The Beauty of fall

  I love fall.  I love crisp fall mornings and the warm sun in the afternoon.  I love the cool nights-I keep the window open so that I have to snuggle under my quilts on my bed-my nose gets cold and the air is so fresh.  I feel closer to God at this time- or maybe more appreciative of what he has given me.  I have such a great husband-we don't have a perfect marriage and we certainly do have our share of arguments, but I love him with my whole heart and soul.  I have the 5 most wonderful children in the world.  We have a beautiful home.  We live in a country where I can put those beautiful children to bed at night with full bellies, in a comfortable  bed and a warm, dry roof over their heads.
Today G and I took K and B and our foster babies out to Colosantis. Our teens don't want to go out with us a lot  anymore so we pick our battles when to insist on them spending family time with us-today wasn't one of them.    Colosantis started as greenhouses but has evolved over the years to become a petting zoo,  restaurant, games room, small carnival rides.   It is hard because the kids want to do all they have but we limit them to the petting zoo and the free climber.  Today we splurged and had chicken dinner there.  And of course they are most known for their Apple Cider and fresh made donuts.  They make the donuts right in front of you and dip them in cinnamon sugar.  Anyone from this area knows that the best time to head to Colosantis is in the fall.  For us its about an hours drive across the county.     We came home around 5 so the sun was sitting low in the sky, the trees were an array of fall colours-red, orange, yellow.   G pulled over at one point so we could look at the clouds rolling over the river with just a hint of the sun peaking through leaving rays shining down.
     We came home and got everyone settled and G, K, B and I sat down to watch Ghostbusters.   Then the urge to bake hit me-Pumpkin-I love pumpkin and after a fall day Pumpkin bread sounded wonderful.   Unfortunately I have not had good luck with pumpkin bread.  The recipes I've found have been too light, too dry-just not fall enough for me.  I have played with a few recipes and this is what I have come up with and I find it is a nice, dark moist bread-with a lovely taste of fall!


Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups White sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

4 eggs

2 cups  solid-pack pumpkin

3/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup molasses

2/3 cup water

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin, molasses oil and water. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Pour into three greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans.\

Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy!