Pumpkin Roll

Ingredients 

 

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup pumpkin

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger 

1/2 tsp cloves

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Heavily grease and flour a cookie sheet (15x10 jelly roll pan). 

Beat eggs on high until frothy with volume. Slowly mix in the sugar and pumpkin. Add flour, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and salt. 

Pour mixture into pan and if desired, sprinkle with chopped nuts. 

Bake at 375 for 15 min.

Put powdered sugar on towel and cool on towel, nut side up. Roll up in towel. Cool. Unroll carefully and fill with cream cheese frosting. Roll back up. 

Swedish Party Cookies

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 egg yolks

pinch of salt

2 cups flour

red current jelly

chopped nuts

Cream butter and sugars together.

Add beaten egg yolks, flour and salt

Make into small balls

Dip balls in egg whites

Roll in chopped nuts

Grease cookie cookie sheet

Make jelly hole with the blunt end of a knife (but these are thumb print cookies so use your thumb:) )

Bake at 350 for 5 min

Remove and make the hole bigger

Cook 15 more minutes until done.  

Fill with tart red current jelly immediately

Corned Beef and Cabbage

This slow-cooker corned beef recipe is awesome!  I only cook it on St. Patty's day (is corned beef even available at other times of the year?), but this year we enjoyed it so much I bought another one and we made it again the next week.

From Southern Living Slow-Cooker cookbook

4 ish lb cured corned beef brisket with spice packet
1 large onion, sliced
8 large carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, sliced
14oz beef broth
2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 T mustard
1t carawayseeds
1 small cabbage, cut into 8 wedges

(I omit the bay leaves and caraway seeds because I never have them, and substitue chicken broth for the same reason.  It still turns out really delicious.)

Place onion and carrot in a 6 quart slow-cooker; place brisket on top of veggies. Sprinkle bay leaves and garlic over brisket.
Combine spice packet, beef broth, sugar, mustard and caraway seeds; pour over brisket.
Cover and cook on HIGH 1 hr. Reduce heat to LOW, and cook 8 hrs. Add cabbage, and cook on LOW 1 1/2 hours or until cabbage is tender. Remove and discard bay leaves and onion (I never do this.  We just eat the onions with the rest of it.)
Cut brisket across grain into slices; serve with cabbage and carrots.  Makes 6-8 servings.

(I also never adjust the temp. because I'm usually putting it on and leaving for the morning.  It does just fine on LOW the whole time)  Total cook time: about 10 hrs

Egg Nog

Since I can't find egg nog here, I decided to make my own this year.  It turned out great and it's really easy, though I'd suggest that you don't do it with a fussy 1 year old.  Sorry it's a bit late for Christmas, but it's still good. I found the recipe on the blog A Sweet Pea Chef. 

makes 2 servings

2 cups milk
1/4 cup sweetened, condensed milk
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
5 whole cloves
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg, plus more for garnish
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Combine milk, cloves, cinnamon and condensed milk over low heat in a deep sauce pan until the mixture is no longer chilled and is heated through. Slowly increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a low boil. Careful not to allow a rolling boil.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs and sugar. Beat eggs using a stand mixer, electric mixer or your hands until lightened in color and fluffy.

Slowly temper the eggs by adding about 1 tbsp. at a time of the hot milk mixture into the egg and sugar mixture. Once enough of the milk mixture is in the egg mixture, pour it all back into the sauce pan. Heat over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until thickened. You will know it’s thick when you can leave a clean line on the back of a spoon (see picture above).

Add the heavy whipping cream, nutmeg and vanilla extract to the mixture and heat through. Do not bring to a boil.

Strain the mixture using a fine mesh strainer to catch the spices. (I have found that this is not enough and I have to blend it. Otherwise it's clumpy.  I'm probably not making it right, but after blending it it's creamy and stays creamy.) Place in an airtight container in the refrigerator and let cool for at least one hour, preferably longer.

Serve cold. Garnish with additional grated nutmeg if desired.