Paleo pumpkin orange bread
We recently took a two week camping trip down the Oregon coast at a slow and ambling pace to discover lighthouses. I had no idea that lighthouses are so cool! When you visit them, the history is palpable and you can almost see the ghosts of the past fading in and out of the walls. Come to find out, in some of the lighthouses you can see ghosts as Oregon has haunted lighthouses.
One of the most notorious of these is Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, was also known as Terrible Tilly. It was built on a rock 1.2 miles off of Cannon Beach in the tempestuous Pacific to give sailors a guiding light around Tillamook head. She was fated to see many deaths and drive men mad. It all started in 1879 when surveyor John Trewavas, set foot on the rock to inspect it for the lighthouse and was instantly swept out to sea, the first victim of Terrible Tilly.
Many others perished during her construction and just weeks before the lighthouse was lit a ship called the Lupatia sank near there and 16 bodies of the crew washed up on the rock. Soon after that, lighthouse keepers reported hearing low bone chilling moans in the stairwell to the lantern. It quickly earned a notorious reputation of being a haunted and dreadful place to be where lightkeepers would go mad from the months marooned out there.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Yaquina Bay lighthouse near Newport is also known to have hauntings going on. This lighthouse was only in commission for three years till Yaquina Head Lighthouse (a most beautiful thing to behold) was built. In 1874, the crew of the whaling ship, Monkton, went mutinous and set their Captain adrift in a small boat off the coastline. He was final found on land…….. in the form of a ghostly sea captain with a red beard and skeleton face.
He drifted among taverns and homes, “looking for a place to stay and someone to join him in death” as he moaned to one terrified observer. He eventually came to haunt the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse after it was decommissioned. Supposedly a young lady disappeared at the lighthouse soon after that, never to be seen alive again and now haunts the grounds of the lighthouse with the ghostly captain in a flowing dress screaming in anguish.
Heceta Head Lighthouse
One of the most famous haunted lighthouses is the Hecate Head lighthouse near Florence Oregon. This is the home to the “Grey Lady” AKA “Rue” who haunts the lightkeeper’s house that is now a bed and breakfast. Supposedly she was the wife to an assistant lightkeeper when their child drown in the waters near there in the 1890s. In despair the young mother committed suicide by throwing herself off a cliff. She now haunts Heceta Head Bed and Breakfast, ever searching for her child. Guests to this day have gentle encounters with the grey lady and the chefs of the bed and breakfast consider her family.
I figured this was a time for pumpkin bread to materialize before us. (So we can make is disappear!) it is hauntingly good and will call to you in the night till it is gone! Hope your Halloween was spooktacular and your holiday season is full of good spirits!
Paleo pumpkin orange chai bread
- 1 cup of almond butter
- 1 cup of pure pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup of maple syrup or date syrup
- 2 eggs
- The zest of one orange
- 2 packets of chai tea like Tazo
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- ½ tsp of ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp of ginger
- ¼ tsp of cloves
- ¼ tsp of allspice
- ½ tsp of baking soda
- ½ tsp of baking powder
- 3 TBLS of coconut flour
- 1 cup of raisins
- Heat of the cookfire (the oven) to 350 degrees. While that is heating up, oil up a glass bread dish and sprinkle a wee bit of coconut flour over the bottom of the dish. (Don’t bother with metal ones cause the nut flour really picks up on the metallic taste.)
- With a mixer, blend together the almond butter, pumpkin and maple syrup till beautiful, then add the eggs one at a time and mix till well blended.
- Cut the tea bags open and sprinkle the tea over the batter, mix a bit, then sprinkle the rest of the spices and baking soda and powder over the batter and mix again. Now sprinkle the coconut flour one tablespoon at a time over the batter, blending as you go.
- When it is all blended well, stir in the raisins in and let the batter sit for 5 minutes to give the coconut the chance to rehydrate.
- Pour the batter into the baking dish and tuck in the oven to bake for 45 minutes or so till the center is springs back in the center or a toothpick comes out clean. (I like to take my baked goods made with nuts out 5 mins before it’s done. Keeps it from getting dry and crumbly)
- Let this fragrant bread sit for at least 10 mins before slicing. (I know I know, very hard to do!) Wait till it is 100% cool if you are going to frost it with the cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.
- 1 8 oz block of cream cheese
- Zest of one orange
- Maple syrup to taste (I used about 3 TBLS)
- Plop the cream cheese in a bowl and with a mixer blend it till it is soft and creamy. Add the maple syrup till its sweet enough then add the orange zest. Yummy!
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