Swirled Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Bars

I made these for a work luncheon. We topped them with a little whipped topping.   They were yummy.  Perfect for fall.

Yield:  Makes 24 bars


6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs, pumpkin, and 1/3 cup water until well blended, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. In another bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and nutmeg; stir or beat into butter mixture until well blended. Spread batter evenly in a buttered and floured 10- by 15-inch baking pan.
2. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, remaining egg, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until smooth.
3. Drop cream cheese mixture in 24 evenly spaced 1-tablespoon portions over batter. Pull a knife tip through filling to swirl slightly into batter.
4. Bake in a 350° oven until center of pumpkin batter (not cream cheese mixture) springs back when touched, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan, then cut into 24 bars.

 Recipe from myrecipes.com

Shanna's Rolls

Here are my famous rolls! They truly are quite easy to do and I will share with you my tricks of the trade. First thing is that letting the rolls raise is key, the more they raise the lighter and fluffier they are. What I do to spead up the process, is preheat my oven and put the metal bowl in the oven to get slightly warm and then I put the dough in that and cover it with a towel and set it on top of the oven to finish raising, it only takes about 40 min if that. Also once you roll them out, letting them raise on the baking pan is what you need to do. Secondly, you never want to use flour to roll out your bread dough, OIL is key!! just put like a couple tablespoons on the counter when you are ready to roll them out. This makes them light and fluffy as well. Good luck~

1/2 C. oil
1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 T. yeast
1 3/4 C. warm water(remeber not too hot, but fairly warm)
2 eggs
6 cups flour (you may not use all of this, put in a little at a time and when the sides of the dough start pulling away from the sides, you have enough flour, another one of my tricks!!)

Put water, and sugar in bowl. Mix till dissolved. Then add yeast on top of water. Let sit for a few minutes. Add eggs and salt, then mix. Then add your flour. Let raise, it's best too let them raise in the bowl and then roll them out to make rolls and then put on a pan and raise again for about 15 min. Bake at 350 for 15-20 min.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo with Vermicelli

This was yummy!! I didn't have vermicelli so I just used spaghetti and I didn't have fresh parsley so I used dried. I also used fresh, chopped and crushed tomatoes with tomato sauce. Don't you love how I always change and substitute stuff?

I got the recipe from delish.com.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo with Vermicelli

Ingredients

2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 c canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree (one 16 oz can)
1/4 tsp dried red-pepper flakes
1/4 c water
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
3/4 tsp salt
1 lb med shrimp, shelled
3/4 lb vermicelli

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Directions

1. In a large frying pan, heat the oil over moderately low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds longer. Stir in the tomatoes, red-pepper flakes, water, parsley and salt. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook, covered, just until the shrimp are pink, about 4 minutes.
2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the vermicelli until just done, about 9 minutes. Drain the pasta and toss with the tomato sauce and shrimp.