Weekly Recipe - Babz's "Tweeked" Pumpkin Bread Re-Tweeked By Me

Babz & Emmanuelle having tea

Last Friday, Emmanuelle & I went to the home of my friend, Babz, for tea. Babz has mad skills with a hula hoop. Check her out (she is the one in white)! I always have a lot of fun hanging out with Babyz. We are both part of the Nine Arts group booth at the Canmore Mountain Market. We hadn't been there for more than a few minutes before she had made us tea, cut us some homemade pumpkin bread and lead us out onto her deck into the still gorgeous fall weather. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon. The bread was sooooooooo good, I had to have the recipe, and true to her more than generous nature, Babz handed it over. And when I say handed it over, I don't mean she orally told it to me while I wrote it down, this girl (like me) has actual RECIPE CARDS! And not just any recipe cards, but illustrated recipe cards from a delightful artist on Etsy, named Susie Ghahremani, also know as boygirlparty. You can see Babz's recipe below. I like most that she named it Babz's Tweeked Pumpkin Bread. I believe this was the third version from the original.

Seriously, is there anything cuter than a bunny with a frying pan...

...well maybe squirrels with chef hats, another with an apron, & another with an egg beater!

 Babz & Tiffany's Tweeked Pumpkin Bread

Just to be me, I went and tweeked the recipe even more. My recipe is as follows:

Babz & Tiffany's Tweeked Pumpkin Bread 
Makes 2 Loaves
~ 1 large can of pumpkin
~ 4 eggs
~ 1/2 cup of oil
~ 2 cups of natural raw sugar (Babz uses 3!!)
~ 1 1/2 cups of unbleached white flour
~ 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
~ 2 1/4 tsp baking soda
~ 2 tsp cinnamon
~ 1 tsp nutmeg
~ 1 tsp ground cloves
~ 1 tsp ginger

1. Grease pans. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix wet ingredients well in one bowl.
3. Mix dry ingredients well in another bowl.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients, mix until just combined. If you over mix you will have tough bread.
5. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes. I live in the mountains where nothing ever seems to bake in the time a recipe says. Check the bread by inserting a toothpick or piece of spaghetti into the middle of the loaf. If it comes out clean, It is done.

This is a quick and easy recipe that results in two wonderful loves of bread, which is enough for us to both eat and share. We took one of our loaves, along with a dish of butter, to share with other at a community potluck dinner. It was gobbled up pretty quickly, We also shared some bread with our friends, Dea & Millie, at our home, along with tea. And while we were eating it, a beautiful double rainbow stretched across the sky. What a wonderful couple of days we had, while giving and receiving this awesome bread.

Ahhhh, friends + pumpkin bread = rainbows (I am such a geek...)

Do you have a bread recipe you love and would be willing to share? If you make this recipe, and tweek it, please let me know how it was...

Back to School (Or Actually FIRST DAY EVER at School)

Quin went to her preschool for the first time today! It is a day she has been looking forward to since last winter. It must be so difficult when you are young and your parents keep telling you that you can do something "someday". And then closer to the time they start saying "soon". But with very little concept of time, it must be confusing... anyway, the day FINALLY arrived. We were sorry to miss the corn husk potluck where all the families got together and the trial day of class because we were away for my grandfather's funeral. Quin is an independent little girl so she basically had no reservations about just jumping right in today. I, on the other hand, wondered about what I have gotten myself into since we now go from getting up at 9 AM, to getting up at 7 AM two days a week. I know, I know, I have been sleeping in long enough. Andre made the morning better by making crepes for breakfast. Yummy! He was also able to come with us to school, thanks to being able to attend a meeting via phone while Quin was in class. What we would we all do without laptops and cell phones? It meant so much to her to have all of us there to drop her off and to pick her up.


Quin is attending a French preschool in another town. We are bummed that we don't have this option in our town, but since Andre is French, and since I know what a gift it is to know another language, since I have been struggling as an adult to try to learn French, it was important to us. We don't do a lot of driving in our daily lives, and walking to school would be amazing, but this is the way it goes. Emmanuelle and I have two hours to kill while Q is at school AND THE LIBRARY IS NOT EVEN OPEN!! It opens at 11AM! And you thought I slept in! I guess we will be spending time visiting friends, going to the thrift shop, and maybe getting crafty with some fellow crafty divas. It will work itself out but I am bummed about no library. The good news is that although Q is not fluent in French, she had a great first day, understood her teacher, and can't wait to go back! She is a sponge waiting to soak it all up.


Preschoolers need very few school supplies. A shirt for making art, which we had thanks to the Playground Pals Program in our neighborhood this summer; a change of clothes; two big glue sticks; indoor shoes that stay at school; a lunch bag and water bottle for snack; a scrapbook; a backpack; and a 3 ring binder. Makes me want to go to school, sounds like a lot of eating, and art making, and playing going on. I spiffed up Q's three ring binder with some sparkly, decorative paper and permanent ink and letter stamps. It doesn't take much to make a little one feel special. And Daddy pointed out how no one else will have a binder like hers. I hope she is happy being an individual for the rest of her life...


I had thought to send Q to school in pants but got nostalgic for my childhood and decided that the first day of school is a great day to wear a special dress. She wore one of my favorites of her handmade dresses. This sweet owl pinafore is from Humble Bea on Etsy. If you like it, here is the link. She is a great Etsy seller with over a thousand sales and 100% positive feedback. Super talented, too! (Oh geez, I just went to check out her shop and now I feel like shopping, so many cute things...).


Coincidentally, Emmanuelle also had a first today. Not to be out done by her sis, she rolled over, and laid on her tummy and held her head up like a champ while Quin proudly cheered her on. What a proud mommy I am!!

A Fellow Etsy Friend - Hilary Hitchcock

I originally posted about Hilary Hitchcock on my Polaroid blog. Since then, I have become the proud owner of two of Hilary's images...

This is my favorite Polaroid Transfer image by Hilary, titled Sunroom. I am happy to own it in an 8x10" print which is matted and framed in black metal.




Hanging underneath it is this image, "After You Were Mine". They both hang in my studio, so I can see them often.

Here is what Hilary has to say about herself:

"I’ve been taking photos for several years. I especially like documenting things that are rarely seen or disappearing. The design sensibility of days gone by tends to make me swoon, as do rural Midwestern landscapes."

Check out her shop to see more of her work!