Title: Pueblo Pumpkin/Squash Pinon Nut Sweetbread
Categories: Amerind Bread
Yield: 1 Servings

1 1/2	c	Unbleached flour
1	c	Finely mashed or pureed
		Pumpkin/squash
3/4	c	Brown sugar
1/2	c	Melted butter
2		Eggs beaten foamy
1	ts	Baking powder
1	ts	Cinnamon
1	ts	Grated nutmeg
1/2	ts	Salt
3/4	c	Pine nuts

Rio Grande Pueblo peoples traditionally served a variant of this sweetbread to parties of nut-pickers in September when pinon nuts were being picked from the mountain slope trees. Families would (and some still do) camp for many weeks in traditional areas reserved to clans. In the recipe you can use either cooking-type pumpkin (these have necks and thick, meaty bodies, not like jack o' lantern pumpkins) or a sweet bright orange squash, like butternut.

Preheat oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, spices. Stir in pumpkin, eggs, butter. Stir pine nuts into thick batter. Scrape into a greased 6 x 9 loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour or until knife inserted in bread comes out clean.

This sweetish, spicy bread goes well with soups, stews, and can also be a dessert, especially if you cut it apart and put yoghurt or applesauce over it.

Mary Teller, of Minneapolis, adapted this recipe from Native Harvest cookbook for a cooking class at one of the Cities food co-ops. It was later published, along with her article Thanksgiving Every Day: Native Cultures Gave Thanks Throughout Planting, Growing and Harvesting Seasons in the Nov.-Dec., 1995 Co-op Consumer News, which goes to all members of all the Twin Cities food co-ops.

http://www.fatfree.com/usda/

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