Football and Rhinestones

I was jokingly advised a couple weeks ago that I can sometimes be slightly guyish.  I think this loving opinion came from a combination of my recent venture of learning how to use nun-chucks from YouTube, my desire to some day own a larger dog once I have a house with a yard, my enjoyment of watching football, and my trying to win a man-cave through a drawing from beef jerky packages.

For clarification, the num-chucks are just part of my fun side, I am not going to try to run around and beat people with them.  My love for football really comes having moved across the country and watching my team reminded me of home every Sunday.  The man-cave....ok, maybe I can be slightly guyish I guess...but a huge screen tv sounds nice, and who wouldn't want to date a girl that has a man-cave?  It makes me a more eligible catch.

I can be girly, really!!  So...to prove it, the next time I was in a craft store (a girly craft store) I found a rhinestone platter for $3.00 on sale and decided to make pumpkin rolls for my contribution to our Sunday football spread.  I hope the rhinestones make the pumpkin rolls look slightly feminine.

My last attempt at making pumpkin rolls resulted in powdered sugar covering the entire kitchen with the smoke alarm going off.  I have always referred to powdered sugar as my arch nemesis.  Whenever I use it my kitchen ends up looking like a little kid stood in the middle of the room throwing powdered sugar like confetti.

I actually managed to not cover the entire kitchen floor this time!  My mother however borrowed the recipe yesterday as well to try to make them for a church function. I received a text message two hours later stating "there is powdered sugar everywhere!!".  I now know where I inherited the powdered sugar enemy from.

I have decided to post the recipe just in case someone wants to attempt to make them and NOT have their kitchen look like a winter wonderland.  Please let me know if it is possible!! I am also posting a picture of them to showcase my girlishness by baking and owning a black plate with fake rhinestones around the edge!!

Pumpkin Cake Roll from www.tasteofhome.com  (I get a lot of my recipes from there and they are amazing!)

Ingredients
3 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar, divided
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar  (BEWARE OF THIS INGREDIENT)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Additional confectioners' sugar, optional

Directions:
Line a 15-in. x 10 in. x 1-in. baking pan with waxed paper; grease the paper and set aside.  In a large bowl, beat egg yolks on high speed until thick and lemon-colored.  Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar and pumpkin, beating on high until sugar is almost dissolved.

In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.  Fold into egg yolk mixture.  Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and slat; gently fold into pumpkin mixture. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.  Cool for 5 minutes.  Turn cake onto a kitchen towel dusted with confectioners' sugar.  Gently peel off waxed paper.  Roll up cake in the towel jelly-roll style, starting with a short side.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth.  Unroll cake; spread filling evenly to within 1/2 in. of edges.  Roll up again.  Cover and freeze until firm.  May be frozen for up to 3 months.  Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before cutting.  Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired.

Need new pants!

I have been driving around the last three months with a box of baby books in my trunk.  My good friend and room mate had put her son's box of books that were given to her in my trunk one day, and of course, it took three months for me to bring them up to the apartment.

I was feeling ambitious last night and decided to open up my trunk to finally bring the box up.  Being in an ambitious mood, I decided to slightly clean out my car and carry a bunch of stuff up to my apartment, including bongos (don't ask), a plate from my other roommate's breakfast that morning, and a pile full of mail.  Since I am completely graceful, the box of books slid a little, making me face the challenge of saving the bongos, plate, or mail which all went flying.  I let the mail hit the ground, and unfortunately the plate shattered when I made the split second decision to save the bongos.  It just so happened to shatter right behind my car in our apartment complex.

I decided to clean up the shattered glass right away so that I wouldn't pop my tire the next day when pulling out in the morning.  I started picking up the glass, and suddenly hear a ripping sound.  I quickly feel my backside and decide it was not my jeans since I can't find a hole and it did not suddenly get drafty.  I quickly pick up all the glass and go on my way.

This morning, I put on my jeans, and there is a rip in my jeans right in the front by my inner thigh.  I think I can try to sew it, but with my luck it was not on the seem.  I think the lesson to learn out of this, is that when going out to the car to carry a heavy box inside......wear sweat pants, you never know when you will have to bend over and then suddenly need to buy new jeans (they weren't even my tight jeans!).