My brother recently moved back to Oakland, CA. He’d been there before, I’d been there, we overlapped a bit, and then he moved on, as people do. But now he’s back, and this is great because my brother is awesome (now that we past the tormenting phase of our relationship), and I have a free place to stay in the Bay Area. Woot! So I went up for my monthly visit – shout out to Southwest cheap and frequent flights between LAX and OAK – and was, if not shocked, then mildly appalled at his living quarters. After wading through the empty packing boxes, I arrived at the space that would have otherwise been labeled the kitchen, but in my brother’s case is “the empty room where more boxes go, and other random crap.”

During intensive questions regarding his current eating habits (this is where my inner Jewish mother came out) I learned he’s subsisting mostly on Soylent. 

It provides all your necessary nutrients without any of those pesky trappings like flavor, and general meal enjoyment. This made me very sad. And also very hungry. My very dear brother who lives like he’s already experience the zombie apocalypse informed me that he would not eat any fresh food I brought for him to eat later. No sandwich makings, no fresh fruity snacks, nothing. Quick thinking led me to Berkeley Bowl – or as I’ve renamed it “home to the worst grocery shoppers in the world.”

Nevertheless, I prevailed with some frozen dinners from Amys (pretty tasty, healthy, and most importantly brother-approved) and Helen’s Kitchen, and just because it’s October and I was feeling selfish, all the makings for pumpkin loaf. I used a recipe from Pinterest that I wasn’t wildly impressed with, but I think with a few minor changes could be a winner. I was pretty much going for easiest recipe with the fewest ingredients, since I also had to purchase the basics like loaf pans, measuring spoons, mixing bowls, and basically everything that every kitchen has. Except my brother’s. Well, now it has them. You get the gist. After two pumpkin loaves and a freezer full of semi-healthy options, my inner Jewish mother was satisfied. Until the next trip, obviously.

Mediocre-but-will-do-in-a-pinch Pumpkin Loaf:

as adapted from http://www.thefrugalgirls.com

• 2 cups pumpkin puree (the recipe called for Libby’s, but Berkeley Bowl was sorely lacking on all things pumpkin, so I made due with Pacific – soupier consistency, required a longer bake time)
• 3 cups sugar (this was WAY too much. I would cut it by a 1/3 in the future)
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 3 1/3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp salt (way too much – you’re fine with a tsp here)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon (I accidentally added 2, and it was so the right call)
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• I added an additional  1 tsp of ginger, and 1/2 tsp of cloves – it’s just not pumpkin bread if you don’t have that pumpkin pie flavor!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, either butter and flour or canola spray two loaf pans – 9×5.

Mix all wet ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. The original recipe calls for a large and a medium, I found I needed two large, but I like a little margin for error.

Combine the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring until combined, but don’t over mix because no one wants to eat tough pumpkin bread. Well, I would. No one else wants to.

Pour mixture evenly into two loaf pans, cook for 45-55 minutes. My cook time was closer to 65 minutes, but that was due to glass cookware and soupy pumpkin puree.