Saturday, December 17, 2011

Holiday Pumpkin Roll

I'm home sick, watching Netflix and drinking a hot toddy. Not better than snowboarding, which was planned, but could be worse.

I am trying to unload all of my pictures that I took for blogging and figured I would start with my yummy Pumpkin Roll Recipe.

When I was a child, one of my uncle's neighbors would take orders and make them during the holiday season. It was always a highlight of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and when she moved away, I decided to get the recipe and make it myself!

{Be warned, make it to bring it to an event, for if not, you will find that you will eat it all yourself. Yes, it is that good.}

{Before: Random Ingredients After: Holiday Heaven in your mouth}


Holiday Pumpkin Roll:
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1.5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice- I used Penzey's and was very happy
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
Filling:
  • 1 (8 ounce) package low fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup confectioners' sugar
Topping:
  • Crushed walnuts- optional, but delicious and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. 
Instructions:
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet.
  • In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir in pumpkin puree and eggs. Pour mixture into pan lined with wax paper that was coated with confectionery sugar. Spread the mixture evenly. I poured it in one side of the pan and then spread it out so it was maybe a 1/4 of an inch thick.
  • Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 15 minutes.
  • Lay another piece of wax paper on the counter, sprinkle it with confectioner's sugar, and turn the cake onto the towel. Carefully roll the wax paper -left to right, the short ways- with the cake in it. Place the cake in the wax paper in the refrigerator and let it cool for 20 minutes.
  • Make the icing: In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sugar. Since I have no proper baking supplies, I used a fork and my muscles.
  • When the cake has cooled 20 minutes, unroll it and spread icing onto it.  you want to spread the icing kind of thin and thinner on the right side of the roll. Immediately re-roll , and wrap it with plastic wrap. 
  • Add the crushed walnuts or confectionery sugar as the topping.
  • Keep the cake refrigerated or freeze it for up to 2 weeks in aluminum foil. Cut the cake in slices just before serving. 
  • If the rolling doesn't work out, you can cut the cake in length, 4 inches and place it on top of each other with the frosting in the middle and it will become pumpkin cream cheese squares! 
{Pumpkin Roll with Crushed Walnut topping}
{Pumpkin Roll with Confectionery Sugar Topping}
                                                    


{Drinking Eggnog with Baileys in it makes the pumpkin roll taste even better!}
P.S.
I calculated the calories on Loseit.com and for my roll -minus the eggnog drink on the side- which I cut into 2 smaller rolls and then cut into 6 servings per roll, the whopping calorie count was 259 calories per serving. Not so bad considering how delicious it is!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Christmas/Nursing School Wish List

Well, this Christmas I can only imagine that ALL my money and Christmas presents will be going towards my never ending book & supplies list I need for school come Spring 2012.

Hopefully my family reads it, or some random stranger who is feeling philanthropic towards a poor student with no job, no insurance, and a ton of bills coming her way.

You never know unless you put it out there, right?!

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, All the holiday wishes wrapped up into one for me.



Links:

Click HERE for a link to my donation page. It is a page where any amount of money can be donated and it will go towards the general costs. That means towards my stethoscope, scrubs, lab coat, professional liability insurance, health insurance, books, tuition, background check, immunizations, student lab kit, etc.

Click HERE for a link to my amazon.com wish list. This is a link to some of the pocket guides I am told will be very useful to have while in nursing school.

Click HERE for a link for the black stethoscope that I need. It is the cheapest option of the Littmann available on the internet and it is from an authorized store.

I am still waiting to hear back from school if I can get things like my scrubs from any place or if they have to be certain school approved ones.

Thanks for checking this out!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

I'm baaacckkkkk!!!

WOW!

Talk about a long break from blogging! I got caught up in life and the next thing you know, its the end of 2011!

So... Let's catch up with everything that happened:
  • Mike and I moved to Denver!!! I decided I wanted to go to nursing school and Mike would have better opportunities with web design in a larger city than Vail.
  • I went back to School. I went to CCD to do my pre-reqs for nursing and started the tedious process of applying to nursing schools in the Denver area.
  • I got accepted into nursing school! I might have to have a blog solely dedicated to that, because I heard it is tough!! Anyways, I am very excited about that, it was a very competitive process and I was one of 40 people accepted into the Accelerated Nursing Option- that's a fancy way of saying I will receive my Bachelors of Science in Nursing in only 17 months (4 semesters)- at Metro State. It is right by my house and one of the few accredited nursing schools in Denver. I cannot wait!!!
  • I fell in love with pinterest, which is an online 'pin board' which is just full of amazing DIY projects and general inspirations. 
  • I got an iPhone 4 for my birthday and love a bunch of apps, such as instagram, hanging with friends, and more. {find me on them}
  • Mike and I have been snowboarding a bunch! And this season, I feel like its going to be a good one!
I'm sure a bunch more has happened, but this is all I can remember as I sit here, sick, on this cold December Night, while I watch the cheesiest Netflix movie, My Fake Fiance.

Now that I have recovered my passwords I hope to be back on here more frequently!