I have been out of the country for the past ten days on a cruise with my family. It was great to get out of my routine and relax a bit. The cruise itself was beautiful; we went to Aruba, Curacao, through the Panama Canal, and Costa Rica. Prior to the cruise, all I heard about was the food: how wonderful it is, (the term exquisite was even used) and how the average cruiser gains between 7-14 pounds! The food was absolutely the most rich stuff I have ever tasted. There is lots of added butter, salt, and sugar in everything (and I mean everything) where it simply is not needed. And there was so much of it! One could eat with hopeless abandon, there was such a surplus of foods it became too much. It made me start to think about a lot of things: the idea of balance in both daily life and in the act of eating, the idea of permission ie: needing to go on a cruise to eat with such hopeless abandon, trying to fill oneself up physically and emotionally, and the idea of waste, obesity, over (or under) eating, and surplus. The cruise, while beautiful, was a confirmation for my need to live a balanced life. An excess, wether it is food, booze, lesiure, work, or stress, really throws me off and this was a great experience showing me the other end of an unbalanced spectrum. I found myself truly missing a simple curry or spelt bread cinnamon toast. However, I did miss the snow storms in Portland and got some much needed sun!

Last night I saw my friend Kristen and her husband John for the first time in about 3 years. You know when you reconnect with people in your life that you may not see all the time or even talk to all the time but when you get together with them it was like yesterday you last saw them? I love that. We went to Dewey’s Pizza, a local pizza chain in Cincinnati which deserves mention. If you ever find yourself in Cincinnati, forget the Skyline chili or a local sausage link, go straight to Dewey’s and get a Green Lantern Pizza (pesto on red sauce, artichokes, goat cheese, and mushrooms). Great friends, great conversation, and a great pizza, it was a recipe for a wonderful night!

This past fall (and into the winter) I have been making lots of pumpkin bread. This is the best recipe I have ever tasted and I hope you enjoy it as well! It makes three loaves so it is perfect for giving away or freezing or, as in my case, eating all of it (with the help of friends of course:). While staying in Cincinnati, I made my dad and his wife Kim a huge batch. Kim loves the moistness that pumpkin brings to baked goods, as do I!

Now I leave you with a recipe that has been tried and true for years I found a recipe online that was exactly the same as the one I have, so here is a link to it as well. Enjoy!

The Best Ever Pumpkin Bread
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 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

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7×3 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Best New Year’s wishes to you all!