The Common Room

FOURTH FLOOR FOODIES PRESENTS ...

From the Kitchen of RA Sheila Lynch, a Fourth Floor Foodie

This recipe was a rare treat in my house. It was mostly made in the fall season, or whenever my sister begged enough to motivate my mom. And it went pretty fast.

We had a rule that if the end of the loaf was crooked, you HAD to eat some more, just to even it out. So of course we always cut on an angle. I think I used to heat my piece up for a few seconds in the microwave and spread a little margarine on it -- but I guess you could say that my palate has since then matured, because now I just eat the whole loaf plain. It's so good, and guaranteed to be moist. I know a few people who like to add chocolate chips to the recipe, either in addition to or in place of the raisins.

Go ahead and try it, but don't tell anyone else in my family. I'll be disowned.

This recipe was a rare treat in my house. It was mostly made in the fall season, or whenever my sister begged enough to motivate my mom. And it went pretty fast. We had a rule that if the end of the loaf was crooked, you HAD to eat some more, just to even it out. So of course we always cut on an angle. I think I used to heat my piece up for a few seconds in the microwave and spread a little margarine on it- but I guess you could say that my palate has since then matured, because now I just eat the whole loaf plain. It's so good, and guaranteed to be moist. I know a few people who like to add chocolate chips to the recipe, either in addition to or in place of the raisins. Go ahead and try it, but don't tell anyone else in my family. I'll be disowned.

Mama Lynch's Pumpkin Bread

1 cup oil
2 eggs
2 cups canned pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix!)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup raisins (though, more than a cup never hurt a person) cinnamon-sugar mixture

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda; mix well.
Add raisins; stir and set aside. In a separate (and big) bowl, combine pumpkin, oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar; mix well.
Stir dry ingredients into moist ingredients; mix well.
Pour into prepared* loaf pans.
Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of the loaves, then bake for 1hr and 15min.
This makes 2 or 3 loaves, depending on the size of your loaf pans. You could also make 24 muffins.

* Prepared loaf pans: Grease the pans with butter, margarine or cooking spray. Scoop a small amount of flour into each pan and coat all sides and bottom of pans. Dump out the excess flour. Use paper baking cups for muffins.

"Fourth Floor Foodies Present . . ." will appear every Saturday in The Common Room.