October 2023 – The Solo Geographer

Happy Halloween! Happy Reformation Day! I’m Lutheran, so the latter greeting is obligatory.

I had a rough start to my holiday, but I won’t get into that mostly because I don’t want to talk about it. I was going to bake this pumpkin loaf LAST week, but, well, I had an allergic reaction to a new medication and I ended up getting a shot of Benadryl and sleeping for like 5 hours so that obviously didn’t happen.

But no one asked so I’ll just get into it. Great, now I wanna watch Breakin’. Also, I finally cleaned off my counter so now I have lots more space AND I can roll out pie dough!

First things first, some good ol’ sugar.

An ENTIRE cup of vegetable oil. Mmm, delicious, delicious oil. Don’t tell the anti-oil people.

Action Shot!

Prince REALLY wanted some of this pumpkin puree. Eisley isn’t a fan, but both dogs also really like it. They DID NOT get any of this, it’s mine, all mine!

Gotta get those leavening agents (also put in baking soda).

I apparently haven’t bought ground nutmeg in years. But my handy microplane comes into use when I need ground nutmeg. That reminds me, I completely forgot to make my yearly aged eggnog. I still have a couple months…

Raisin.

Mmm Pecans.

Now to mix the dry into the wet!

This batter looks fantastic.

Since the recipe yields 2 loaves, I decided to take one to work!

After baking for an hour and ten minutes, it was finally done. It was at a bit of a lower temp so that’s probably why it took so long. I wanted to sew after I pulled them out, and I realized that the dogs would ABOSLUTELY get into these, so I couldn’t leave them on the counter. Especially considering the raisins. So I actually took them downstairs to my sewing area, where the dogs and cats aren’t allowed. Modern problems require modern solutions.

I took a loaf to my parents for the taste test, as per tradition. Sadly, my dad was at the bakery so it was just me and my mom but WE LOVED IT.

Look at that color! Those raisins! Those nuts!

Blurry shot of me stuffing my face. Mom and I both raved about it. Mom even said it was the best of the recipes I’ve done so far! This little cookbook has some real gems. This is DEFINITELY going to be made again (how many times have I said that? Ha!). I also really like pumpkin so I’m not surprised. I’m not sure what I’ll do next week but I hope it’s just as delicious!

I hope you have a safe holiday, and that your coming November is amazing! I may or may not have some EPIC travel plans after Thanksgiving, and hopefully this blog will see some amazing posts.

Bye now!

You know, I never was into Spongebob (I was a bit too old when it came out, I think), but that song is a bop.

It’s another bread post, y’all! I made Pineapple Nut Loaf. I meant to bake this weeks ago, but, well, I had some issues. And those issues being I was super busy at work, I was dealing with some stuff, and then I got the flu. The last one was weird, I didn’t even have a fever or body aches and like the barest headache ever. Buuut it was enough to keep home home from work so I wouldn’t infect other people. But last night I finally baked this quick bread.

Mmmm store brand pineapple.

Brown sugar.

Now…. CREAM.

I was putting away the egg carton when a wild animal appeared! Eisley was looking for the butter, I think. I had to shoo her out of there before she knocked the eggs over!

Eggggggs. Then I had to alternately add flour and pineapple.

This recipe had 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 baking soda. I’m not up on my ratios, but that seemed a little strange but it didn’t hurt the bread at all.

I have no idea why I took this video but here it is.

I really like pineapple.

That’s some smooth looking batter.

Have another video.

And the surprise pièce de résistance, AN ENTIRE CUP OF PECANS.

There were so many nuts, people! It was nuts! Haha.

Ready to GO.

It’s starting to rise.

What, that’s not bread! While it was baking I made myself some soondubu jjigae, or Korean tofu soup.

The crown of the bread really kicked up!

While the bread cooled, I actually had an Zoom meeting, a graduate school open house. That’s right, your solo geographer is going to get MORE educated in geography! That should be an adventure. . . Anyway, after it was over I ran to my folks’ house so we could all try the bread together.

So many nuts! My parents both loved it! The pineapple was very understated, which was surprising. Pineapple has such a strong, almost acidic flavor (yay bromelain!) but this was super mellow. I’d say it’s more of a nut loaf than a pineapple loaf. It was really good! But I think my parents liked it more than me, and I think it’s because I’m not a huge nut person. I mean, I eat them regularly, but if given a choice between pineapple or nuts, I’ll choose pineapple every time. If I made this loaf for me in the future, I’d actually halve the nuts. I’d keep it just the way it is if I make it again for my parents.

Mmm nice.

Also, my friends, I found a cookbook by the same company that is ALL PIES. It actually has one of my favorite crust recipes. So in addition to blogging about bread, I’m absolutely going to blog about pies. Because pies are delicious and more content is always a plus.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I won’t make you wait as long for another post!

Month: October 2023

Pumpkin Bread 2: Electric Boogaloo

OOOOOOOOH Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?