It’s difficult to believe that Thanksgiving 2012 is already here. If you still need one side dish and perhaps a dessert, here are two of my all-time favorites.

These two dishes are always on the table when I prepare Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner at my house. They are, made with two of the seasons most popular flavors, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. I hope you enjoy them, and I hope that you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

When you make this recipe be sure you dust your towel with powdered sugar, it keeps it from sticking. This recipe is really very easy to make so don’t shy away from the jelly roll technique.

 

Pumpkin Pecan Cake Roll

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup finely chopped pecans

 

Filling ingredients

6 ounces of cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a greased 15-inch by 10-inch by 1-inch pan with waxed paper and grease the paper, set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs for 5 minutes. Add the sugar, flour, pumpkin, cinnamon, baking powder, ginger, salt and nutmeg: mix well. Add lemon juice. Spread the batter evenly in prepared pan and sprinkle with pecans.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool for 5 minutes. Turn cake onto a kitchen towel that you have dusted with powdered sugar. Gently peel off waxed paper. Roll up cake in towel, like a jell-roll, starting with a short side. Cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cake is cooling make the filling. In a mixing bowl, combine all the filling ingredients and beat until smooth. Unroll cake, spread filling over cake to within 1/2 inch of the edge. Roll up again, place seam side down on a serving platter, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar prior to serving.

 

My best friend in high school’s mother made this recipe every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I absolutely love this dish and always make sure that there are some leftovers for me. I mix the topping with a fork and make sure it is crumbly so that you can sprinkle it all over the casserole.

 

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

1/2 stick butter

2 beaten eggs

1 cup coconut

2/3 can Carnation canned milk

Topping ingredients

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1 /2 cup flour

1 /2 stick melted butter

1 /2 teaspoon salt

 

Mix all of the casserole ingredients together and place in a buttered casserole dish. Then mix all of the topping ingredients together until crumbly.

Then sprinkle over the casserole and bake on 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

 

Christina Hall writes a food column for The Democrat. She can be reached at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com.