Bena Mae’s Kitchen: Happy Halloween

October, the month when ghosts and goblins and unworldly beings roam through the night. They don’t scare me. They bring back a time when my beliefs were spawned by tales told by older aunts, relatives, and neighbors who got them from their forebears who brought them over from the old world and passed them on. The stories were deeply ensconced in their culture and they held fast to what they had learned from their own childhood.
One myth that has held fast and is still being used today is the thought that those wishing for luck will often cross one finger over another, a gesture that’s said to date back to early Christianity. Anything associated with the shape of the Christian cross was thought to be good luck. The tradition gradually became something people could do on their own; these days, just saying “fingers crossed” is enough to get the message, well, across.
So it is with a bit of doubt and a big maybe that these tales have stuck with me all these years, never fully taking them all with a grain of salt.
From early childhood, I recall my siblings and myself listening to this elderly neighbor regaling us with eerie tales of witchcraft, spells and hexes that had been handed down to her when she was a child. She was a wonderful story teller and as she talked, she put herself into the character in the story, making it even more real and scary.
We would sit in the swing while she talked, our shoulders hunched together and touching (for security), our eyes big as saucers as she went from one tale to another. We loved it! When she got to the punch line, we gasped in horror and huddled closer together. To my knowledge, we were never traumatized or became a Freddie Kreuger as a result of having our wits scared out of us. That night, we would sleep with the covers pulled over our heads as thoughts of monsters hovered over our beds.
Since there was no television then, we weren’t privy to the cut and slash movies that are all over the TV screen today. I much prefer it that way. It was much more fun sitting in the swing with goosebumps all over us as our old story-teller regaled us with stories that might or might not have been true. Our imaginations did the rest.
If you’d  like to really stand your hair on end, I’d suggest you read “Salem’s Lot,” a book I read several years ago and left me traumatized with fear for days after.  It stars James Mason.  Another good one is “The Excorist.”
Have a happy and scary and safe Halloween.

MOIST PUMPKIN BREAD
Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 cups applesauce
4 eggs
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
3 1/3 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Grease two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans and dust with a little flour.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together pumpkin, applesauce, sugar, water, and eggs until well blended.
Measure the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt, into a separate bowl and stir until combined.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture, beating until smooth.
Divide the batter evenly between the two pans.
Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Allow bread to cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from pans.
Slice and serve plain, buttered, or with cream cheese.

Serves: 24
Yield: 2 loaves