pumpkin roll

I had so much fun making this pumpkin roll, it was the first roll of any kind I have ever made. If you like cream cheese fillings you will LOVE this. Great to keep on hand in the freezer to serve to unexpected guests!

Recipe
Roll
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, if desired
powdered sugar for dusting

Filling
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
4 Tbs. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a jelly roll pan. Lay a piece of wax paper in bottom of pan also.
In large bowl beat eggs and sugar for five minutes. Gradually mix in pumpkin and lemon juice. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into the pumpkin mixture. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan, it will be thin.
Bake for 12 minutes or until the center springs back when touched. Loosen edges with a knife. Cover two dish towels with powdered sugar. Dump roll while still hot onto one of the dish towels. Remove pan, cover with second dish towel and roll up cake using towels. Let cool for 20 minutes.
In medium bowl combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla. Beat until smooth, add nuts. Unroll pumpkin cake when cooled, spread filling on top and roll up. Place roll on wax paper that has been dusted with powdered sugar. Dust the rest of the roll and roll up in wax paper. Twist ends like a piece of candy. Freeze overnight, serve chilled. Enjoy!

*Recipe from allrecipes.com, modified slightly

dinner in a pumpkin

This is such a fun idea for Fall! It was super easy to make, tasted great and looked so cute!

Recipe
1 small to medium pumpkin
1/2 onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 lbs. ground beef
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1 (16 oz.) pkg. mushrooms, sliced
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cooked rice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut off top of pumpkin and clean out seeds and pulp. If you want you can paint a face on the front with acrylic paint or a permanent marker. Put the pumpkin in the oven on a cookie sheet without top to soften as you prepare the remaining ingredients.

In a large skillet, saute onions and peppers in oil until tender. Add meat and brown. Drain drippings from the skillet. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms and soup. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice, add additional brown sugar and soy sauce to taste and to keep mixture soupy. (It will taste very sweet, after cooked in oven it isn't so sweet). Remove pumpkin from the oven and spoon mixture in to cleaned pumpkin. Replace pumpkin top and bake 1 hour or until inside meat of pumpkin is tender. When serving, scoop out pumpkin and serve alongside (it tastes a lot squash).