Why I Love the Fall

Although I am not one that gets into Halloween at all, I do love the fall. As pathetic as this is I think I love it so much because I have some really yummy recipes using pumpkin. I am pretty much obsessed with pumpkin flavored desserts. Today I bought the most recent Real Simple magazine and there was a recipe in it for these pumpkin cookie sandwiches which looked to die for. I went to the store and bought the ingredients and decided to bake them for pure enjoyment, since I have nothing else to do these days. I am sad to report that they were a little disappointing. I actually did not like them at all. Weird. But I wanted to share with all of you my two favorite recipes that never fail for a yummy pumpkin dessert. Enjoy!

Pleasin' Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 cups of cooked mashed pumpkin (canned--make sure you get the pumpkin and not pie filling)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. ginger
chocolate chips (this is optional, I think they are so good in it and just put in as much as you want!)
Put flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl; mix well. Add pumpkin, oil, water and eggs. Beat until well blended.
Divide the batter equally into two greased 9x5x3 bread pans
Bake at 350 degrees for about 70 minutes.

Pumpkin Cake Roll

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup flour
powdered sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking powder

Beat eggs for five minutes. Mix in sugar, pumpkin, and lemon. Add flour, spices, baking powder, and salt. Grease 9x13 cookie sheet that has sides on it. Line the cookie sheet with wax paper. Grease the wax paper. Pour mixture into cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Take a dish towel (needs to be flate without any texture on it, I actually used a dinner napkin instead) and cover with lots of powdered sugar on the counter. Turn the pan over onto the towel and remove the wax paper so the cake part is face down with the wax paper still stuck to it. Remove the wax paper. Roll up the cake with the towel still attached (sounds weird I know but just trust me). Let stand while rolled up for one hour. Unroll the cake

Make the filling:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 3 oz. packages of cream cheese softened
4 Tbl. margarine
Beat together. Then spread onto the unrolled cake. Roll up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and then foil and refrigerate for a couple hours before eating.