Silly Saturday

 

I love to see a dog "smile" - so sweet!! :) Enjoy your weekend!

 

Elk Hunting Trip Photos...

Good evening! As I promised you earlier this week, here are a few photos from Mike and Justin's 11-day Colorado elk hunting trip...

I LOVE this photo of my sweet hubby and son hiking up a mountain...they have always been "best buds" and have the best time when they are together!

Justin snapped the next photo while on the look-out for an elk. He noticed the rainbow between the aspen trees, and took the pic. Right after he snapped the pic, a large bull elk came into view, and he harvested it!

Here's a pic of Justin with the large, 6X6 bull elk that he took - love that smile!

Have a great end-of-the-week...just two more days until the weekend is finally here!! :)

Recipe of the Week: Ms. Sharon's Pumpkin Cake Roll

Hi, friends! I meant to get this post up yesterday, but I got busy with a couple of other projects, and then Mike and Justin got home from their Colorado elk hunting trip, (I'll share pics of that with you later this week), so my post got pushed back until tonight.

Last week my friend & co-worker Christi W. mentioned how much she loved pumpkin cake rolls, and that she hadn't had one in a long time, so I made one, (SO YUMMY!!), and took it to the office for everyone to enjoy. I thought that you might enjoy making one for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, so I am sharing that recipe with you today.

My Pumpkin Cake Roll recipe comes from a sweet lady that I know from my hometown of Afton, OK. Several years ago she and I worked together at the Afton Farmer's Co-Op. Ms. Sharon G. was the office manager, and at the VERY YOUNG age of 19, I was hired as a secretary there. (I was the third generation, but the only girl, in my family to work at the Afton Farmer's Co-Op...my grandpa retired from there and my dad ran the grain elevators.) Anyhoo, here's the delicious recipe that she shared with me almost 30 years ago:

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 cup powdered sugar (plus a little extra for sprinkling)
• 6 oz. softened cream cheese
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat eggs on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually add sugar; then stir in the pumpkin and lemon juice. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Fold dry mixture into pumpkin. Spread batter in a 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan that has been thoroughly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Top with chopped walnuts or pecans and bake for 15 minutes or when a toothpick comes out clean after being inserted into the center of the cake. Turn cake out onto a muslin tea-towel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Beginning at the narrow end of the cake, roll towel and cake together and place in the refrigerator to cool. (About 45 minutes.) While cake is rolled up and cooling, beat together powdered sugar, softened cream cheese, softened butter and vanilla until smooth. Unroll cake and spread cream cheese mixture over the cake. Roll up in the towel again and place in refrigerator until completely chilled. Remove from fridge and towel and carefully slice. Makes about 14 slices.

HELPFUL HINT:

Instead of cutting my cake roll with a knife, I like to use uncoated dental floss so that the cake slices don't "squish" during the slicing process. By sliding a piece of floss under the cake roll and then crossing it over and pulling it through the cake, I get nice, clean slices for serving:

 

 Here's my pumpkin cake roll all plated up on a pretty fall plate to serve at work:

 Thanks so much for dropping by today!! I'll be posting photos from Mike and Justin's Colorado elk hunting/camping trip later this week, so be sure to stop back by to see those. :)

Have a FANTASTIC week!

Silly Saturday

If you have a dog, then you know this is so true - ha! ha! Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Birthday Pie Box

Good evening!! This has been a busy birthday week for us, with 3 birthdays to celebrate! One of those birthdays was celebrated by our family friend, Ray F., who is the hubby of my pal Megan. Ray's FAVORITE pie is Dutch Apple, so I whipped one up for him. (You can click HERE for my Dutch Apple Pie recipe.)

Once the yummy pie was baked, I needed to wrap it up nice and pretty, so here's what I came up with:

Earlier in the week I went by a local bakery and purchased a cake box:

Since I baked the pie, and Merritt's did not, I didn't want their logo on the box, so I decided to creatively cover the box with scrapbook paper to give the effect of a quilt block:

I even made a coordinating tag:

I then lined the box with white tissue paper and placed the warm pie into the box:

Using some strips of red tulle, I tied a pretty bow and attached the tag:

SO SIMPLE!! I plan to pick up some more cake boxes and decorate them for giving baked Christmas goodies in as well.

Have a WONDERFUL Friday and a FANTASTIC weekend!!

Blessings,

Just a Few Cards and an 85th Happy Birthday Shout-out...

Good morning, friends!! I hope that you had a great weekend! I worked on several small projects and cleaned my craft room, which was a TOTAL PIT!! Seriously, it looked like Hobby Lobby had exploded in there - ha! ha!

Here are a few cards that I recently made from scraps that I had laying around:

The last card, which I mailed out last week, is for my hubby's precious Aunt Geneva who turns 85 today. She lives in Colorado, and her children are having a "card shower" for her and asked for family and friends to shower her with birthday cards to make her day!

Here is a photo of our sweet Aunt Geneva, who is a retired Kindergarten teacher and one of the kindest ladies that you'll ever meet:

Be sure to check back this week to see some of the other projects that I worked on this weekend. Until then, have a WONDERFUL week!

Blessings,

Silly Saturday

Wishing you a fun and safe weekend, friends! :)

Recipe of the Week: Easy Cherry Jam

Good evening and happy Monday! A couple of weeks ago my pal Robbi gave me a great idea to make cherry jam using canned, tart, water-packed cherries:

Cherry jam is my son's favorite, so I decided to give it a try and it turned out FANTASTIC!! It was really easy to make too, so I knew that you'd want to know how to make some as well. (Think upcoming holiday gifts for teachers, neighbors, co-workers, etc.)

Let's get started!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 - 15 oz. cans of tart, pitted, water-packed cherries
• 4 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 box Sure-Jell
• 7 - 8 oz. jelly jars with lids and rings

METHOD:

Sterilize the jars and lids by washing in hot, soapy, bleach water; then rinse with clean hot water. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and allow the jars and lids to soak in the boiling water for at least 10 minutes while cooking your jam.

Drain the liquid from the cherries and reserve that liquid in a separate bowl. Finely chop cherries. (You will need 4 cups of chopped cherries, but if you are a little shy of that amount, you may add some of the liquid that was drained off of the cherries to get the measurement to the 4 cup mark.)

Place the 4 cups of chopped cherries/liquid into a large pot and add Sure-Jell. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.

Add sugar, stirring constantly. Bring to a full-rolling boil once again, and boil mixture for exactly 1 minute. (NOTE: Even though the canned cherries state they are "pitted", I discovered several cherry pits floating to the top while my jam was cooking. Watch out for those and scoop them out of your jam while it's cooking...no one likes to bite down on a cherry pit and possibly break a tooth - YIKES!!)

Turn off heat and skim off any foam using a metal spoon.

Immediately pour jam into sterilized jars, wiping the mouth of the jar with a clean, wet cloth. Cover with sterilized lids, and place/tighten the rings on the jars. Turn the jars upside down for 5 minutes, then turn upright to set and to allow the jars to completely seal. Once jars have cooled, check seals by pressing the centers of the lids with your finger. If the lid does not spring back, the jar is sealed and may be stored in your pantry for up to 1 year. (If the lid springs back, the jar didn't seal properly and am must be stored in your refrigerator.)

Enjoy!!

Silly Saturday

Girl's Night Out and a Pumpkin Painting...

Hello! I hope that you are having a terrific week! I stayed home from work today with a little stomach bug, but I am finally feeling better.

Last night my pal Tracy S. and I met up for dinner and to go paint at Pinot's Palette. We tried out a new restaurant, Andolini's, which recently opened up just a couple of doors down from Pinot's. After dinner, we each ordered a different dessert to share, and they were not only delicious, but ridiculously HUGE! (They make the whipped cream in-house for the topping...I would have just loved to have eaten a large bowl of their home-made whipped cream with strawberries!)

We then walked down to Pinot's to paint a fall pumpkin canvas...here's my finished painting:

Painter's had the option of adding personalization to their canvas with their family name, but I decided to hold off on adding that element. Tracy personalized her canvas with "The Storck Family", and it turned out so cute! Here's a photo of the two of us in our painting aprons with our finished masterpieces:

We had so much fun hanging out, visiting and laughing all evening long!! I am truly blessed to have wonderful friends like Tracy in my life!

Thanks for dropping by my blog!

Blessings,

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday