“This is a pumpkin service announcement.” That’s what my grandmother used to say before she began whipping up the batter for her famous coffee-can pumpkin bread.

It was her polite and quirky way of warning folks that the kitchen was off limits for at least an hour. This gave her enough time to get the batter made, the bread in the oven and everything cleaned up.

She typically made this bread the weekend after Halloween. And because it “freezes well,” as her hand-written recipe card notes, and made four loaves, we had plenty to enjoy through the winter. Sometimes she’d serve warm slices with a generous schmear of cream cheese frosting. A little slice of heaven with angel coating on a plate, she called it.

I loved sitting on the kitchen counter, my legs dangling over the sides and the bac

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