Pumpkin Bread

In the past eleven years, I have moved between four states. This month we'll be on the move again. We're leaving the desert and moving back to our old stomping grounds where my husband and I met in college.

With each move, there are of course boxes to pack but also a pantry to empty. This time the majority of the kitchen has been packed up already so it's time to get creative. What can I make with one large mixing bowl, one wooden spatula, one baking dish, and a can of pumpkin puree? Pumpkin bread! Six years ago, I was moving for graduate school. I had a similar minimalist kitchen set-up and made pumpkin pie in the middle of summer. I called up my girl friend Erin, "Hey, I'm stress-baking. Please come enjoy pumpkin pie with me." Since then, she has made a few of her own inter-state moves and it has become a tradition (joke) to make pumpkin pie or bread with moving. Here's to another chapter in our lives!

 Ingredients:

• 4 extra large eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (it's what was left in the container...cleaning out the pantry remember?)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F. Thoroughly combine eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin in large mixing bowl using wooden spatula. If you have a hand mixer, even better but ours is packed so wooden spoon it is. Normally I would stir together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding them to my wet ingredients but I do not have another bowl at the moment so in the dry ingredients went, separately into the wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly with wooden spoon until the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until an inserted toothpick (or chopstick since I don't know where our toothpicks are) in the middle comes out clean. Let cool before cutting.