Barefoot Contessa & Chef Boy-R-Ib

It's that time of year when I put my baking skills to good use...and it's finally not too hot to use the oven!

Today, in preparation for our upcoming Thanksgiving feast with the Rawn Family, I decided to whip up my infamous Pumpkin Roll. My mom started baking these years back for the holidays. Since Ib is such a huge pumpkin pie fan, I thought I'd try my hand at making them in the hopes he'd like them too.

Turns out, he does like them.

A lot.

So this is my third year making them. They can be tricky little things. You've got to dump the sheet of pumpkin cake off the cookie tray in one piece so that you can roll it up with a cream cheese filling. Definitely worth the work, but tricky nonetheless.

The trick to getting them off the sheet in one piece is to grease and flour. I hate using Crisco. It's just gross. And it's hard to wash off. So I decided this year that I'd use cooking spray and then flour the pans. Much neater.

Except that it burned the cake, which stuck to the sheet. *Sigh*

After some minor surgery with a spatula, I managed to save most of it. Then I scraped off the crunchy parts. One faired a little better than the other. I'll let Ib have at the more "well done" of the two tonight. If it's OK, then I'll feel better serving the other one. Otherwise, it looks like I'll be heading back to the grocery store to get more ingredients! And GREASING the pan this time.

So after a busy morning of baking, I sat down to a lovely lunch with my husband. I made and froze meatballs a few weeks back, so he warmed up some delicious subs for us today. No sooner did I sit down on the couch and took a big bite out of my sandwich when a cat started walking across the front yard.

Now, due to no one's fault but our own, Cooper is obsessed with cats. He sits in the front windows watching day and night for the many strays in our neighborhood. And when he spots one, he hurls himself at the windows clawing, growling and barking as if he's going to rip the thing to shreds. And when the cat is out of view, he'll tear out the doggy door and run around to the fence and bark some more...just to let that cat know who's boss. The truth of the matter is, he's terrified of cats, which we figured out by testing him in the presence of Littles, Nini & Markus' cat. But we like to let him think he's a ferocious canine killer, protecting the house and everything in it.

Anyway, I had just taken a bite out of my sub when the cat started across the yard. Cooper went flying to the window, as usual. Well sometimes, ground level just isn't the best vantage point to be sure that the cat keeps on his merry way. So he lept to the back of the couch, by way of my dinner plate balanced on the arm of the couch. The next thing I knew, spaghetti sauce was flying and there was a meatball in my hand where the TV remote had been only seconds earlier. I sat there in shock for a few seconds, but by the look of sheer horror on Ib's face, I knew it couldn't be good. Cooper found himself outside, with the doggy door locked behind him. When I finally managed to get up, there were little spaghetti-sauce paw prints from one end of the couch to the other.

Hooray for Scotch-Guard! I sprayed it with carpet cleaner and every last spot came up. Whew!

Cooper is lucky he's so darn cute.