The Saga of the 37 Pumpkins, Installment No. 10- Nuts About Spices Pumpkin Bread

The vine weaving club was having a meeting. Since leaving the patch, vines had been in very short supply, but who needs vines when you can have darned good conversation? The group had no problem turning into more of a story-weaving club.

 "Oh my SQUASH! I can't believe she is dead!"
"Me neither. Cucurbita did it, did you know?"

The pumpkin who'd begun the conversation was shocked.

"What? How!?"
"I'm not sure. She must be in cahoots with the keepers or something."

The women were silent for a moment. "You ever notice that after somebody dies, there's this crazy smell in the air?"

"No, what do you mean?"
"It's just, almost every time that somebody gets taken away, there's this kind of sweet, spiced smell. It's really nice. I like to think that it has something to do with the afterlife."
"It does," Cucurbita strode into the circle, "It has everything to do with the afterlife."
"Get away from me!" a thin, middle-aged pumpkin shrieked and leapt behind one of her friends, "I know what you are!"
"What am I?" Cucurbita asked, her voice soft, naive-sounding. She looked up, then looked back at the woman with a limp face. "I think you're going to find out the truth very soon."

And then there were 26...

For the complete Saga archives, click here.

Nuts About Spices Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Blend wet ingredients in a small bowl and pour into the well in the dry ingredients. Then incorporate until dry ingredients are moistened.

Pour into a greased and floured 9x5" loaf pan.

Bake for 70 minutes or until done.

Enjoy!