Manic Monday - Nuts

I am so excited that Morgen – our Manic Monday leader – has started a Manic Monday Blog!! (You know, because he wasn’t busy enough already!) I hope you will all check out his new Manic Monday Blog here.

This week’s Manic Monday word is Nuts. I thought of a couple of things for this one, so I am going to post both of them. Some of you know that I have a problem at times controlling my cussing. Before I had kids, I never really thought about it. However, that all changed very quickly. I tend to yell at people when I am driving, and one day, a 2-year-old Eli came home after a trip out with mommy, and asked his dad, “What’s a fuckwad?”

After that, I tried really hard to replace the “F” word and the “S” word in my vocabulary. One of the terms I tried was, “Oh, nuts!” Dude! I’m sorry, but that’s just not the same. I also tried “Oh, fudge!” That one seems to have stuck with Eric. I just can’t do it. Sometimes you just need to use the “F” word. Now, I just say the letter in front of the kids, such as “I can’t believe that effing jerk cut me off!” That seems to work okay. For now.

The other thing that came to mind with nuts is all of the yummy fall recipes it’s time to make. Oh, I love fall baking – the pumpkin, the cinnamon, the cloves, the nuts. YUM! Tomorrow, I am making a new recipe for pumpkin loaf. I haven’t tried it before, but it sounds really good. Here it is:

Ingredients
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup margarine
1 1/4 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup cinnamon chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

2. Put softened cheese, butter, and sugar in mixing bowl. Cream together well. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Mix in pumpkin.

3. In another bowl combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, cinnamon chips and walnuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour all at once over batter. Stir just enough to moisten. Turn into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60-70 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove to rack to finish cooling.