Today marks a very special season. No, not Autumn… though as I write it is September 22. Now is also the time when all things pumpkin arrive. A Facebook friend of mine posted a picture of pumpkin baloney. Ewwww…

No thanks.

However, I do have an awesome recipe for Cranberry Pumpkin Bread. Along with it comes a bit of advice for those of us moving into the “What was I doing?” phase of life. Thankfully, the burning questions that haunt me no longer involve life changing decisions. I picked my handsome man about a hundred years ago. We didn’t decide to have kids. We just had them, one right after another until my kind neighbor, JT asked me one day. “Don’t y’all know what causes that?” By the age of twenty five all that was settled.

We still wonder sometimes where we’re supposed to land in our golden years. We’re not quite into golden yet. I think we’re closer to the Rust-Oleum years: that magical time when everything we own could use a good coat of paint. Honestly I don’t care where we land, just so it’s together. No, the burning questions that haunt me are more like, “Did I add baking soda and salt to the batter yet?”

I find myself counting egg shells to figure out if I finished what I started. Just because my beloved calls me from the other room to observe the replay of a fantastic tackle by my favorite linebacker Luke Kuechly, doesn’t mean the pumpkin bread should go without eggs. One cannot go leaving stuff out all willy-nilly and expect proper results.

So I’ve found a solution. It’s as good as having a dish by the door for your keys. That way you can always find them. You’re gonna love this.

Spread all the ingredients in the recipe to the left of the mixer. As you add them to the batter, move them to the right. Seriously, it’s the only way I can keep up anymore.

I remember one time when we were out of black pepper. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember to buy it. When finally I did, I went to put it away and found two other boxes. Apparently I had remembered it three trips ago but forgot I remembered.

I’ve learned not to interrupt David in the middle of a story. If I do, he forgets what he was saying and I don’t get to hear the rest of it.

Bless our hearts.

The other night I woke up and thought, “Denzel Washington!” I couldn’t wait to tell David the next morning. His excited reply was, “Huh?”

“Denzel Washington. You know… we were trying to remember who played the guy in the movie.”

His eyes glazed over. “Movie?”

“Yes! Remember the new Equalizer movie we saw on television? That was Denzel Washington.”

He nodded. “Yep. Glad you cleared that up. I was pretty worried about it.”

Apparently things do not bother him as much as they do me.

Of course he’s never experienced Cranberry Pumpkin Bread without the eggs.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Preheat oven to 350;

Coat 3 loaf pans with non-stick spray

• 3 c. sugar
• 3 c. plain flour
• 2 t. soda
• 1 ½ t. salt
• 1 ½ t. cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• ½ c. veg. oil
• ½ c. orange juice or water
• 1 ½ c. cranberries [fresh or frozen] – about half a bag

Blend dry ingredients; add eggs, oil, juice; Fold in cranberries by hand. Makes three loaves. Pans are easier to handle if placed side by side on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 57 minutes until knife comes out clean. To prevent belly ache, share at least one loaf.

Lynna Clark lives in Salisbury. Read more at LynnasWonderfulLife.wordpress.com