It's 0100 on a Wednesday morning, and I can't sleep. So what do I do? Just what any healthy, well-adjusted 23-year old guy would do: I get up and start cooking and blogging.
To be fair, I suppose I'm not really cooking so much as assembling a cake, but it's still probably not the normal early morning activity for my peer group or most people.
Anyway, I'm writing as I'm waiting for my pumpkin ice cream to soften a bit sitting on top of the pumpkin cake I made so I can roll it up to finish off the double pumpkin roulade I started making last week before my adventures to Connecticut. I like the fact that this dessert can pretty much be prepared and stored, though I may be stretching the limit as far as time before assembly goes. When I was making both the ice cream and the cake last week (that's where Tuesday and Wednesday went), my home smelled delicious...maybe the best so far, or at least tied with the granola. I never really knew what all went into "pumpkin spice" things, but it turns out that cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg do a pretty good job of it. I have three more pumpkins that my sponsors gave me two weekends ago when I was there (it turns out they yielded plenty enough for the Project), and I don't quite know what to do with them. Any suggestions? I don't really want to make a pumpkin pie. Not because I am suddenly above pumpkin pie, I just don't want another dessert around unless it's unusual.
So, the pumpkin spice puree that went into making the cake was fantastic, and the cake set very moistly so that I could roll it up and store it in the fridge on a sugared tea towel--that is to say, it would have been a tea towel if I had had a clean one handy; rather, it turned out to be a heavily sugared hand towel from my bathroom...it worked the same. This time I gave the ice cream enough time to freeze hard in the baking pan to avoid a soupy disaster like at my sponsors. And now, after letting the slab of pumpkin ice cream soften just enough to dimple when poked, I rolled it into the cake. It's not as pretty as it could be, I think I needed to let it soften just a tad more before starting to roll to not break the initial bend, but I definitely have the idea down. I think I'm going to bring this in to work tomorrow and see how it goes over. I'll edit this post with pictures tomorrow, but I don't have my camera cord and such out right now, and I am trying to go to bed, after all.
I can't wait to taste the pumpkiny creation. I'm very grateful that I have sponsors who take care of me so. Homestead Gardens is about to start up their annual Fall Festival. If you're in the Chesapeake region, it's worth checking out. I wish I got all my produce from them, but I can't make it there every time I need something (and goodness knows I'm not prepared enough to make a list every time I head up that way). Go check out that or any other fall festivals or fairs in your area. Go with family, friends, or even on your own. You never know what you'll learn, who you'll meet, or over what meal you'll end up sharing grace.
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