Uber-Delicious Pumpkin Nut Loaf

'Tis the season for fall favorites, I guess... this is the second pumpkin recipe in the very short life of this blog. But when you get a jones for a flavor, you gotta stick with it until it's done. I guess the pumpkin passion sprung from a cookbook my mom got me in October, called, appropriately, the New Pumpkin Cookbook. It's not really new, though -- it was published in 1981 by the group that puts on the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. It's a beautifully laid out cookbook, printed in burnt orange and chocolate brown, with lovely accompanying line drawings of pumpkins and pies and people. And, of course, it's filled with great recipes using pumpkin.

I made bourbon pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and made some pumpkin muffins a few weeks ago, but the pumpkin nut loaf I made the other day was the most delicious and, therefore, blog-worthy. It's fragrant, moist, sweet, spicy, and very pumpkiny. The woman who submitted the recipe to the cookbook is Eunice, "the wife of Francis Collings of Petaluma, two times World Champion Pumpkin Grower," so I guess she should know from cooking pumpkins. I followed the recipe to the letter except I put some whole wheat flour in there, and I also added a cup of dried cranberries, because they always lend a nice spark to spice loaves.

Eunice's Pumpkin Nut Loaf

1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup water
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup cooked mashed or canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans are good)
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins (optional)

• Sift together the dry ingredients into a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, mix together the oil, water, eggs, and pumpkin. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet, folding in until well blended. Add the nuts and dried fruit. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour & 10 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.