turkaay

we had an excellent thanksgiving (barring the dog trouble). we went to houston where we had cajun turkey and other wonderful things jane and robyn made. most notably the corn casserole (i've never had it before) and the sweet potato casserole. it was all good and everyone seemed to like my desserts. we ended up taking some pumpkin rolls and some carrot cake balls with us to houston. we had fun with robyn and mike's kids too... michaela (matt's 4 year-old niece) had a bit of a cold and an adorable cold accent. we were talking about halloween at one point, she was a princess pretty princess and she said nadja (matt's older niece) was a scary "manpower." i couldn't figure out what that meant and she insisted i was saying the wrong word over and over. i was in agreement but i couldn't think of what she was saying. i finally figured out she was saying vampire. and then i made her say "manpower" a few more times because it made me giggle. "wait you were a vampire and nadja was a princess?" "no! i was not a manpower!" (or mad cow depending on where your imagination took you). she also told me that nadja was six, i think she made this executive decision because she obviously doesn't have 12 fingers.

besides the delicious foods, we got to see a christmas carol and hang out with dafne (gotta find the silver lining). it was really fun and ended waaaay too quickly. jane sent us home with a turkey that i cooked the day after we got home because it was already defrosting on the way home. i made stuffing and gravy, above you can see an entire turkey two containers of gravy and two containers of stuffing. we've been eating leftovers all week and they are wonderful. i looooove turkey and gravy and stuffing!!! yay!

we came home saturday to my vovo's housewarming party slash katie's graduation party. my mother took care of all the dogs while we were away (thanks!) and had a very full house with my brother and his wife, tiffany, staying through the holiday (tiffany had to leave friday so we missed her). at the party we had fajitas from christina's, a lot of neighbors, and a lot of family (my dad was the bartender). we also got to play catch phrase with my brother, sister and her two friends. my team, jimmy, me and jon, won(of course!). matt's team with katie and tiffany brothers lost!!! neener neener! all in all the whole holiday was fun, fabulous and fast. we packed in as much as we could, thank goodness we were done with our colds!

thanks

happy thanksgiving eervra-one! best holiday ever! and thanks to all of you! for being so great!

except you! you know who you are.

pumpkin rolls

so they're all done and ready. i used soooo many eggs. i took one to work and let me tell you, it was a hit. the secret is.... i replace a little bit of the sugar in the cake part with vanilla pudding. i bake two batches at a time with:

one whole can of pumpkin (which is a little more than called for)

1.5c four

1t baking powder

1t baking soda

0.5t salt

some ground cloves, ground cinnamon, a little ground ginger

6 eggs

a little less than the suggested 2c sugar

i don't add walnuts cuz gross

other than that it's all the same... tips:

use a lot of powdered sugar on the towels

keep the wax paper on the cake when you roll it (take off when the cake's cool)

since i do two at a time, i put both in the oven at the same time and rotate top to bottom back to front halfway through

leave some room for the icing to sckoosh to the edge

wait till cooled to cut anything.

you know how to make cream cheese icing... i go light on the sugar. and don't use weird butter substitutes or it won't set up correctly.