Food for an Economic Meltdown

Between the Presidential debates, the start of the quarter and the melt down of our current banking/credit system - it's been a busy few weeks. I apologize for the delay in boot week, we'll be back to that attempt at regularly scheduled programming in a bit. I've got to say, I'm glad to be in grad school, I'm glad to not have had any money to lose in the stock market - or the housing market. Yeah, my IRA is looking a little sad, but I'm not even sure I ever thought retirement was a viable option anyway. After realizing that Social Security will be kaput by the time I'm of retirement age, and not trusting the stock market to be the magical "invisible hand" that solves all my future money problems, I just sort of accepted that L & I will work until we die. Maybe it's time to take a radical step backwards and start popping out babies - then we can revolve around and mooch off of our offspring until they get sick of us and kick us onto the next.

This crash is going to change things, but not enough. We're going to try to rehabilitate our clunking capitalist vision because we're too scared to try something different. Assuming the frozen credit markets loosen up in the next week or so, we'll recover to some level resembling stability (even a recessed/depressed stability). As long as we can keep people in jobs, we'll be ok. I just hop the voters in this country realize that it's the big-deficit, big-Defense, big-government Republican administrations that have gotten us into this mess.

Enough of the rants, onto the food...

This is a tasty, comforting, healthy recipe that is perfect for the crisp fall days we've been having around here. This recipe uses 1/3 whole wheat and 2/3 all purpose flour. If you use white whole wheat, you could easily do 1/2 of each. The sugar is much lover than other Pumpkin breads (I saw one recipe with the same proportions and 3 cups of sugar), and the bananas replace the oil and add some extra sweetness. The spice combination is a little different than your standard breads, but really good. This could easily be converted to a vegan recipe.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar (packed)
2-4 mashed ripe bananas or 3/4 c. apple sauce (i prefer the bananas)
1/4 c. olive oil
2 eggs, 2 egg whites
2 c. pumpkin puree
2 c. all-purpose white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2.5 tsp cinnamon
3/4-1 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp coriander
(can also add 1-2 tsp ginger)
3/4 tsp salt (can be reduced to 1/4 tsp)
optional: 1 c. raisins, or dark chocolate chips, or nuts

1. In a large bowl beat together sugar, oil, pumpkin and eggs
2. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Mix will with a wire whisk. Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just moistened (do this by hand(. Stir in any additions (raisins, nuts, chocolate).
3. Pour batter into 2, 9x5 greased loaf pans. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 350 F for 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.