Kitchen Essentials (part 1)

Some cooks and bakers have special ingredients, tools and methods that they prefer. Whether it be a certain brand of spice, using only organic, special knives, using it because their mother did/does, etc. I have certain items in my arsenal that I must use in order for me to function (not really, but you get it). This is one of them:

This one falls under the "using it because my mother does" qualification. And it also just tastes better than any other pumpkin I have tried. This product seems to be regional to the mid west area. We couldn't get it in Washington, Texas or Mississippi. Every summer, when we vacationed in North Dakota at the grandparents houses we would buy and bring back 6-10 cans or so. These cans would be used for pumpkin bars and pumpkin pies. Since I no longer live with or near my parents, and I also don't get back to North Dakota every summer, I order it online, by the case. Since I have so much of it, I make pumpkin bread. It is insanely delicious and moist. It tastes like the pumpkin loaf from Starbucks (before they added the nuts or seeds at the top of it-yuck). I will share the recipe soon since it's getting closer to fall and I make about 6 batches of it.