Pepperoni Lasagna Rollups

So, as I was trying to do a post today about Pepperoni Lasagna Roll-ups, I decided I would get the recipe from the Taste of Home website, which is where I get a fair amount of my recipes, because I get the magazine in the mail. So tonight, I went to log on, and it told me I had to be a subscriber. Which means - My account has expired! That means no more Taste of Home magazines in the mail until I remember to renew my subscription. It is kind of a traumatizing thought for me, since just earlier today I was talking with a coworker about how much I love the magazine, and since that is where I got the Pumpkin Scone Recipe that I still need to post on too. Trauma, Trauma, Trauma.
I guess this means I will simply have to press forward, without publishing the recipe, so I really hope I don't accidentally drop my magazine in a sink full of water (which may or may not have happened before) and ruin it and have to take apart all of the pages and blow-dry it, while thinking about the movie The Incredibles because they have to blow-dry their books too because Mr. Incredible sets of the fire sprinkler system, and then I will think about how it is that they have sprinklers in their house when most people just have smoke detectors, and now I am thinking about how my BFF says she likes my blog because I usually stay on topic. Sorry, that is a quick glimpse into my thought process, it usually involves Disney movies.
So these are very good, and very simple to make. I was actually surprised at their simplicity. I almost forgot to put the Swiss cheese in them though, so I had to unroll my first one and add cheese, because I love cheese and leaving it out would just be not good.So, if you are ever looking for a simple easy recipe to make, and you like pepperoni and think it should be used on more than just pizza, I definitely recommend these.

Apples - 55 Pounds to be Exact

Last weekend EC and I went to a somewhat local orchard to pick apples. At $0.25 a pound, it was too good of a deal to resist. We may have, however, gone a little overboard in our picking. We ended up with 55 pounds of apples and a gallon of apple cider (which we pressed ourselves, I know, be impressed).
Right now I am sure you are thinking - 55 POUNDS OF APPLES, WHAT DOES ONE DO WITH SO MUCH APPLES? Thank you for asking, I will tell you. One cans 21 quarts of apple pie filling.
So now you are thinking, that is a lot of apple pie filling, Jenni, you will have to eat 1.75 pies a month if it is for a year supply. Well, HA, jokes on you! I have already given away two quarts of it, so I will only have to eat 1.58333333 pies a month. Except for the fact that we still had leftover apples, so I am also eating plain apples.And apple turnovers, but that is a post for another day. For now, if anyone knows anyone who needs an apple pie, let me know, and maybe I can help you out.

le fleur d'Pumpkin

Last week I had a WHOLE day off of work. I was ubber productive in my cooking - possibly to the point of manic. For part of the day I went and cooked with my friend in the ward, and after much indecision on both our parts (we decided that one of us needed to be decisive, and then couldn't decide who), EC finally helped us decide what to make. So, I lugged all of my stuff up to my friend's house and spent a wonderful afternoon hanging out and cooking. This was the first thing that we baked - Spiced Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Layer. Unfortunately, I realized after we had decided that you made them in mini loaf pans, not normal loaf pans. Fortunately, my friend was brilliant enough to suggest that we use her bundt pan (which was nice and floral) and it turned out beautiful and amazing.

Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cheesecake Layer
Adapted From: Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Cheesecake Layer:

9 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1 TBSP all-purpose flour

1 large egg

Pumpkin Spice Bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1 cup pumpkin puree(plain, not the already made pumpkin pie kind)

½ cup canola oil

2 large eggs

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 325F.

Lightly grease and flour three mini loaf pans (or a bundt pan, in my case). In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the cheesecake ingredients; beat until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices; set aside.Place pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl of an electric stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat for about 1 minute, until fully combined.

Add flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix just until combined.Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the three prepared loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of pumpkin batter layer and then pour on the remaining pumpkin batter.

Bake in preheated 325 oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes.

Remove bread from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve at room temperature or cool.

Waffkins

Interesting name, I know. That is what EC dubbed the Pumpkin Waffles that we had for dinner the other night. Can I just mention how excited I am about the fact that it is fall, which means it is pumpkin season? I love everything pumpkin - pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, and especially pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese from Einstein Bagels. So when EC suggested we make these for our date night, you can imagine my enthusiastic response.

They were pretty good, however I ended up putting in pumpkin pie seasoning, because I think you are supposed to use pumpkin pie pumpkin, and silly me, I just used plain pumpkin. But after I added the seasoning, ohh baby!

I definitely recommend eating them with ice cream. But I think that waffles should only be consumed with ice cream, unless you are in Europe, and then you can eat a Belgium Waffle with powdered sugar, or even better, Belgium chocolate, mmm.

Toasty Pumpkin Waffles

from Taste of Home

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1-1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
4-1/2 teaspoons butter, melted
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Additional maple syrup, optional
Directions: In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk the egg, milk, pumpkin and butter; stir into dry ingredients until blended. Fold in pecans. Bake in a preheated waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions until golden brown. Yield: 4 servings

What's the one most important thing our society needs?

That would be harsher punishment for Parole violators, Stan...and World Peace!

As I mentioned, this week was our office manager's birthday. She has a thing for peace signs, so I decided in honor of her I would make peace sign sugar cookies. And, you see, this is why I strive not to be creative, because whenever I am, it takes way more effort than anything should. Seriously. They turned out cute, but out of about 2 dozen cookies, only less than ten actually turned out looking like peace signs. The other ones got all bloated in the oven, it wasn't pretty. Ugh. But the ones that did turn out looked super cute, so here's a shout out to you, Miss Office Manager, Happy Birthday!

Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies
From Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Sugar or cinnamon sugar, for dusting (optional)

Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together.

1. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for a minute or so, until smooth. Beat in the sugar and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is light and pale. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute or two; beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and steadily add the flour mixture, mixing only until it has been incorporated — because this dough is best when worked least, you might want to stop the mixer before all the flour is thoroughly blended into the dough and finish the job with a rubber spatula. When mixed, the dough will be soft, creamy and malleable.

2. Turn the dough out onto a counter and divide it in half. If you want to make roll-out cookies, shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic. If you want to make slice-and-bake cookies, shape each half into a chubby sausage (the diameter is up to you — I usually like cookies that are about 2 inches in diameter) and wrap in plastic. Whether you're going to roll or slice the dough, it must be chilled for at least 2 hours. (Well wrapped, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)

3. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

4. If you are making roll-out cookies, working with one packet of dough at a time, roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of 1/4 inch, lifting the plastic or paper and turning the dough over often so that it rolls evenly. Lift off the top sheet of plastic or paper and cut out the cookies — I like a 2-inch round cookie cutter for these. Pull away the excess dough, saving the scraps for rerolling, and carefully lift the rounds onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the cookies. (This is a soft dough and you might have trouble peeling away the excess or lifting the cutouts; if so, cover the dough, chill it for about 15 minutes and try again.) After you've rolled and cut the second packet of dough, you can form the scraps into a disk, then chill, roll, cut and bake.

5. If you are making slice-and-bake cookies, use a sharp thin knife to slice the dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches of space between the cookies.

6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating the sheet at the midpoint. The cookies should feel firm, but they should not color much, if at all. Remove the pan from the oven and dust the cookies with sugar or cinnamon sugar, if you'd like. Let them rest for 1 minute before carefully lifting them onto a rack to cool to room temperature.

7. Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

You're such a Square!

On Monday I swore to EC that I wasn't going to make any more desserts this week because we still have cookies in the house. Then, it turned out two people at my work had birthdays this week and we were celebrating them today. Since I have become the unofficial birthday treat maker, I had to make something, I couldn't let them be birthday treat-less. This is a stressful job for me, since I don't know exactly what types of desserts people like and I would feel awful if I showed up with something that they detested or were allergic too. So after some sleuthing by me and my coworker, we landed on white and chocolate cake. Boring. I know. So, in an effort to spice things up, I made the cupcakes square!

Cupcakes taste so much better in square form, everyone agrees.

I used WAY too many recipes on these little buggers to post them all, so here is the recipe for the vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, chocolate cake, and chocolate frosting. They were a success, and I renewed my vow to not make anymore desserts this week.
And then I found out it was our Office Manager's birthday this week too. Sigh.

Now Accepting Applications

This weekend I must have been in a sour mood, because all of my cooking adventures were lemon-y. Maybe my body was simply craving fruit and it figured the only way that it would get some would be through a pastry of some sort. Interesting thought...if a cookie has lemon in it then it must be a fruit, right? I think so. So, I made these Slice 'n' Bake Lemon Gems. The only problem is, is that now I have over a dozen cookies left over at my house and nothing to do with them. I think I need to make more friends, because I think the friend that I have up here is getting slightly overwhelmed with all the baked goods I try to pawn off on her. Hmm, so I am now taking applications for friends for anyone who lives in my area. As payment for being my friend, I will bring you yummy things to eat!

Slice 'n' Bake Lemon Gems

From Taste of Home

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup colored nonpareils

LEMON ICING:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Directions:
In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon peel. Combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle. Shape into a 1-3/4-in.-diameter roll; roll in nonpareils. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until firm. Unwrap and cut into 1/4-in. slices. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 9-11 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire racks to cool completely. In a small bowl, combine icing ingredients. Spread over cookies. Yield: 28 cookies.