Sundays with Joy/Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Bread

Life is the master of throwing curve balls.  Remember when I told you about my lovely cat, Sally, that we spent lots of money we didn’t have fixing her broken leg over the summer?  Well, now after just beginning to let her out again (for about 3 weeks) we cannot find her.  Believe me, none of us were at all thrilled that she was going out again (she just gets into trouble) but she INSISTED.  She would meow and meow till you couldn’t take it anymore no matter how loud the computer or television volume.  We’ve looked at the shelter, online, around the neighborhood (we put up signs and posted online ads everywhere) with no luck.  We did get a call a few days ago that my husband followed up but it wasn’t her.

Adding all the pecan bits I had left in the house…

It is still too soon to call it over.  It hasn’t quite been a week.  The younger ones and I are doing fine but my husband and our oldest aren’t taking it well AT ALL.  My oldest cried in the shower the other day after soccer practice.  We could hear her sobbing from the living room.  We tried to comfort her but then she denied she’d been crying.  Apparently the crying didn’t stop once she went to bed either.  It is kind of funny, the two that are so devastated by the loss are the ones trying to convince me to get a new cat.  I think we should save the money on cat food and shots (that Sally was due for) and NOT get another cat, at least for awhile.  They look at me like I’m heartless and I do want to give in sometimes but we have to be practical, especially with Christmas coming up.  Who knows?  Santa may seem fit to bring us a new pet.  Especially since my younger daughter said that she was fine with Sally being gone but she’d better be back by Christmas because it wouldn’t be Christmas without her.  O geez…

Ready for the oven!

Onto the bread…I really loved it.  It reminded me of why I gravitated towards Joy’s blog to begin with-her AWESOME quick bread recipes.  A few slices pair perfectly with coffee in the morning.  This bread is my second favorite vegan recipe.  My first being Joy’s Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I was really bummed I didn’t have all the pecans that the recipe called for.  I only had between 1/2-3/4 cup of ground pecans, which I think I will use again in addition to coarsely chopped ones.  I could have used other nuts but I didn’t want to change the flavor profile at all.  I really liked where she was going with this bread.  So did my 3 year old.  I had cut into the one I wasn’t taking pictures of, just two slices.  I decided I would wrap up the rest of it and give it to my dad.  My son decided, when I wasn’t looking, it would be the perfect thing to take off the wrapping and dig right into the rest with his hands.  So I had to slice off what he messed up (and yeah I gave it to him) and again wrapped the rest of the bread to give to my dad.  A sad, sad half of a loaf as opposed to a nice 3/4 loaf.  Well, at least we know it was good.  Also, for being vegan, this bread puffed up so nice and pretty you would NEVER know.

As always, please buy my favorite cookbook for the recipe and check out other links for variations (some made muffins!) at Bakeaholic Mama.

My GeekyLink for this week isn’t exactly a link.  Just a tweet from my boyfriend Chris Hardwick that just increases my excitement over Wreck-It Ralph.  I am hoping that my whole family can go together this weekend.  I guess we will figure it out tomorrow night.  Sometimes we all go together, all the little cousins and the grown ups.  If we don’t, I am going to be first in line with my kids on Friday afternoon.  I can’t wait!