I'm sitting at my house with a belly full of turkey and fixings from the Thanksgiving Luncheon at Jacks preschool.  I've got my WoodWick burning next to me and a sleeping toddler in the other room.  I figure now is the perfect time to share a few words and hopefully 2 of my recent recipes that are super tasty.

I tried canning strawberry preserves yesterday- well um I think I was wrong.  Canning is harder than I thought a few days ago.  The preserves will make a delightful addition to pancakes, ice cream or toast.   I did not add pectin to my recipe because I really like things as natural and earthy as possible and I found recipes that did not call for packaged pectin so, I thought I was in the clear.  I know pectin is naturally occurring in fruit but little did I know, strawberries have very little so my preserves or jam did not gel like I had hoped.  I ran out last night and got  a candy thermometer and I now know not to double the recipe with preserving, which I learned after the fact.  I will try again with a smaller batch and see how it works.

I have been on a pumpkin roll making kick. It's a dessert that is better than delicious and it makes a nice dessert to share since it presents so well.  I made one yesterday to take for dessert at the preschool today but, someone decided to eat all but 1/4 of the loaf.  Yes, Daniel couldn't resist.  He kept going back for more until there was almost none.  I ended up getting Krispy Kreme donuts for the luncheon, they are always on time.  Hugs and love!

So check it out....

 Pleasantly Plump Pumpkin Roll

Ingredients

3 eggs beaten
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
confectioners sugar for dusting

* The first time I made this I only used cinnamon and omitted the next 3 spices and it was still wonderful.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Butter or grease one 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan.

In a mixing bowl, blend together the eggs, sugar, spices (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg) and pumpkin.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour and baking soda.  Add to pumpkin mixture and blend until smooth.  Evenly spread the mixture onto the greased jelly roll pan.

Bake 15-22 min in the oven.  Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle.

Prepare a lightweight tea towel (cotton, not terry cloth), I like to use the very thin white flour sack type tea towels for this.  Lay it out on your counter and sprinkle confectioners sugar onto the towel where you will by placing your cake.

Remove cake from pan and place on tea towel.  Roll up the cake by rolling a towel inside cake and place seam side down to cool.

Prepare frosting by blending the butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla.

When cake is completely cooled, unroll and spread with filling.  Roll up again without towel.  Wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper, seam side down and refrigerate until ready to serve.  If your cake sticks to the towel you can add a little more confectioners sugar to the top of the cake to cover it up :).

Bangin' Banana Bread

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup apple butter
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe and mashed
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup walnuts toasted and chopped ( i'm not a fan of walnuts so I omitted these)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line you loaf pan with parchment paper or grease.  (I grease, the more grease the better)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Beat sugar, eggs and apple butter using a hang mixer until light and fluffy about 2 min.

Add mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla.  Fold in dry ingredients (and nuts if you prefer).  Pour into a lined or greased loaf pan and bake for 45min to 1hr.

* I used 4 mini loaf pans and it took about 20-25min to bake.

Enjoy!