You can't spell "families" without "lies". Try it!

Well I survived Thankgiving at our house! So that's a plus, I figured if Thanksgiving didn't do me in, Christmas surely will do the trick. Guess we'll have to wait a couple more weeks to find out. Anywho after some severe anxiety attacks Thanksgiving dinner was (dare I say it) a success (minus a slight gravy emergency)! Actually the gravy turned out DE-lish, but I was getting worried for a little bit on it. It would! not! thicken!...wtf. Finally I called in reinforcements. My MIL. She worked some magic and voila! Yummy gravy!! Matter of fact. It was sooo good we had to make another batch to eat with the leftover taters! Anywho I though I'd share some of my fave recipes! Feel free to try them out and let me know what you think!

Moist Turkey

1 thawed turkey, junk inside removed and reserved for gravy makin'
Butter (lots o butter)
Desired Seasoning (I used McCormick Sweet Smokey Pepper)
Roasting Pan
Turkey Baster
Oven

Easy as pie. Preheat oven to 325. Stick turkey in roaster. Rub down w/ a stick of butter butter. Throw the rest of the butter stick in cavity. Sprinkle seasoning on turkey. Put roaster in oven. Check periodically I did at about 20 min intervals. Baste and follow with repeating the butter maneuver and more seasoning. Allow 15 minutes of baking per pound of turkey. Let meat rest atleast 20 mins before carving!!! Very important for juicy meat! Try it w/ a whole chicken!


Pumpkin Roll

For cake:
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin

For Frosting:
1-8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
6 Tbl butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla

Misc. things needed:
Tea Towel
Jelly roll pan
LOTS of Powdered sugar
Waxed Paper
Plastic wrap
Quasi level oven
Rubber Spatula

Now Pumpkin rolls can be a little tricky as with any roll. First preheat oven to 375. Grease jelly roll pan and line with waxed paper (I let mine hang a little over the edges). Grease paper. Take tea towel and dampen just a teeny bit. sprinkle with powered sugar. Let towel lie flat on counter or table or other flat surface. Combine cake ingredients throughly. Spread EVENLY into pan. It will not level out on its own, use a rubber spatula. Hope you have a level oven. I thought mine was level until I tried to do this the first time and had a disaster of a cake. If the cake isn't reasonable even it won't roll, it will crack and your pretty pumpkin roll is non-existant. SO Bake the cake 13-15 minutes or until cake springs back when touched (use this trick!!) IMMEDIATELY! Turn cake onto tea towel!! Peel back the wax paper and roll towel and cake up together LONG WAYS. If you try the short way it will crack. Don't roll it too tight or it will crack! Use your best judgement. Let cake cool for 20 minutes. While cake is cooling mix up frosting ingredients. After cake is cooled for 20 minutes, unroll slowly, spread on frosting (rubber spatula really helps) and reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour. I made 6 of these for thanksgiving and they were a hit. They were kinda rich, but that's how we like 'em. Feel free to make your own adjustments and let me know what you changed and why. BTW, my recipe is Libby's recipe off the can of pumpkin puree with a little motification here and there.