“Elementary, my dear Watson…” No, seriously… this is literally elementary. The recipe is written inside of a coloring-book-type turkey drawing:

The recipe that I am about to share (or I guess I already did above) is one that you should keep for a long, long time. You might want to take visual note (or pretend visual note considering the holes that are punched got cropped out) of the ultra-sophisticated 3 ring binder sheet sleeve, straight out of 1992, that I have chosen to protect this treasure. If you run down to the basement and look through any of those Lisa Frank trapper keepers that you have (you know you kept one or two), you probably have one already.

Easy, schmeezy, “dump all dry ingredients together, then wet ingredients, then mix together” kind of assemblage required. I guarantee you could not put together an IKEA pencil sharpener faster than this (and I think those are one of the few items that come assembled?).

And, mind you…we are hours away from Thanksgiving. These breads are perfect to bring to the table. Notwithstanding the perfect blend of spices, the moist cake texture and the fact that you can scrub up on your coloring skills while you wait for them to bake… this recipes makes two. TWO. It’s almost like this “make one, get one free” concept. Honestly, these are quite delicious and should certainly be made as a host gift for Thanksgiving … especially if you are hosting. In that case, you hide both in your upstairs bedroom closet (with a bottle of blue moon perhaps), sneak out just when the day becomes too much, and go take yourself a hosting break.

FYI – This is one of those dreadful make-it-ahead recipes (extra two bonus points!) – it tastes better the next day.  Give it a little time to settle in.

And if you really want to take a slice the next morning, toss it under the broiler until nice and toasty, and then coat with a little salted butter… you might actually hear my applause from here.

stalking.

ingredients.

• 3 cups flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• splish splash of vanilla extra (the real stuff)

directions.

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift (or mix because who has time with cakes this easy) dry ingredients together.
3. Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.
4. Mix wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients.
5. Pour into two separate greased loaf pans.
6. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Let cool.  *I tend to take them out when they are warm, then wrap in saran wrap (to keep them from drying out).
8. Go stash in your closet.