only one or two a day) and that is how they stay trim. However, this is not the case with the Trenda's- no we are full sized muffin type people or -gasp- 2 piece pumpkin bread eating people. The mini muffins came in very handy for Ellie Bug. She quite enjoyed their size yet still ate a couple at each sitting.
So if you are interested in having the joy of pumpkin chocolate chip bread in your life, here is the recipe with a helpful hint on perfectly formed bread and my attempt at a very artistic look at the final product:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 cups whole wheat flour (I use Wheat Montana brand- bakes really nicely)
  
• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• a handful or so of semi-sweet chocolate chips (however many you want)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease, flour, and **wax paper the bottom of three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, applesauce water and sugars until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and edges are pulling away from the sides of the pan.

**From my cake decorating class I learned that a great way to keep baked goods from sticking on the bottom of pans is to cut a piece of wax paper the size of the bottom of your pan(s). You then spray your non-stick cooking spray all over the inside of the pan and then place the piece of wax paper only along the bottom. After baking, this is a completely fool-proof way to prevent the bottom of breads and cakes from sticking and being ugly. LOVE THIS! Simply take out the bread and un-peel the wax paper from the loaves.

Happy pumpkin bread making!

Rocky Top

There are few places that I have gone where college football and school spirit are an obsession. Maybe this could be because I went to Wheaton College where I attended 1 football game and 4 basketball games. While there, they changed the mascot from the crusader to the thunder when I was a junior. Granted, the crusader is not a very wise choice in mascots because of all the horrible things the crusaders did "in the name of Christ", but thunder...really? I digress...

It is obvious that the official color of Tennessee is bright orange. On game day down there everyone and their dog is wearing orange and honestly, how many people can really pull off wearing orange? Not many. Staying with the theme, Ellie received her first orange apparel from her Auntie Hilary and Grammy Wendy. I am certain that when she wears the bright orange, fluffy coat here in Colorado, everyone will think that we love orange and that the large "T" on the left breast surely stands for "Trenda". Yes there will be those who know that it is a Tennessee Volunteer orange coat, but the majority will be left to wonder.

It was so good to see our dear family members that we don't see as often as we would like. Nana and Diddy took very good care of us and housed us for a week. We didn't get to spend near enough time with Grammy Wendy and all the family from Wisconsin and Kansas but enjoyed seeing everyone immensely.

Hilary and Tyson got married on a Tennessee football game day. The place where they got married was extraordinarily beautiful, Dara's Garden, an outdoor setting with beautiful leaves changing as the backdrop and a crispness to the air that made you know that you were alive. Hilary was such a beautiful bride and what a blessing it was to witness them committing their lives to one another.

It seems that with every wedding I attend, I appreciate marriage more. That also probably has something to do with being married for a longer period of time, but in a culture that is so quick to break vows and give up when things get hard it is so important to re-evaluate my own heart and figure out whether my actions in my own marriage speak to the utmost importance of this commitment. It is so easy to get comfortable and take each other for granted, especially when children enter the picture but weddings like this remind me just how wonderful it is to be committed to one person for a lifetime.

Miss Tennessee?

We are down here in Tennessee and Graham's sister, Hilary is getting married tomorrow. I have learned some new, completely random things after being down here for a week now.

• Who knew that The Grateful Dead has an entire station on Sirius satellite radio dedicated to their music? Great if you are a fan, not so great if you're not...

• My expectations were shattered about my preconceptions on tofu when I tried a bite of P.F. Chang's vegetarian lettuce wraps. However, after trying a bite of another mango tofu dish, my preconceptions about tofu taste (and texture especially) were 100% true! Thanks, Hilary for expanding my world...

• Who knew that I would enjoy playing Guitar Hero and Singstar on the PS2? Graham is pretty ecstatic that I am able to stand beside him in front of the tv, moving my fingers in video-game-like motions. I like these video games...there I said it.

• Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream comes in 1/2 gallon containers. We are used to getting it at Russel Stovers in Montrose at the same price for a quart. This ice cream is my weakness.

• And last but surely not least is a sign that I saw while driving through Knoxville yesterday. I didn't have a camera handy but the words stand etched in my memory. It was a church sign proclaiming, "Thanksgiving dinner with Miss Tennessee, November 17". That'll get 'em into church.

There will be pictures coming soon of our trip!

Like Father, Like Daughter

I found this picture yesterday in our fire safe and had to post it with a current picture of Ellie. Graham is 1 year old in the picture and so we are figuring he was about the same age as Ellie. We are amazed at the resemblance and Graham was excited to see it because everyone has been saying lately how much she looks like me! It is funny how she will look like me for a time and then all-of-a-sudden Graham will appear!

Baby Monkey

We had a really fun weekend with Meema and Papa! Meema has been wanting more photos because she has been scrapbooking like crazy! The costume that you see Ellie in is from Old Navy and when my mom and I were going in search of the "perfect costume" we found some really cute ones there. The choice was between a ladybug and a monkey. The monkey won out because my mom has already done ladybug costume pages for my niece, Hannah....so for the sake of scrapbooking, we went with the monkey! Please also note that there was extra padding inside the costume around the belly area...;)

Ellie was a really good sport as we went through a sizable corn maze pictured below.

A few more pictures from the corn maze.

The pumpkin patch was at the Methodist church downtown. Ellie found some red berries on the ground that kept her busy. I guess monkeys like berries too.

A box, 3 peppers and some stones...

Ellie likes to play with her toys. But when a special box comes into the house between two couches and is just the size for a 27 pound girl, there is nothing quite like it! The challenge of getting her body up and over the edge and then positioning herself just so to create a play area unlike any other produces squeals of laughter. Who knew a cardboard box could be so much fun?

The other day we were feeling a little restless inside the house and decided to venture outside to see what adventure would await us there. After being put on the grass, Ellie immediately saw the brightly colored peppers still hanging on to one of our plants, in spite of the nightly freezing temperatures...who knew peppers were so hearty? Crawling over and picking three- one of each color- she had found a treasure! Peppers are fun to roll around in your hands and put the stems/pointy tips/and middle of the peppers into your mouth. The whole time she was playing, I just decided to watch what she would do.
Eventually she decided to crawl past the dying tomato plants, over the rocks and behind the grill. Being wedged between the grill and the house, she began to place stones, leaves and her peppers in different shapes around her. It was almost like she was creating a sculpture and she was thoroughly enjoying it!

I wonder how many times I have passed those stones, leaves, and peppers and never gave them a passing thought. There is something so attractive to me about simplicity. I wonder how, in this culture, we can breed simplicity in our lives. Maybe the peppers and stones are a start.

The Start of Something...

I am venturing into this world of blogging, uncertain of what may come of it, but excited at just the prospect of sharing what is happening inside my world. Mostly I am doing this because I have been inspired by friends who catch me up on their lives, have made me laugh, cry, and have challenged me to a more authentic existence and they have done it through this crazy medium called "the blog".

Here in Colorado the leaves are changing and falling to the ground in preparation for colder days. Even as they do, I begin to think about how my life has changed since becoming a mom and how I feel as though the Lord is drawing our family into a new season.



A few of my recent thoughts on becoming a mom:

• Going to the grocery store (or anywhere in public for that matter) never used to be an event that took a few hours to plan, much too long to execute, and at least an hour to recover from.

• On taking a shower: After first bringing Ellie home, it was all about nursing Ellie and watching her sleep....anywhere we would lay her- no problem taking a shower, except for the fact that one has to nurse previous to getting under the hot water. Eventually, it became about sitting her somewhere, yes, even just outside the shower and giving her toys...that also worked well. However, now that she can crawl and cruise, a normal week-day shower includes an Ellie Bug that stands up, pulls the shower curtain open, attempts and succeeds at throwing toys into the shower, squealing and laughing as loud as she can and then vocalizing her dissatisfaction in the fact that the toy she wants to play with is out of reach by mom's wet foot. Meanwhile, as I attempt to continue on in my former shower haven, the water has a way of soaking the hair of the little one on the outside of the tub who still happens to want that toy back just to drop it in again.
• On cleaning cloth diapers: Previous to birthing a child, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself figuring out more creative ways to get foreign substances off of a cloth diaper before putting it into the washer...we will just leave it at that.

• On unconditional love: Becoming a parent is quite an adventure and one of the most amazing things so far is the incredible love that has sprung to life as this baby came to be. I am constantly in awe of the sheer miraculous beauty that she is, even as we can see her sinful nature arise. This new love that is birthed feels like an enlarging of the heart and another small, imperfect glimpse of the perfect love that our Father has for us. If I can feel this love for another human being who is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, I can only imagine how deep God's love for us is who knit together our bones and flesh and knows who we are at the very core of ourselves.

• Change is inevitable. Throughout my life I have been resistant to change, sometimes excited, but mostly resistant and fearful about it. Ellie is now 15 months old and boy has she changed in a year! She has gone from a helpless little tadpole, to a social, babbling girl on the move. A year from now- heck, 4 months from now- she is going to be different, and I love that! I love who she is right now and what she is doing, but I am so excited to see how she grows and changes. As Graham loves to say, "Carpe Diem"- Seize the day! Can we be fully present and living in the moment because we know that life can and does change in the blink of an eye? What a challenge as we go about the seeming normalcy of our days- all the while- living expectantly for the change that the Lord must bring about in our lives to continue on in the process of holistic maturity!