Welcome my friend! Its time for another Tasty Tuesday. 

In light of the tragic news we woke up to yesterday in Las Vegas, I want to take a moment and extend my heartfelt condolences to every person impacted by the horrible episode. My heart breaks at this tragedy, and I am praying for comfort for those dear souls who suffered loss or injury. Our collective hearts grieve this together, and we hope and pray and trust that love will prevail, and bring peace and healing.

As we usher in another beautiful October, we are reminded with the steady cadence of seasons that the sun does rise and set all over the world on the best of times and the hardest of times. And we lift our shoulders and our chin up and lend a hand to those who need it, and we will move forward.

The colors of the leaves and the crisp snap in the air stirs our hearts to gathering close with friends and family. And food plays a lovely part in that, as we seem to naturally get a little bit hungrier and everything seems just a wee bit more comforting and delicious! So today, we are sharing a recipe that has been in my family over 30 years now, and she is a beauty! Pumpkin Cheese Bread!

Before we begin, I want to thank my very dear friend and extremely talented photographer, Maribeth Schmidt! Maribeth has a particular joy and interest in food photography, and she is so gifted in this area, she is fascinating to watch. Sometimes I stand there and marvel as she shifts things around to add more light here or bounce light off a board there. I’ve seen her on ladders, or draping backdrops… she is so comfortable with it, and she uses everything at her disposal! She is an artist! If you would like to see more of her incredible work, or for an inquiry, you can find her at Maribeth Schmidt Photography.

All right, let’s begin!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 8-oz bar cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 16 oz can pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup chopped nuts (we use walnuts, but you could choose what you like)

Preheat oven to 350*

Grease and flour 2  9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

In large bowl, combine sugar, softened cream cheese and margarine, mixing well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each one is added. Blend in pumpkin.

In separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir/whisk. Add the dry ingredients to your first bowl mixing just until moistened. Fold in nuts.

Pour into your greased and floured loaf pans.

Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Just a note, sometimes one will be done before the other one, so test both. Pull the one that is done out to cool, and continue baking the other one till the toothpick test comes out clean. When I made these the other day, it was probably a full 5 minutes or longer before the second one was done. Probably a combination of uneven amounts of batter in pan, and placement in oven. Both ended up absolutely delicious, but took different amounts of time to bake.

The loaves came out perfect, and are very large and quite heavy. You could easily keep one for yourself and give one away, or freeze one.

It slices up beautifully, moist, hearty and so so good!

Confession, sometimes I put some soft butter on mine, not necessary at all, but I’m just that kind of girl. I will go there!

We are hearty eaters in my house, and this loaf lasted the entire weekend because each slice is so substantial it will hold you for quite awhile! Don’t you love food like that? Like high octane fuel that works for you!

My husband loves walnuts and they take a starring role in this bread. Note you could easily stir in a cup (or two) of raisins or mini chocolate chips as well in the batter at the same time you add the walnuts.

You could also make a nice crispy topping on the loaf by adding an additional few tablespoons of chopped nuts and a few teaspoons of sugar tossed together, and then sprinkled on top of the batter just before baking.

But its very pretty even without any fancy toppings, and its absolutely delicious!

You know, there was a time when I thought recipes like this were a mystery that only a few gifted people would ever be successful at making them, but anyone can do this! It is simply following a recipe! You can do it! I promise!

This is one of our loveliest times of the year! So I encourage you to savor it! To get out there and breathe in the air of October, she is back, and she promises to be stunningly beautiful so lets not miss it! When the sun shines through, let it warm your face and marvel at the miracle of the seasons! When the clouds roll in, let the rustle of the leaves and the chill in the air stir your heart to reflective thoughts, dreams of the future and beautiful memories of seasons gone by. This ability to feel so deeply is a gift of humanity, and we can savor it like a rich hearty piece of pumpkin cheese bread! There is a poet in all of us!

I’ll be back Friday for another Fashion Friday! Have a great week, my friend! You are loved!

Love Always,

Amy

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”             ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Notebook, Oct 10, 1842