Welcome to my new blog home!! I’m very excited about it, and hope you enjoy the new digs. I’m still re-orienting a bunch of the photos and getting all my recipes integrated into recipage, so please be patient with me while I get this done in the evenings (in between gift wrapping, holiday get-togethers, and life). Meanwhile, I want to do a big, huge thank you to Julie Grice of Savvy Blog Services who did all the heavy lifting. I told Julie the type of look I was seeking to move to, and she gave me a bunch of template options, answered all my questions quickly, and was patient with me during the ” oh sorry, I changed my mind about that (fill in the blank), can we do (fill in the blank) instead?” stage. She was truly a joy to work with, and you’ll see her link in the footer. I’ll be adding some new features over the next couple of months relating to eating more consciously and healthy without losing your mind, but more about that later.
Let’s talk about what we’ve got going for you now!
- Under the new fancy slider, in the RECENT RECIPES section, I’ll feature different types of dishes, in addition to my latest recipes, based on the season. Right now we’re featuring ‘Gifts From the Kitchen’ and ‘Comfort Food’. Later this week, I’ll be adding Easy Entertaining dishes to the lineup as the party season continues to heat up and we look for ways to simplify our lives.
- If you want to find a recipe for say, Swiss chard, you can either go to the right column under ARTICLES and select tags and look for Swiss chard, or go the list of tabs across the top of the home page and select ‘Recipes!’. The ‘Recipes’ tab will be integrated into ‘Recipes!’ over the next month and go away.
- The bottom section of each page features DIY (Do-It-Yourself) recipes for things such as making your own cheese, preserves, pantry items, or bread. To find more DIY recipes, just go to ‘tags’ are ‘Recipes!’ as explained above.
I hope you enjoy it! To celebrate this new beginning, I baked a cake for Julie. OK, not really a cake since I’ve been craving pumpkin bread and am getting pawlenty of desserts in my diet as it is lately, but it could easily become a cake if you were to top it with cream cheese frosting instead of the simple sugar crust I chose.
This is the old-fashioned pumpkin bread I grew up with, loaded with spices, with some apple sauce and Apple Brandy added for a nicely moist cake – bread.
Boozy Pumpkin Bread
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur)
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (or make your own)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup apple sauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 – 3 tablespoons Calvados or any Apple Brandy (according to taste)
- 1 tablespoon turbinado or raw sugar (to add crunch to the crust)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a loaf pan.
Whisk together the flour, coconut palm sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. It’s important to get an even distribution of the chemical leaveners through the flour, so don’t skip this step.
Melt the coconut oil in the microwave. It just takes about 15 seconds with mine. Using a large balloon whisk or a standing mixer, combine the pumpkin, coconut oil, eggs, apple sauce, vanilla extract and Apple Brandy together until all of the ingredients are well mixed.
Add the dry ingredients by folding them in with a spatula until completely incorporated into the wet ingredients. The batter will be thick.
Pour into the buttered loaf pan and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.
Bake on the center rack for one hour, or until a testing probe can be inserted in the middle and come out clean.
Allow to cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes before removing. This bread can be served in the pan, or removed for slicing. If you refrigerate before cutting, you may need to warm it up before it will easily come out of the pan. To remove, I insert a knife all around the edges and turn it upside down over my hand. It’s really that easy.
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Congrats, Susan, the new design looks lovely and fresh! I hope you feel happy in your new “home.”
gluttonforlife recently posted..Off the Menu
Thanks Laura! I’m learning my way around loading things to it, but that will pass soon, and I’m really happy with my new digs!
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Love your new site, it’s very easy to read and must say professional. The bread sounds terrific, looks beautiful too! I also love pumpkin bread with the delicious warm spices. This is too good not to make. Think I’ll add it to my gift boxes.
apuginthekitchen recently posted..Banana Nut Bread With Spiced Streusel Topping-Day 6 Of 7 Days of Holiday Cookies
Thanks Suzanne!! I’m excited about it all, and I think you’d love the pumpkin bread. It took me a few tries to get it where I wanted it, and I think you’ll like it! I’ve got a gift box going out today for my FOOD52 Secret Santa thing
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Your secret santa recipient will love it! I got mine yesterday from Antonia James, what a beautiful box she sent, including a wild yeast levain which I am so excited to work with.
apuginthekitchen recently posted..Banana Nut Bread With Spiced Streusel Topping-Day 6 Of 7 Days of Holiday Cookies
What a fantastic idea of AJ’s!! You scored!!
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Congratulations, Susan – your blog looks terrific!
I admit I almost didn’t notice it at first as I was focusing on the boozy pumpkin bread. You had me at boozy.
Thanks Lynda! And yes, we’ve eaten half of one loaf already this morning…ay-yai-yai
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Your new site looks lovely! I love the addition of applesauce and your use of coconut oil in this–must be super moist! I recently bought my first jar of coconut oil and it’s going fast!
Erika recently posted..Pancake Fridays: Vegan Cookies ‘n Cream Pancakes
I am a huge fan of coconut oil and have been using Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil. I like it so much I’m planning my first product give-away on it.
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Oooh Susan. Love the new look and that gigantic slider on your recipe page is absolutely beautiful
Great Job. Love the header too and boozy bread sounds like a great way to celebrate 
Enjoy your new look ! Want to try this new bread soon.
Sunithi recently posted..Immune Boosting Creamy Cauliflower Soup Spiked With Coconut Oil & Cayenne #DairyFree
Thanks so much Sunithi! It’s been so much fun to work on with Julie.
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Love the new header as well as the recipe!
lizthechef recently posted..Tuscan Kale Gratin For Two
Thanks Liz!!
Your new blog looks fantastic
Love this delicious bread!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Choc Chip Uru recently posted..Guest Post #4: Chestnut Bread
Thanks so much CCU!!
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Oh I love your new digs! A great new look! And what a way to celebrate – a little booze and bread! Love this recipe!
mjskit recently posted..Coconut Rice with Pickled Peppers
Thanks so much MJ! It will be a lot of fun to spread out in this new space Julie has created for me
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Like your new “look”. I seriously need to reorganize my posts to make it easier for me and my readers to find needed information. Thanks for the incentive.
Adding booze to the pumpkin bread, love the idea.
Norma Chang recently posted:
http://gardentowok.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/a-salad-and-a-butternut-squash/
Thanks Norma! It’s a challenge, isn’t it, to organize all the information and make it accessible. I was becoming harder and harder for me and am hoping this will make it easier for everyone (and me).
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Your page looks beautiful Susan and I’m so glad you got what you wanted!!I love coconut oil in everything nowadays and love that you’ve used it here.Of course the booze takes it to another level altogether
Soni recently posted..Indian Spiced Tuna Balls (Tuna Chop) #SundaySupper
I knew you’d like the coconut oil add, Soni! I’m a recent convert and am using it in everything these days too
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
You had me at boozy! Awesome recipe lovely. A great mix. I am starting to gather Christmas food ideas so this is great.
Cass @foodmyfriend recently posted..The Spider Man Cake
Thanks Cass! I hope you like it if you try it! I’m collecting holiday food ideas too
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
I LOVE, LOVE your new look!! Congratulations! And this bread sounds fabulous…anything with a little brandy added has to be great.
Brandie (@ Home Cooking Memories) recently posted..Salsa Baked Cheese #SundaySupper
Thanks so much Brandie! I’m still playing with a few things, but am really very happy with it
And this bread is definitely made for you!!
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
I like the clean look of the re-design. You already had an excellent recipe index searchable several different ways, I’m impressed that you are still thinking of ways to improve that page. In the pumpkin bread, I like the nice touches of the coconut sugar (it’s so flavorful) and the brandy– only a couple of tablespoons, hardly boozy at all.
Mary @ Fit and Fed recently posted..Chocolate Porter Cake
Why thank you Mary, I really appreciate that. I’m someone who’s continually rearranging the furniture, so it’s to be expected I’ll be doing that here too. I’m switching so many of my recipes now to coconut oil and coconut sugar (and trying my best to reduce my overall sugar), and live the flavor it adds. My next project is coconut flour, which is appears isn’t even really a flour. Oh, and if you want to use a little more of that brandy, feel free
The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Boozy Pumpkin Bread Celebration
Congrats on the new site. Looks good
What a beautiful new look to your site, Susan! I love it, very elegant and accessible. Congratulations! And I can’t resist pumpkin bread…yours sounds very enticing. I like the coconut sugar and coconut oil in it. I’ve started using more coconut oil and need to seek out the sugar now.
Hannah recently posted..Molasses Spice Cookies
You said the magic word…boozy!! I love this recipe, it is very unique…..AND sounds wonderful! I have never had apple brandy, I bet it is delicious in this bread:-) Hugs, Terra
I made this pumpkin bread recipe, delicious, everybody loved it, thanks for sharing it.
Best or everything to you in the New Year!
lapadia recently posted..Freshly Pressed: Friday Faves
PS-your site automatically posted I recently posted a particular recipe…that is not mine. btw.
lapadia recently posted..Freshly Pressed: Friday Faves
I love pumpkin bread. You add in some booze and I am in for the long haul! Love it!