Old fashioned in every way (except the healthier olive oil choice), you won’t be disappointed with this yummy no-fail recipe for the best pumpkin bread you’ve ever eaten. Tip: If you use fresh nutmeg, cut the recommended amount in half.
Grandma’s Pumpkin Bread
4 cups sugar
1 cup virgin olive oil
1 large can pumpkin
Stir the above three ingredients together
Sift together and add:
5 cups flour
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
Chopped nuts, if desired
Mix well. Pour into greased bread pans.
3 large loaf pans: Bake at 350? for 1 hour 15 min
5 small loaf pans: Bake at 350? for approximately 1 hour
Serve warm and top with whipped cream.
Loaves will keep well if placed in plastic bags and stored in the refrigerator.
The heroine has tiny feet.
The ending feels rushed, as though the author only had so many pages in which to resolve everything.
Another thing that irritates me and always has is the scene changing to another viewpoint and location just when the story gets exciting. As a writer, I understand it’s a pacing and tension ploy to keep the reader engaged and vary the emotional intensity, but….I’ve been known on many occasions to simply skip the scene in which the tension drops, flipping forward to the character I want to read about. Sometimes I go back for the other viewpoint, sometimes not.
We tend to think of log cabins as symbols of early American life, and indeed they embodied the inventive and hardy spirits of those who blazed new trails and settled on the frontier. The first log cabin in the Unites States was most likely built along the Delaware River in New Sweden by Scandinavian immigrants. The Swedes, Germans, Russians had been making cabins for years. Swedish settlers built log cabins when they came to Delaware in 1638. Other colonists followed their example.
Building with logs didn’t require much skill or special tools. A sharp axe, an adz and a strong back did the job, and the new lodging went up quickly. Most could last a couple hundred years if built well, and the inhabitants were warm in winter and cool in summer.
Roofs were made of available material, though cedar was prized because the wood split straight and resisted rot. The owner nailed the shingles to a beam and board framework. More logs could also be used as roofing, provided they were split lengthwise and fitted close on the frame. The gaps could be filled the same as the walls. A thatched roof needed a lot of upkeep, had to be replaced every year and often harbored insects, small animals and snakes. Many used sod placed flat over planks, and after a few years the earth compacted and became waterproof. Later in the 1800s, builders used corrugated tin. Can you imagine the sound of a rainstorm or hail?
Log cabins were not all one room dwellings with lofts, as we tend to imagine or like we see on Little House on the Prairie reruns. Many had several rooms and even second stories. Fireplaces and chimneys were made of stones and chinked with mud or clay. Sometimes the chimney was made of sticks or wood.
The floor was hard-packed clay or dirt. Since living in a cabin made its occupants vulnerable to attack, there were usually no windows. Besides glass was expensive and difficult to transport. Most people hung wooden shutters over oiled paper. In summer, the inventive settlers covered the openings with cheesecloth to allow air in and keep bugs out.
In the early 1880s Godey’s Ladies Book was the only reading material available for women. Louis Godey considered himself an authority on proper reading for women, on fashion and even household hints. Godey’s magazine also contained recipes and some fiction.
The supplement was so popular that after a year, Curtis’s women’s magazine became an independent publication with Curtis’s wife Louisa Knapp Curtis as editor for the first six years. She dropped the last three words in the title in 1886 and the magazine became The Ladies Home Journal.
The couple wanted to attract a million subscribers. Some people just set their sites too low, you know? They went about achieving their goal by asking well known authors of the day to write articles and short stories. Writers like Louisa May Alcott and Mark Twain attracted subscribers, and circulation continued to climb even when the rate was raised from fifty cents a year to a dollar in 1889.
By 1903 The Ladies Home Journal surpassed the million subscriber goal, regardless. Good Housekeeping has been on the market since 1885 and Vogue since 1893, though none of the other publications held the same broad appeal as The Ladies Home Journal.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by and left me a comment! It’s Spring break, so I was busy all day – caught the early matinee for How To Train Your Dragon (I loved it) and had lunch out again, played Monopoly and put a jigsaw puzzle together.
To claim your autographed book, send your address to me at: SaintJohn@aol.com
Mountain Rose by Cheryl St.John
As authors, one of the questions we hear most frequently is, “How can I get published?” The answer is as simple or as complex as the author has time to share. Basically, write the best possible book you can and submit it to the perfect editor. Is it as easy as it sounds? Definitely not. Writing a book is hard work and getting it published is no guarantee.
Writing is an art. Art takes training, sacrifice and dedication. Of course writing involves talent, but much of writing is learnable, and the learnable parts require study and self-evaluation. To write well enough to sell in today’s tough market, you must learn the craft and come up with a product an editor won’t be able to refuse.
You are not looking for a writing group. You are looking for an organization designed for advocacy and information. Most have membership fees on national or local levels, and you must consider this an investment in your career. Dues are tax deductible. Membership provides you with market updates, editor and agent information, submission guidelines, online mailing lists, conference information, writers groups and critique groups, just to name a few benefits.
Inspiration:
The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication by John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of base-ball and a woodcut that shows a field somewhat similar to the modern game, though in a triangular rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead of ground-level bases. English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey.
The oldest piece of paper to bear the word croquet with a description of the modern game is the set of rules registered in November 1856 with the Stationers’ Company in London.
