New in November: Pumpkin Cake Roll

The Mr. & I had some friends over for dessert last night.

What to make?

Well, I usually make my popular pistachio torte. But I ALWAYS make that & wanted to try something different. I happened to see a facebook friend post a picture of a pumpkin roll she made that morning. And inspiration struck!

I googled pumpkin roll recipes & chose the one with the prettiest picture. (I'm serious! If a recipe doesn't have a picture, I'm less likely to make it.)

I baked the pumpkin roll in my kitchen while skyping with Tia, who was baking snickerdoodle cookies in her kitchen. We were a regular cooking show duo. It was a fantastic morning spent with my faraway friend.

The recipe can be found HERE.

I used a cookie sheet for my "pan", which measured about 11 1/2" x 17" x 1/2" deep. And instead of waxed paper (which seems to always smoke & stink up my kitchen if I use it in the oven) I used parchment paper. ( I LOVE parchment paper.) I read the recipe reviews & a few people said they didn't separate the egg whites & yolks. I DID separate them, since it was my first time making it. I'd never whipped whites until they were stiff. It took a lot longer than I thought.

But it was fun! 

When I rolled the cake, it started to split. You can see in the photo at the top. (It kinda looks like stretch marks. haha!) It didn't break all the way through, but it was kind of a bummer. Not sure what I could've done differently. 

It tasted yummy though! I mostly tasted the cream cheese filling, which is ok---but I'm a cake girl.

It was nice to mix things up, give my pistachio torte a break & try something new!

As I sliced the cake, wonderful smelling coffee was brewing, tea was steeping, & hot cider was waiting to be poured into happy mugs.

It was a delicious evening indeed!!

♥

New in November: Cabbage Burgers

I had my first cabbage burger last year. I had no idea what a cabbage burger was. It sounded nasty. But, they were actually delicious! They were homemade & scrumptious. The 2nd time I ate cabbage burgers was only a couple months ago, when the Mr. & I were out running errands & noticed a bakery serving them for lunch.

I found out that cabbage burgers are popular in the Nebraska & South Dakota area.

I found a recipe HERE.

I'm not going to say they were simple to make. I had to recruit the Mr.'s help because supper guests were arriving soon. The rolling out of the dough took longer than I expected, & the stuffing of the dough was way more frustrating than I anticipated. It was rather messy too. The recipe called for a 3/4 cup of burger/cabbage mixture to be added to a flat 5" square of rolled out dough. And then you're supposed to bring up the edges, pinch them all together, & flip the whole mound (pinched side down) onto a baking sheet. Well, 3/4 cup was way too much. Maybe it's because I'm not skilled in the way of the bread dough.

Here's almost a dozen of the 18 burgers waiting to be cooked in the oven. I would have changed only one thing: I would've added more pepper to the burger/cabbage mix. (The ones at the bakery were on the peppery side & so yummy!) I thought mine were a wee bit bland, although my supper guests were happily munching away on their burgers & didn't compain one bit.



Once baked, Zoey helped brush melted butter over the tops.

We froze the leftovers, thinking we'd eat them for a meal next week, but we ended up eating them for lunch the next day. The Mr. LOVED them!
I'm so happy to have learned a new recipe, & a unique one at that!

New in November: Week #1: Caramel Apples
New in November: Week #2: Pumpkin Butter

♥

New in November: Pumpkin Butter

I've never made "butter" of any kind. But I've always wanted to try apple butter. THEN, I saw this easy recipe on Pinterest for pumpkin butter & had to attempt it. (I swoon for anything pumpkin!)

It's made in a crockpot. You literally dump everything in & let it sit, cooking, for a while.

It was made with canned pumpkin. And it was delicious.

I do want to try it with real pumpkin. I've never cut up a pumpkin before, so I'm a little intimidated.

My mom made some with real pumpkin the same time I made mine with canned pumpkin & she said it was very tasty. She cut up the pumpkin & roasted it in the oven. The skin came off easily. Then she used her blender to mash it all up.

I bought jars &, after returning my GIANT canner, finally got THIS canning set. I am hoping to make a butter of some kind (with real fruit), try my canning set out for the first time, & give cute little jars of butters as Thanksgiving gifts to the girls' teachers before the fast-approaching holiday break begins.

New in November: Week #1: Caramel Apples

New in November: Week #2: Pumpkin Butter

♥

New in November: Caramel Apples!

I have decided to try something new every week this November.

First on the agenda: caramel apples.

Gourmet caramel apples.

The girls & I had such sticky fun! I admit it was a bit stressful too. Though the recipe said otherwise, I didn't have enough caramel for all my apples. It was a sticky mess, & took MUCH longer than I thought. But, they are DELICOUS!! So, I guess it's worth all the frustration.

We made them for teacher gifts---& they were also the favor for Crafty Night: November.

(Some of the gourmet caramel apples I saw online cost between 12 & 20 dollars!!)

After unwrapping the caramel candies, we poked sticks into the granny smith apples. These tart apples are the perfect choice when making caramel apples.

The sticks I used are actually for making cookie pops. (I found them in the cake decorating section of Walmart.) They're nice & long! The baggies were in the same section too.

We melted caramel & dipped our apples.  I mixed two bags of caramel candies with 2 TB of water. Then, the plan was to melt white & milk chocolate wafers & drizzle the chocolate over the caramel. But I couldn't get the chocolate melted to a drizzly consistency, so I ended up spooning chocolate ALL over the caramel. Using the back of the spoon, I smoothed the chocolate evenly, all over the apple. I liked them even better this way. (Yay for perfect blunders!)
Then, we showered the apples with chocolate sprinkles.

 I made a few caramel apples that were adorned with glazed walnuts. But I think they were a "fail", since it appears the caramel sagged to the bottom of the apple--maybe due to the heavy walnuts??

Consider these other toppings when making gourment caramel apples: m&m's, crushed Oreos, mini marshamallows, dried fruit, peanuts, cashews, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, toffee, crushed candy canes, coconut, & crushed candy bars.
Do you have any other topping ideas?

When the chocolate & caramel on your apples have set, you can package them in clear cellophane bags.

One little trick is to fold the bag down halfway so it's easier (& less messy) to insert the apples.

I used the silver twist ties that came with the bag to close it up. And then I embellished small white office tags with these fall-colored gems.

Funny enough, I packaged up the "fail" caramel apples---& they were the first to go on Crafty Night!

I think an assortment of gourmet caramel apples would make a fun hostess gift for the holidays.

♥