merry & happy

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of our amazing clients that we have had the pleasure to work with this year.  Once again I have been blown away by all the fun people I have had the chance to meet that make what I do so much fun, like I have said before, I can't even call it a job, I just love it too much!   We are working hard right now getting things in order for next year and I am excited for the changes we have coming!  Thanks to everyone out there that makes this possible for us, we truly love what we do and to be able to share it is more than we ever could have asked for.  Merry Christmas and Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!

Next is a post that I posted on my personal blog and I had a few people mention that I should post it here as well, so here it is....

My Mikey grew up eating pumpkin roll, and because I had never even heard of it I had his Mom give me the recipe so I could be a good wife.  I am pretty sure that is the best thing I ever could have done for my Mikey.  He really, really, REALLY loves pumpkin roll.  Whenever we have it in the house he eats it for breakfast, yeah, he loves it that much!  That is pretty much the reason that I only make it around Thanksgiving but this year my friend Sarah wanted to come over and make some with me so I had it all planned and as usual life happens, this time of year is always so crazy.  So I finally just asked her if she wanted me to make it and bring it to her, there was no way that she was going to turn that down so today I set out to make another big batch of the beloved pumpkin roll.   As I was getting ready it occured to me that I could blog the whole thing and then I could share it with the world and Sarah all at them same time!  

I searched for my inner Pioneer Woman and went to work.  (Here is where I add my disclaimer that in no way do I wish I was the Pioneer Woman, there is no way on earth that I could do one tenth of the things that she does.  I am not even a cook at all but I do like to look at her photos of yummy food.  So that is all.)

I am thinking that I will go thru the recipe with the many photos that I took and then at the end I'll post the whole recipe together so you can save it if you want to.  I have kind of taken it and made it my own, it took me a lot of years to figure it out and then a lot more years to remember what it was I did the year before, I think I have it where I like it now.  What I do is double the bread part but not the filling. Amazing, right? And today I made four big pumpkin rolls because I have realized over the years that you can buy friends with pumpkin roll, and I like friends this time of year!

Ok, let's get started!  First, I always try and find my recipe, every year I panic a bit and think that I maybe lost it and I will never be able to make it again.  Now that I took a photo of it I won't worry so much.  So, here it is, in my mother-in-law's pretty handwriting.

Here is a nice little photo of all the things you need for the bread part of the p-roll.

First you throw in the eggs, remember that I doubled this part, normally you just need 3 eggs.  For the rest of this post I am just going to pretend that my batch is not doubled, have I throughly confused you yet?  Good.

Then you need to beet the eggs for 3 minutes.   beat, beat, beat.

Add 1 cup of sugar.  Beat some more.

Stir in 2/3 cup pumpkin and 1 tsp lemon juice. 
Beat some more and it will look like this...

In another bowl mix 3/4 cup flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and  1 tsp baking powder.

Add that to your pumpkin goodness.

Beat, Beat, Beat.

Mmmmm, so good!

This next part is important, you need to grease and flour a pan, you will thank yourself later if you do a good job at this.  

Pour in your pumpkin goodness.

I think this is pretty.  Pop that in the oven and bake at 370 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  My oven runs hot so I only need 15.  Awesome, I know.

While it is baking, you will need to get a dish towel and cover it with powdered sugar yummyness.

This was the point in my day that I realized that I didn't have enough powdered sugar.  So I had to go borrow some from Jill.  Thanks Jill!!!

Here is what your yummy bread will look like just out of the oven, can you smell it?  Ahhhh

Let it sit for 5 minutes and then turn it out onto the powered sugar covered dish towel.  I told you you would be happy about flouring the pan really good.

Now you roll.  Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'.  You will then leave it to cool for 30 minutes.

While your roll is cooling, gather all the stuff for the filling.

You will need to mix 1 cup powdered sugar, 4 TBLS softened margarine, 1 8 0z. package of cream cheese, and 1/2 tsp vanilla.

This stuff is really hard to keep your fingers out of, so, so yummy!!

After 30 minutes, unroll your roll...

and spread the filling over the top.  I had a little helper, he had to quit half way through because he was too busy licking his fingers.  Niiice.

You are now ready to roll again, without the towel.  After that pick it up and place it on cling wrap.  Look at how pretty that is!!

Cover it up and stick it in the fridge.

But, don't forget to slice yourself a piece first.  This is the best part of the day, make sure you sit down to enjoy it and not just scarf it down while you are standing over the sink.  It's better that way, I promise.

Here is the whole recipe if you would like to copy it.

   3 eggs 2 tsp. cinnamon 

1 cup sugar ½ tsp. salt

   2/3 cup pumpkin  ½ tsp. nutmeg 

      1 tsp lemon juice 1 tsp. baking powder

     ¾ cup flour ½ cup chopped walnuts

Filling

1 cup powered sugar 2 packages of cream cheese

4 TBLS softened margarine ½ tsp. vanilla

Beat 3 eggs for 3 minutes.  Add 1 cup sugar.  Stir in 2/3 cup pumpkin and 1 tsp. lemon juice.  In another bowl mix ¾ cup flour, 2 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. salt, ½ tsp. nutmeg, and 1 tsp. baking powder.  Add to first mixture.  Pour onto greased and floured cookie sheet.  Top with ½ chopped walnuts (optional).  

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes.  Turn it out onto a dish towel that has been covered with powered sugar.  Start at narrow end and roll up with towel.  Let it cool for 30 minutes.

While cake is cooling make filling.  Mix 1 cup powered sugar, 2 packages of cream cheese, 4 TBLS softened margarine, ½ tsp. vanilla.  Unroll cake.  Spread filling and roll up with out towel.  Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate.  Slice and enjoy but beware! It will make you FAT & HAPPY!!!

Now for my not so favorite of the day.  *sigh*

I hope that everyone enjoys this, it was kinda fun.  Thanks for stopping by.