Recipe of the Week

I've been CRAVING this fall dessert but haven't had time to make it yet. Hopefully this weekend I can get my bake on!

Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling
Source: Very Best Baking

Ingredients
CAKE
1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

FILLING
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions

FOR CAKE:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.
COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.
BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:
BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick. Also make sure bread bakes flat so roll can be thinner.

Happy Thoughts

So, most of this weekend pretty much sucked (working 8.5 hours Saturday, having to go into work Sunday for 1.5 hours, Penn State playing the worst I've ever seen them play) so I decided to concentrate on the happy things from this weekend that make me go "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

• I set a new PR at Publix this weekend by spending $44.39 and saving a whopping $93.22!! That's almost $100 off!!
• I got a lot of free stuff this weekend (and this past week) including
  1) Gillette Fusion Razor for Tom
  2) eos lip gloss sphere
  3) Glade Fragrance Collection soy candle
  4) Oral B Advantage toothbrush
  5) Crest whitening plus scope toothpaste
  6) Nivea lip balm
  7) Quaker Quakes rice snacks (Ranch flavored!)
• Hanging out with Dougie D and company
• And last but certainly not least, Bailey got to play with her BFF Jack not once, but TWO different times!

Alabama State Fair

Tonight we went to the Alabama State Fair with our native Alabama friends Wes and Tara and a few of their friends. It was a little more "carnival-ish" than I had imagined. I thought it would be more like people bringing their livestock to be judged, etc. (I guess that's what growing up in farm country will do to you!) They had a ton of rides in the far section like your typical carnival. Then they had a petting zoo (where I had to wash my hands after we left and I didn't even pet any animals - some chubby, sweaty kid ran up to me, grabbed my hand and started pulling me before he realized I was NOT his mom), LOTS of fair-type food (Tom enjoyed a mustard corndog while I had a funnel cake), helicopter rides (with a dog chasing after the helicopter EVERY TIME it took off and assisting with landings - I'm not sure how the helicopter didn't land on top of him), a husband and wife monkey show (comlete with leopard print costumes - for humans AND primates), pig races, the world's largest hog (over 1100 pounds), and my favorite attraction.....Monkies riding Dogs (aka Banana Derby)!!

Baby Goats!

Pig Racer #2. He lost.

Monkey man and one of his star monkeys posing for the camera

Monkeys riding Dogs!!!!

Oktoberfest

We went to the Free the Hops Oktoberfest this weekend and had a blast. Yes, I know it is still September. (Please keep all "slow-south" themed jokes to yourself). They blocked off this little area downtown and had a variety of oktoberfest brews and German food. Here are some pics. We all look ridiculously happy in this first pic......how could you not be happy at Oktoberfest?! Some people even dressed up! They had a German band and one guy played this long horn (50 awesome points for anyone who knows what it's called). And when they came around with a tray of free donuts at the end, Brian and Matt made good use of their resources and dipped their donuts in the beer.

Things I am LOVING right now....

• Pumpkin Spice candles
• Football!!
• An excuse to eat constantly all day on Saturday
• My new position at work
• Anticipation of cooler weather
• Our newly organized linen closet
• This song by Lily Allen
• Baking
• Season premieres are starting this week!
• Bailey being fully house trained (she has been now for several months actually, I just didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to jinx it!)
• Kisses on my forehead when I'm asleep
• Oktoberfest (Both Sam Adams and the upcoming FTH festival)
• Bailey's tongue hanging out the side of her mouth when she is tired

Recipe of the week!

The pork loin from Sunday was too delicious not to post. Here is the link for the original recipe.

Roast Pork Loin with Crumb Crust

Ingredients
1 (4 1/2-lb.) boneless pork loin, trimmed
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons coarse-grained Dijon mustard

Preparation
1. Sprinkle pork loin with salt and pepper. Place pork loin on an aluminum foil-lined broiler pan.
2. Stir together breadcrumbs and next 4 ingredients; press breadcrumb mixture onto top of pork loin.
3. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes; cover loosely with aluminum foil. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion registers 155°. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.



I used fresh sage instead of parsley because I had a bunch of it from a co-worker. (We did an "herb swap" since my basil is growing out of control and she has an over-abundance of sage). I've made it before with parsley and it turns out just as yummy.

Art and Football

This past Friday night we went to Art Walk for the 3rd year in a row. (You can read about year one here and year two here). Hopefully I won't write the same thing :) Although I must warn you (if you are anything like me), if you click on "year one" you will be craving a pepperoni roll instantly. Anyways, first we went out to dinner and had some awesome sushi at SPR. Then we met up with some friends to walk around and enjoy the art (and Good People). I ALMOST bought a glass plate that has multiple uses but I decided to not be an impulse-buyer and thought I would wait and just check out the artist's website to see what other designs she has. Too bad the artist is HORRIBLE at updating her blog and etsy site and she has nothing for sale on either. Luckily, I've seen her at other art events in Birmingham so maybe I'll buy something from her in April at Magic City Art. (And very nicely let her know that she needs to keep her websites updated!)

Saturday we woke up seriously ready to watch some football. We headed over to Stacy's because she is our hero and has Direct TV and ordered all of the fancy extra stations you need to watch Big Ten football in the South. We had 3 tv's going....the PSU Game in Stacy's room, the Iowa game in the living room, and the Florida game in Kelly's room. Luckily, everyone won and we all stayed friends :) Saturday afternoon and evening we reluctantly cheered for Michigan and Ohio State. (Okay - before you judge me, you try living in the middle of SEC country and listen to everyone bash the Big Ten for three years!)Bailey came with us to Stacy's and had the time of her life playing with Casper and Bentley. This is pretty much how she looked the whole rest of the night.

Today was spent running errands, attending a baby shower, and cooking the most awesome smelling pork tenderloin ever. (I'm seriously almost drooling right now - it smells like the holidays in our house). There were 5 coupon inserts in today's paper! Holla! Actually there were 6 if you live in the south because Publix had one in there too (in addition to their weekly little flyer that's always in there). And I love me some Publix coupons because you can pair them with a manufacturer's coupon for extra savings.

I also tried to curl my hair like this today. What a disaster. I think I pulled half of it out with my flat iron and then it didn't even curl. It did do this kinda cute flippy thing at the ends but it was definitely not worth ripping half of my hair out to achieve.

And I almost forgot I was supposed to be posting a recipe of the week! Check back soon while I find something yummy to share with you all. It might just have to be this pork tenderloin that is almost finished cooking...........

Bailey and the Chins....BFF

When we first got Bailey we didn't let her in to see the chinchillas for a week or two. I guess we were hoping that she would just "adjust" to them if she slowly realized they were there. At first she went CRAZY trying to sniff them through their cage and figuring out how she could get to them. After a short time, she got used to them and now she absolutely loves them. She'll go into their room and put her paw up on the cage and they will come over and nibble on her nails. (See pic below). It's the cutest thing ever :)

Laurel's Wedding

We're back from Indianapolis! Friday morning we loaded up the car, dropped Bailey off at her favorite place ever, and started our 8 hour journey to Indy. The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. And we only hit minimal traffic right before we got to the hotel. After checking in we piled in Mom and Dad's little rental car and headed to Laurel's soon-to-be sister in law's house for a post-rehearsal party. The Leretsis crew arrived not too much later after us and we spent the evening reminiscing and enjoying the weather outdoors.

Saturday morning we all sent happy thoughts to Laurel and thanked her (in our heads) for having a 4:00 wedding to allow for us to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the 12:00 Penn State game!

The wedding ceremony was really nice. We had a mini photo shoot to kill time while waiting for the bride and groom to appear and head to the reception.

We had a good time at the reception hanging out and talking about how awesome we were growing up (like when we put together a choreographed dance to teenage mutant ninja turtles or better yet, when we decided to form a band and rock out on our various instruments including a keyboard and a recorder).

Each night everyone ended up hanging out in our hotel room (maybe it had something to do with our cooler full of beer?) Oh, and apparently it's "not normal" to bring draft beer in half gallon milk containers, who knew? (We decided to bring some Good People Snake Handler Double IPA and Good People Fatso aka motor oil).

Sunday everyone went their separate ways so we piled back in our car and drove 8 hours back to Bham. It was a great weekend and it was so fun to hang out with everyone. I miss you all already! *muahh*

Currently

Excited about Laurel's wedding! Seeing family! Lion's Head (I forgot this stuff existed!)
Worried about Tom catching me writing this blog when I'm supposed to be packing ;)
Reading About to start Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
Creating football food schedule for this fall
Loving FOOTBALL SEASON!!!! Fall (okay, the idea of fall since it's still 80 some degrees outside)
Hating the 7 1/2 hour drive we are about to embark on
Wondering if my back is going to behave itself on our long drive
Craving A piece of the Pizza Hut pizza we had last night. Yes it's not even 8:00 in the morning. Don't judge.
Listening to creepy but catchy song by Passenger, Train's new song (Hey Soul Sister I think it's called)
Watching on TV Reruns of The Office, King of Queens reruns
Looking forward to this weekend! Fall, football, holidays, COOL WEATHER!

Recipes

I just realized I haven't blogged about food in, um, forever. Well, just for fun I thought I'd share a few of my favorite recipes. Here ya go.


Chicken Tortilla Casserole (Source: Kristine, friend from work)

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. butter
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
2 cups sour cream
8 oz shredded Cheddar cheese
4 oz. monterey jack or Pepper Jack
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
15 (6") corn tortillas
1 can drained canned corn (optional)
4 oz. shredded cheddar
Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

Directions
1. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the chicken, onion and garlic. Saute for 8 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, green chilis, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper and reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Preheat ove to 375. Combine sour cream, 2 cups cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, and 1/4 c. cilantro and mix well.

3. Line bottom of a lightly greased 9 x 13 baking dish with 5 tortillas, tearing tortillas as needed to cover bottom. Layer with 1/3 chicken mixture, 1/3 of the corn and 1/3 of the sour cream mixture. Repeat the process 2 more times.

4. Sprinkle with 1 cup of cheddar cheese and bake for 25 minutes or until cheese melts. Let stand for 10 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro.




Buffalo Chicken Dip (Source: Jackie)

Ingredients
1 lb cooked chicken breast, shredded
1/2 bottle Frank's Hot Sauce
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/2 of an 8 oz bottle of Blue cheese salad dressing
8 oz package shredded Mexican Fiesta Cheese
Bag of bite size tortilla chips

Directions
Cook and shred chicken (food processor works great!). Spread cream cheese in bottom of a glass 8x8 baking dish. Mix chicken in small bowl with hot sauce, pour of cream cheese. Pour blue cheese dressing over chicken/hot sauce mixutre (too much will make it too runny). Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Enjoy!


Bubbly Cheddar, Chicken, and Rice Bake (Source: Someone on the internet)

Ingredients
4 cups cooked rice
4 cups diced cooked chicken
1 (8 oz) pkg. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
3 Tbsp. butter, melted

Directions
Stir together first 9 ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking dish. Combine breadcrumbs and butter; sprinkle over chicken mixture. Bake uncovered, at 375° for 30 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.


My Chili Invention (Source: Me!)

Ingredients
2-3 lbs ground beef
2 lbs sausage (Johnsonville Spicy)
2-3 large cans tomato sauce
1 packet Chili seasoning mix
2-3 T chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp paprika
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1/4 c. Brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Dark Beer
1/2 c. shredded Mexican Fiesta cheese

Directions
Brown meat, crumble. Place all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and serve with cornbread.


Broccoli Salad (Source: Coworker at CHOP)

Ingredients
10 slices bacon
1 head of fresh broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
1/4 c. red onion, chopped
3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 cup light mayo
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 c. sunflower (or sesame) seeds


Directions
1. Place bacon in large, deep skillet. Cook over medium heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside.
2. In medium bowl, combine broccoli and onion. In small bowl whisk together vinegar, sugar, and mayo. Pour over broccoli mixture and toss until well mixed. Refridgerate at least 2 hours.3.
3. Before serving, toss with crumble bacon and seeds.

Almond Chicken and Rice Bake (Source: Some Southern Diva cookbook from a coworker)
Ingredients
Casserole
4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped (4 cups)
1 cup cooked rice
1 can (10 oz) cream of chicken soup
2 T. minced onion
1 T. lemon juice
3/4 c. mayo
3/4 c. sour cream
1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
Topping
1 cup corn flakes, crushed
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
2 T. butter, melted

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients for the "Casserole"
2. Pour into a lightly greased (8x8) oven proof dish. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (if making ahead of time).
3. When ready to bake, toss corn flakes and almonds with melted butter (I just throw the toasted almonds and corn flakes in the food processor). Remove plastic wrap and sprinkle corn flakes evenly over casserole. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour.

Mandycotti (Source: Ex-coworker, Mandy)
Ingredients
1 box manicotti shells
1 - 8oz. pkg cream cheese
1 1/2 - 2 cups parm cheese
3 cups mozzarella cheese
2 T. italian seasoning
1 reg size jar red sauce

Directions
Bring water to boil & preheat oven to 350. Cook manicotti shells 7 minutes, drain, and rinse with cool water. Set aside. Combine cream cheese, 2 c. mozz cheese, 1/2 c. parm cheese, & italian seasoning in a bowl. Roll ~2 inch tubes of cheese mixture and stuff into shells, placing them in baking dish. Pour sauce on top and bake ~20 minutes. Take out and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Place back in oven (~10 min) or until cheese is melted.

Mom's baked chicken (Source: Mom :)
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
3 tsp. salt
1/4 lb butter

Directions
Mix flour, paprika, pepper, dry mustard & salt in bowl (or lg plastic bag). Coat chicken. Melt butter in 9 x 13 dish. Do not crowd as place chicken in pan. Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Rich & Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Broccoli & Cheddar Soup

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Pear Bread

Enjoy!!