Denise The Domestic Goddess -

By Melinda Campbell

Domestic Goddess and a Pumpkin Roll

Denise and I are closing in hard and fast on four decades of friendship. I didn’t have many friends in school. My family moved around a bit, and I’m a tad socially awkward. Making friends just wasn’t easy, but Denise and I seemed to be a natural fit. We live less than an hour apart, but life circumstances don’t make regular visits easy at all. That’s why when we squeezed in a lunch visit one day a couple weeks back I was happy. To add spark to that day, we found a recent Sunday afternoon we could schedule a get together for some pumpkin roll making fun.

Denise has always been the one more in tune with all things domestic. She’s the oil painting, and I’m the at best two colors of crayons stick person on printer paper. Her home is the gallery; mine is the refrigerator with stuff under magnets. We both think some strong thoughts, but she’s bold enough to say them all. We are in interesting blend for sure, so I knew this baking thing was going to be an adventure.

I arrived with a hodge podge collection of things in a cardboard box: all the ingredients she’d told me I’d need plus my own mixer and bowls and such. Denise is the ultimate planner, so I did my best to jump on that train. Even with my effort, she was a couple steps ahead of me knowing how to make the experience efficient.

1,2,3 Pumpkin Rolls, Please

“How many pumpkin rolls do you want to make today?” she asked.
“I brought three blocks of cream cheese,” I replied.
“Okay, so we are making three,” she said immediately going into high-speed prep mode.
Counters were cleared. Small plastic bowls were set out for dry ingredients to be measured and divided. It was game time.

Denise had baked her pumpkin breads earlier, so I would have the oven for mine. She could do her filling and do that instruction while mine were baking. (I’m telling you, she is on it!)
Other than the counter sprinkles of flour, phase one of the pumpkin rolls went fairly well. Dumping pre-measured ingredients and mixing were not problem.

Denise didn’t give me the opportunity to be less than precise with the parchment paper liner measurement. When I poured bowl one’s ingredients into the bar pan, she took the pan from me and did a ninja tapping move that spread the goop into all four corners. The impressive part was that she took the pan from me while talking on the phone with one of her adult children, did the counter-banging, and handed it back to me with a head tilt instruction to put it in the oven. I would’ve needed probably ten minutes to coordinate all that.

The bread flip was the next step. Denise said she’d do the first one to show me. Masterfully, the pan did a 180, and the bread landed perfectly on the powdered sugar covered surface. Easy peasy, right? It was for her. My effort with loaf #2 was less than stellar. I’m going to blame my arthritis, but it’s probably my overall lack of graceful coordination that caused the bread to land crooked and folded. I gave Denise a quick 911 glare, and she came to the rescue. You know most likely without my telling you that my friend just did the third one for me.

I did manage to roll two for cooling and re-roll all three post filling. Once my elder child sampled the first roll, I felt like a winner in the kitchen Olympics. It may have been an honorable mention, but I got recognition for my participation. Go, me!

Denise’s mentoring was top notch. I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have been as patient as she. The pumpkin rolls were just a little perk for the day. Yes, making them was the point of the trip, but there were more important end results to that afternoon’s efforts.

In just a few hours, my friend and I discussed everything from family issues to health matters. The talk got real. There aren’t gray areas. Even with the gravity of some of that banter, we had goofy teenaged girl flashbacks that brought moments of such comfortable release. All of that talk time makes the gazillion pounds I will probably gain from the visit worth it.

Real friendship indeed passes through all the gates of life challenges, and let me tell you, there’ve been some crazy challenges with the two of us. I’m thankful she’s stuck it out with me all these years. Denise’s patiences with me has certainly not been confined to pumpkin bread flipping.

Melinda’s son showing off what he is about to eat!

I pray you each have a blessed holiday season and find at least a few hours out of the craziness with one of your most treasured gifts of friendship, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

SINGLE ROLL (1) TRIPLE ROLLS (3)

2/3 c. pumpkin 1-15 oz can of pumpkin

1 c. sugar 3 c. sugar

¾ c. self rising flour 2 ¼ c. self rising flour

3 eggs, lightly beaten 9 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp cinnamon 1 T. cinnamon

Add ingredients to bowl and stir by hand using a whisk.(If you using a mixer, stir just until incorporated). Line a 10” x15” cookie sheet with wax paper. Grease the wax paper. Spread the pumpkin mixture onto the waxed paper. (approx. 2 1/4c. In each pan if using triple batch). Mixture will be thin. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. Do not overbake. Let cool in pan 3 minutes. While still warm flip onto a tea towel or hand towel dusted with powdered sugar. Towel should over lap the edge of the pumpkin layer to begin rolling. Roll into a log and let cool.* Be sure the seam side of the roll is down.

CREAM CHEESE FILLING

SINGLE ROLL TRIPLE ROLL

1-8oz cream cheese softened 3-8oz cream cheese, softened

1 c. powdered sugar 3 c. powdered sugar

2 T. margarine 6 T. margarine

1 tsp. Vanilla 1 T. Vanilla

Use a mixer to cream the cheese. Add margarine, and vanilla. Stir in powdered sugar. Unroll the cooled cake. Spread with filling. Leave ¼ “ space on sides and ½’ space on the end for the filling to spread out as it rolls. Roll up. Store in refrigerator or freezer.

*To speed up the cooling process, the roll can be placed in refrigerator