I'm not really a domestic goddess, which is why I feel like I need to celebrate the days when I have a kitchen Goddess moment. And who knows, these pumpkin bread loaves might not be all that great. I'm hoping they are all done in the middle and didn't catch any floating dog hair in the mix.
What is it about dog hair? It just floats around in the air. No matter how much I clean, the dog leaves her hair all over the place. I"ll never get used to it.
As long as we are off on a tangent, I may as well take this time to inform you that I flunked out of my 9th grade home-ec class. The teacher had no hope that I would ever manage to stir things together and bake them successfully. Eh, what did she know?
The reason I was baking so darn many loaves of pumpkin bread is because my husband wants to give Christmas gifts to a few of his co-workers. They never cease to think of him. He counted on his hand the people he would like to give something to, then he counted on his other hand, then he continued to count off wonderful people. He looked at me and said, "Can you help me put 12 gift bags together?" Knowing how that goes, I figured he will think of at least two more before he's done. It might be nice to give a small gift bag to our neighbors, add two more.
I went to the dollar store and bought gift bags, boxes of candy, photo frames, and some adorable snowman figurines. But the bags are still more empty space than anything else. We decided baking pumpkin bread mini-loaves would finish off the gift bags nicely. And a couple of hot chocolate packets and a mint or two.
Today was the big baking day to complete these gift bags. In my tiny chaotic kitchen with too many little helping hands, I managed to accomplish what sounded impossible. I baked! I didn't wear a dress and pearls; I'm not June Cleaver. It was a comfy jammie day in the kitchen.
Something I just learned.... When it says to whisk the wet ingredients together (eggs, water, oil) that does not mean to use your cool electric whisk that you've never had a chance to try out before. No.... because that is much too whisky fast! And eggs will go flying all over you, the counter, cupboards, and anything in the way. And, when you call your neighbors to borrow more eggs because your very last eggs went flying in all directions, they will come over and laugh at you. None of that is on the box! All I'm saying is... I highly recommend using a hand whisk.
I'm out of eggs now. I had a package of 18, and two were breakfast. At least 3 or 4 coated my kitchen after the electric whisk incident, and two had huge cracks in them when I opened the carton so they went straight to the trash.
Despite the challenges, I managed to bake up a bunch of yummy pumpkin bread! Some of the loaves have chocolate chips in the middle. I thought of adding them about half-way through the baking day. It's anyone's guess as to which loaves have chocolate chip goodness inside. I've since mixed them up and forgot.
I wrapped them all in plastic wrap after they cooled and they are now ready for the gift bags! The plastic wrap was another trying experience because Libby was loudly insisting on being held, so I wrapped them one handed. A couple of them have a little baby finger poke. Gives them character! My gigantic roll of saran wrap doesn't have a cutting edge. The package says it is hassle-free with this new plastic zipper thing. That thing fell off and never worked from the start. I use a knife to slice off the plastic along the edge of the cardboard box, avoiding little helping hands that try to get in my way.
What a day! I do not envy anyone who bakes for a living! Especially if they have a couple of little overzealous helpers!
