The art with food

This week I have been talking about unusual mediums in art.  Food is another way to express your creative juices.  From cooking a rack of ribs, throwing together a pot of soups, or baking bread, just following the foundation of a recipe is just the beginning to create your very own masterpiece.  A good cook tries different ideas and may take several attempts before perfection is found. 

Pumpkin bread I made this week created the idea for this blog.  I had many different recipes to make pumpkin bread, some had nuts in it, one used real pumpkin, and another used pumpkin puree, and I had one that used apples and another that used raisins. So, I put together what I like to taste and come up with my own creation.  I was wonderful, but there are some modifications I will do next time, like add vanilla and leave out the golden raisins. 

HERE IS THE BASE FOR THE BREAD IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY FOR YOURSELF

EXTRAS I ADDED: one large bag of chopped walnuts, ½ cup of golden raisins, and ½ cup of apple sauce (I use applesauce to help the moisture)

Ingredients

            1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

            4 eggs

            1 cup vegetable oil

            2/3 cup water

            3 cups white sugar

            3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

            2 teaspoons baking soda

            1 1/2 teaspoons salt

            1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

            1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

            1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

            1/4 teaspoon ground ginger                 

 Directions

1.              Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.

2.              In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

3.              Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Creative foods are fun to prepare too. Food for kids, there are many different ways to help you kids enjoy eating healthy foods. Kids like to spend time in the kitchen with their parents, and the kitchen is a fun place to learn life skills while spending time with family.  I hope we can all remember baking cookies and decorating them. Making a cake and required reading and measurements, while licking the bowl and adding letters to spell a message.