Around here, the holidays remind us of our loved ones who we lost to colon cancer. Below, Community Outreach and Survivor Support Manager Lindy Reinhardt shares her momma’s famous pumpkin bread recipe. “My mother, Gaye Susan Reinhardt, was always a wonderful cook! Each night, my family was blessed to enjoy one of a diversity of gourmet meals prepared in our home by Mom. Even the simplest recipes always tasted better when they were made by Momma. I have always enjoyed baking and cooking, but I enjoyed it most when I was in the kitchen with my mother.
There are hundreds of recipes that we enjoyed over the years. But, pumpkin bread has always been one of the favorite recipes of my family. Ever since I can remember, I loved to help my Momma bake this treat to share with family and friends. In fact, after years of the tradition, pumpkin bread became famous and people looked forward to enjoying it!
On many nights, Momma and I used to stay up way past anyone else–busy baking the treasured bread. We would get so involved in our conversations that we would often forget how many cups of flour we had added–the recipe calls for 3 1/3 cups and you have to add it a cup at a time. Over the years, we learned to expect this, so we adopted a “tally system”. As we added each cup, I would mark a tally mark on a post-it note to ensure we made each batch just as we were supposed to. After all, we had dozens of loaves to make and could not spare a single batch during our baking marathons.
We mostly baked this cherished bread around Thanksgiving and gave it to our friends and family. Each loaf was carefully wrapped in plastic wrap and decorated with festive ribbon and stickers, and then delivered to our family and friends as a token of our many thanks for them being special people in our lives. I fondly remember the baking, preparing, and delivering of all the pumpkin bread each year. I still love the bread, but it just never seems to taste as good as when it was baked by Momma or along with her in the kitchen.
Mom taught me many things in life. I am thankful for them all. But, I am especially thankful for the memories together baking pumpkin bread. I believe we will one day bake Momma’s famous pumpkin bread together in Heaven. I cannot wait to be reunited with my favorite cook of all time, and the most important woman that will ever be in my life.
I invite you to try baking this amazing pumpkin bread. Just keep in mind you may need to implement the “tally system” if you are making it with loved ones. 🙂
Gaye’s Famous Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Mix:
1 Cup salad oil
4 eggs (beaten)
2/3 cup water
2 cups pumpkin
Then add the following ingredients:
2 tsp. soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ginger
3 cups sugar
Then blend in 3 1/3 cups flour, 1 cup at a time. Lightly grease 3 loaf pans and bake at 350° for 1 hour.
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