Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

This yummy recipe is perfect for the season.  The combination of these wonderful flavors will delight your taste buds!  The recipe makes 2 loaves.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I substituted 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp each of nutmeg & ground cloves)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 16 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce ( this is an old recipe - the cans are now 14 oz!)
1 16 oz can pumpkin (I only had a 29 oz can -- you can't imagine the higher mathematics that ensued trying to figure out how much I needed -- just get the right size can, please)
2/3 cup oil
4 eggs
3/4 cup chopped pecans

The recipe I had copied from who-knows-where contained no mixing directions, so I just mixed it all together in whatever order I grabbed the ingredients.  I don't think it matters for a quick bread recipe like this one.

Anywho, turn into 2 greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for about 65 minutes.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out of pans and cool on racks.

Looking Up

Each year about this time, we are bound to get some beautifully sunny days.  Blue skies with some puffy white clouds -- if there wasn't still tons of snow on the ground, I would love it even more.  On a day like today, when my outdoor thermometer reads about 50 (a heat wave for sure!) I like to grab my camera and look up.  There's a reason my neighborhood is called Birchwood.

Then I turn a bit to my left and look up again.

Now I look down and find a cranberry bush with some new growth, but still  hanging on to last season's shriveled berries.

These are sure signs that spring will indeed arrive sometime soon.

The Current Status of the Currants

The weather has been so beautiful that I decided to take advantage of the sun and get some pictures of the currants. They are coming along very nicely.


The berries are nice and red from all the warmth and sunshine. Now, a little rain will make them plenty juicy.

The high bush cranberries are quite a way behind the currants in ripeness. They are best when picked after the first frost. I hope that's far into the future.


I'll finish with a picture of the cutest furry face you will ever see ... XENA! She has an appointment at the Beauty Parlor later this week. She may feel the need to blog after the trauma of a bath and a haircut.


Speaking of baths, I bought this print yesterday from the featured seller, lulunjay, on etsy's front page. It looks like Xena was the model for this painting! The likeness is amazing.

Color on a Snowy Day

Yesterday was one of the snowiest days we've had in a while. We ended up with about 10" of fresh, soft fluffy snow. While I'm not really happy about it, I have to admit that it's very beautiful. I ventured out to take a picture of some frozen cranberries in my yard.

In the midst of the colorlessness of an Alaskan winter, I struggle to find some bright spots. (see this post). I didn't have to go very far. Our property is full of high bush cranberries in summer. These red goodies that have escaped the birds' attacks, remain in small bunches throughout the winter, growing just a bit paler in color.

They offer just what I'm looking for on a very white day.