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!


Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Easy Home Remedies.

I came across a few websites that helped with household problems that I hadn't thought needed fixing until I saw these!

How to Fold a Fitted Sheet

How to Fix Scratch Wood Floors

How to Silence Squeaky Floors

Happy Fixing!!!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Autumn Snow

HAPPY (belated) AUTUMN!!!!!!

Wow! On the First Day of Fall, 2009, Vail got TONS of snow!!

I had to unpack the winter clothes it seems like I just packed away!

Vail is SO BEAUTIFUL! I mean, it has yellow, orange, green and red trees and when it snowed, it  also had white!  Everyday the leaves are changing different hues and the scenery is always different!

Here are some pictures to prove it happened!





Babyshower Time!

AWWW!!! I guess it is something in the water but I have three friends that are having babies in December, January AND February!

The First Babyshower is coming up October 10th, so I decided to start making baby Julieta her presents! Oh, and don't think I forgot about Mommy, after nannying for so many years, I know mommy needs a gift herself when there is a newborn in the house!


Julieta's Presents:
  • Fleece Beanie with Pretty Girly Stuff
  • Good & Plenty themed Crocheted Beanie with PomPom
  • Onesie w/Ruffle Skirt on bum
Mommy's Present:
  • A Lavender Rice Eye Mask, 
You can heat it for a minute in the microwave
to soothe any aches and you can put it in the freezer
to use it as either an ice pack
or to put on your eyes to calm them and reduce bags!







Down Home with Mike And Yolanda




Mike and I were watching 'Down Home with the Neely's' Sunday morning and all day, we KNEW what we were having for dinner!

We made 'Pat's Old School Onion Rings' and the 'Memphis Beale Street Burger' and they were mmm mmmm good!


Recipe Amendies:
We made the recipe pretty much exactly how it states but we:
  •  Used Lettuce to wrap our burgers
  • Nixed the bacon (I don't dine on swine)
  • Substituted Pepper Jack cheese for Cheddar
  • Used RED HOT hot sauce
  • Substituted the cayenne powder for the Red Hot, same amounts
  • Used TONY CHICARONNI'S as our seasoned salt
  • Didn't have any dry rub 
  • Nixed the Cole Slaw 
  • Patted any excess oil off the Onion Rings

Warning, Forego the diet for the night ladies, It is ABSOLUTELY worth it. But, I'll tell you, wrapping the burgers in lettuce makes it feel really light in your belly and the Onion rings weren't heavy or too greasy either.

Our Dinner went from this:


To This:



YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!

OOH... and some pics of the Master Chefs! Yes, I was wearing my Game Day Tom Brady Jersey!