want to get everyone you know to love you?

then make this oh-so-easy, undeniably irresistible pumpkin bread, courtesy of my dear friend, emilie. this stuff gets you through final exams, hospital visits, late-night rehearsals, traffic jams, etc. i’m sure at the next U.N. general assembly meeting, with the threat of impending nuclear catastrophe on the horizon, if they pass a loaf of this around, everyone will skip out of the conference room to play global hopscotch and tiddlywinks and forget about those silly warheads.

and...sliceoffalittlepiecewhenyouwakeupinthemorningandheatitupandputalittledabofbutteronitohmygodohmygodohmygod.

emilie’s delicious pumpkin bread

ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup canned pumpkin (Trader Joe’s makes really good organic pumpkin. and there’s also good old Libby’s, the kind your grandma uses at thanksgiving to make pie, which you can find in the baking needs aisle in the supermarket)
1/2 cup olive oil (sounds weird. but just trust me)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves (1/2 teaspoon of each, but i am always a little generous with the spices for this one)
optional:
1/2 cup walnuts; 2-3 handfuls of fresh cranberries; 2 granny smith apples, peeled and diced (or anything else equally delicious you can think of)

method
preheat the oven to 350.
sift together dry ingredients (except spices). mix wet ingredients and the spices. add to dry mix. make sure you don’t overmix the batter!
fold in the extra goodies if you would like to use them.

pour into a bread pan that has been well buttered. bake for 50-60 minutes. remove from pan, cool on rack, and prepare for people to start asking you for this recipe.