Pumpkin Rolls

          Thanksgiving has come and gone.

          It's the time of year, and again at Christmastime, that I pull out the old baking sheets, Aunt B's recipe, and make pumpkin rolls.

          A long, long time ago; a hundred years and two lifetimes ago, my father came to visit (he ended up staying for a few years) and he brought with him a pumpkin roll and the recipe from his younger sister, my beloved Aunt Brenda.

          You see, I don't like pumpkin all that well and I wasn't interested in making pumpkin anything. My father, smart man that he was, had Aunt Brenda make me a pumpkin roll.

          "Just try it!" he begged.

          I really, really, really didn't want to. But I screwed up my courage and took a bite. That's it. That's all it took. I was in love from that moment on!

          I still have the original recipe that Pop brought with him that day. I've since retired it but still pull it out from time to time to make copies when someone asks for the recipe. I love sharing this little piece of my father (his handwriting) and my aunt (her recipe).

          Monday, at exercise class, the ladies were talking about all the yummy food at the church's annual Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before.

          "...and there was pumpkin roll," Rosie said.

          "I love pumpkin roll!" Judy enthused, "But I can't make it."

          "Why not?" I asked. "It's easy."

          "That's what everyone says but I'm too chicken to try."

          "I'm making some tomorrow. Come to my house and I'll show you how," I offered.

          And it was all set.

          I figured I needed to have six pumpkin rolls, so I would have four made, two complete with filling, and two ready to be filled. That way, Judy could see each step in the process.

          Tuesday morning, I baked. And I have to tell you that I had problems from the get-go, so much so that I was beginning to doubt my own skill!

          Pumpkin rolls bake for 9 to 12 minutes. I set my timer for 10. When I checked it, it was plenty done. I pulled it out and put the second one in vowing to check it at 9 minutes. I dumped the first one out on the paper-towel-covered aluminum foil, sprinkled it with powdered sugar, and started to roll it up. I'll be darned if it didn't crack! Was it too done? I wondered.

          I got busy with something else and didn't get back to the oven before the timer went off so he baked for 10 minutes too. I dumped him out, gave him a sprinkle, and decided to be extra careful when I rolled him up.

          I hadn't rolled him far when he broke. "Dang!" I exclaimed. I kept going and he broke again! Committed, I kept going and he broke a third time! Right at the perforation line...

          Wait.

           At the perforation line? That was it! That's what my problem is. The Bounty Basics aren't as heavy as the regular Bounty towels, and the Select-A-Size doubled the number of perforations!

          I checked the third one at nine minutes but he wasn't done. He needed another minute. When he came out of the oven, I dumped him, sprinkled him with powdered sugar, and this time when I rolled it up, I rolled it up with the aluminum foil.

          "Peg, that's what the directions say to do," you say.

          Yeah, I know. But here's my problem with that. When you roll the foil up with the pumpkin roll, it gets covered in sugar so you have to throw it away and get a fresh piece to put the pumpkin roll in when it's done. I didn't like wasting all that foil and I discovered I could roll up just the paper towels and it was fine.

          So here's the take-away. Use a good, full size paper towel so you only have one perforation to deal with, or roll it up with the foil. That supports it enough it won't break.

           When I filled the pumpkin rolls, the cracks on the inside don't matter that much but the one on the outside of the roll is pretty obvious. Luckily, it doesn't change the taste and I'd keep the worse looking one for myself.

          When Judy arrived, we got busy making the last two pumpkin rolls. I showed her how to check them for doneness, loosen them from the sides of the pan, dump, and roll them. We didn't have to wait an hour for them to cool so I could show her how to fill them since I already had two cooled ones just waiting to be filled. Then it's best to let them firm up for a couple of hours, or even overnight, before you slice them and that's where I pulled out one of the ones I'd made earlier in the day and we sat at the table and had a piece. 

          Kevin, our youngest son, is the King Of Pumpkin Rolls and continues the tradition of making Pumpkin Rolls for his family.

          I remember when I first gave him the recipe. "What's 10K sugar?" he asked.

          I smiled. "It's not 10K (even though that's what it looks like in Pop's handwriting) it's 10X, and that's what they used to call confectioners sugar." Domino Sugar still has 10-X on their labels.

          "Why did they call it that?" you wonder.

          10X refers to how fine the sugar is ground and then it's mixed with cornstarch to keep it from clumping. You can actually make it at home if you wanted to.

          This year Andrew helped his dad make the pumpkin rolls. He mixed.

          And he checked them for doneness.

          "How do you check them?" you wonder.

          Touch the top with your finger. If it comes away clean, it's done. Andrew may have to refine his technique a little.

          And the best part of making pumpkin roll?

          Licking the spatula when you finish filling it!

         

          I see that Kevin is participating in No-Shave November again this year.

          I also see that Kevin uses a flour sifter. I'm guessing his powdered sugar was a little lumpy, just as mine was. Only I didn't think to sift it. I guess the lumps never bothered me that much. I'm not sure I ever noticed them in the finished rolls.

          Then I see a photo of his completed pumpkin rolls.

          Wait, I think to myself. He powders the pumpkin roll before he wraps it in foil? How utterly smart!

          I have to confess. This is a trick I never taught Kevin, he must of come up with it on his own. And it would totally solve the problem of the pumpkin roll sticking to the foil, although that never bothered me much, it's totally ingenious. And I'm guessing his sifter comes in handy for that too!

          "Not as good as yours but dang good," Kevin told me.

          I'm sure that his are every bit as good as mine, but sometimes things taste better when you didn't make them. You know what I mean.

          I have a couple of photos that have been hanging around for a while now, waiting for me to show you.

          We bought a counter at the discount place and Mike cut the back off to make us a bar. 

Then he cut the part with the backsplash and made a shelf over the stove for me.

          He finished the back of the stove with rough sawn barn boards and I just love it.

          Bob and Tami Grider, friends of ours from Missouri, called this past week. Tami grew up in the Harrisburg area and they were coming to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving.

          "Stop up," Mike said and guess what? They did.

          Although we are a couple of three hours north of Harrisburg, Tami routed their trip via Lake Erie. "Bob is such a water guy that I wanted him to see it," Tami said. "But it was so cold we really couldn't stay as long as I wanted to."

          So it wasn't as far out of their way as it could have been.

          We met them in town and they followed us back to our mountain home. We took some of the back roads just to let them see the scenery they wouldn't get to see from the main roads.

          We had a good visit and we got to catch up on all the news from the Lake area.

          You know something? With all the hand washing I do, my hands can get a little dry and I have a hard time turning the knob on the kitchen door to let the girlies out — or Smudge in, whichever the case may be. I got a piece of the no-skid stuff I use for shelf liners and kept it by the door but that meant I'd try the knob first, realize I can't grip the knob,  then I'd have to stop and pick up the piece of no-skid and that got to be a pain. I've seen tips and hints where they've used hot glue on the bottom of rugs and slippers to make them no-skid. Would it work on the door knob? I wondered. So I got out the hot glue gun given to me by a friend, plugged it in, and drew lines on the knob.

          It works! The only problem is, if you twist too hard, you'll pop the glue lines off.

          "You should have gone around the knob in a circle," Mike said. "Then you're not always working against it."

          "Okay," I said. "When all of these fall off I'll do it that way."

          I've lost a couple of the lines but there's still enough on there that it works.

          Our Ben Franklin, a craft store, went out of business. Wednesday was their last day and everything was 75% off.

          "Rosie, do you want to ride over to Towanda with me and see if there's anything left? We could stock up on our craft supplies."

          "Sure," she said and we made it a girl's day out.

          Well there wasn't much left and it was pretty well picked over but we found a couple of things to spend our money on. I picked up a few strands of beads and some candy making chocolate; Christmas is coming after all.

          After we left the Ben Franklin, we stopped at Rainbow, the second hand store that benefits the hospital. Guess what I found?

          "Oh no, Peg! Don't say it!" you say.

          Yep. Yep, I did!

          "Noooooooo! Not another clock!"

          Yep. I found an anniversary clock. I didn't realize it wasn't the right dome for it, but Mike did as soon as he saw it.

          And I found a handheld school bell. I was tickled when I found it under some junk on the house wares table. It'll look good with a few other old timey things we have sitting around.

          Thanksgiving evening found us at the Kipp table with Lamar, Rosie, and their two girls, Jenn on the left behind Rosie and Marla in front of Mike on the right. We shared dessert, conversation, and afterward, a couple of games.

          "What did you play?" I know you wanna know.

          We played a round of a new game for me, a game called Rack-O. It was easy to learn and I won one of the four hands that we played. I liked the game and thought I'd like to buy it, but I'm not so sure Mike liked it as much as I did. Of course, he didn't win a hand either.

          "And you made me play that other game," Mike complained.

          "Quiddler?"

          "Yeah."

          Mike may not like to play Quiddler, but he's pretty good at it. And I'll tell you what else. Don't play word games with any of the Kipps! They are all into words —

          "Yeah, Rosie was an English teacher," you say.

          Yeah, she was.

          "And Marla is an editor," you remind me.

          Yep, she is and boy! Give that girl a bunch of letters and she can spot words like crazy!

          "And Jenn reads so fast you don't even want to play Jeopardy with her," Rosie told me. "She answers before the rest of us are even done reading the question."

          And the Kipps do crossword puzzles and read books and newspapers and when they come across words they don't know, they look them up. All of those things make you smart.

         

          Saturday, oh Saturday!

          What a day! What a day!

          Mike has recovered enough from the flu and the weather was nice enough that we decided to start the awning off the kitchen door.

          We had lots of help.

          Mike does the hardest stuff and the stuff I do, he makes as easy for me as he can.

          We dug the holes for the posts on Friday and let me tell you something. When working in an enclosed yard where the dogs do their business, you want to go out with a rake and shovel first! I thought I did a pretty good job of picking up but found a few golden nuggets stuck to the bottom of my boot.

          Sigh.

          Saturday we put the posts in the holes and put some boards up.

          Smudge supervised the whole process.

          And we found more dog business on the bottom of our boots. Well, I had on boots, Mike had his sneakers on. I could leave my boots outside the door. Someone would have to clean up Mike's shoes.

          "I'll do it this time," I told him, "but next time wear your mud boots."

          We worked for as long as Mike's back could take it then he sat down and admired the progress we'd made while I snapped a picture.

          Our outside water supply has been winterized so I took Mike's sneakers into the shower to clean them up. I took the showerhead from the holder, set it to stream, and tried to blast all the doggie bits from the tread. It worked for the most part but I didn't want it done for the most part, I wanted it done all the way or it would get on the floors and rugs of my house!

          I need a brush, I thought. I turned the water off, left the shoes in the bottom of the shower, and went looking for an old toothbrush in our vanities. No brush. I went back to the shower and tried blasting it some more. More flaked off and went down the drain, but there was still more stuck in the treads. He should have worn his old sneakers, I thought. His old ones were so worn out there was no tread left on them! I still needed a brush. There has to be one under the sink somewhere! I thought. And this time, instead of getting up, I walked across the floor on my knees, opened the door of my vanity and moved stuff around.

          "Peg! Why didn't you move stuff around the first time you looked?" you ask.

          I did, but this time I would do a more thorough search. Nothing in the first door. Nothing in the top or bottom drawers. One door left. I opened it and spotted a toothbrush sticking up out of a box. There it is! I knew I had one; I just hadn't remembered that I put it in the box so I could find it again. See how well it worked? Back across the floor on my knees I go, back to the shower to finish scrubbing Mike's shoes. Talk about a shitty job! But I got it done. Then I stuffed newspaper into his shoes to help them dry.

          I made a cup of coffee and settled into my computer. I had a blog to write. Pictures to download from my camera, sort, reduce the size, and think about what stories I may want to tell you this week.

          "Peg!" Mike yells from the master bath.

          Ginger was in my lap, like she is now and most times when I'm sitting. I picked her up and put her on the floor to go and see what the emergency was.

          "Really, Mike!" I call as I go, I'm a little annoyed. Sometimes it seems like he just waits until I get settled into a project before he needs me for something. He probably wants me to wipe his butt, I think of our long-standing joke. I walked into the bathroom. "What Mike? What is it?"

          "Look at those lines on the rug, Peg. How did they get there?"

          Lines? On the rug? I look, but really? Who cares about lines on a rug? "I don't know! I guess it's just the way the nap is laying!"

          "No, Peg," Mike was insistent. "Look at it. Do you think a snake crawled across the floor?"

          A snake.... crawled across the floor....

          I was considering it.

          Crawled...

          A light bulb goes off in my head. "No, it was me. When I was cleaning up your shoes, instead of standing up I crawled across the floor to get a brush out of there," and I pointed to the bottom of my vanity. "Those are probably my toe marks."

          I smiled, but boy, was Mike relieved!       

          Saturday evening, I'm working on my computer and something falls into the plant beside my desk. I was afraid a mouse may have fallen, so I gingerly peek around my desk and a bat swoops out and heads for the kitchen door, he banked and went into the living room.

          "Mike! We've got a bat in here!"

         

          And let's call this one done!

          "Wait Peg, wait, wait!" you say. "What happened with the bat?"

          You'll have to wait and see!

          Until next time, know that you are all in my heart.