One More Round of Tailgate (Maybe!)

This Saturday marked our last official tailgate of the season...well, maybe.  Without getting too technical, ODU plays in the CAA which is an FCS conference.  As opposed to the bigger conferences, the FCS decides their champion with playoffs (not bowl games).  With their win this weekend, rumor is ODU is all but guaranteed a playoff spot, and many are hopeful that will mean one more home game (I am kind of hopeful this was it...the cold weather and ever expanding mid-section do not make for a very pleasant combo when outside for 6+ hour sessions).
Either way, as was typical all season, our crew came up with a theme for this week's tailgate: buffalo wings (standard football food).  In planning my contributions, I was pretty confident that there would be a variety of spicy chicken on the table (including my Buffalo Chicken Dip that I made), so I wanted to bring a couple of things that would complement the dishes and provide a bit of variety.  I decided to make a Ranch Potato Bake and Pumpkin Roll, both of which were really popular and quite tasty!  As I have done all season, I am happy to provide you with the recipes, so here are both:

Pumpkin Roll

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar (for sprinkling on wax paper)
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup pumpkin
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 6 tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 15 x 10 jelly roll pan (Note: I didn't have that size pan, so I just used a 9x13 which meant my cake part was just a little thicker and thus a little harder to roll up pretty) and line with with wax paper. Lightly grease and flour wax paper.  Sprinkle a separate piece of wax paper with powdered sugar.

2.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in small bowl.  Beat eggs and sugar in mixer until thick.  Beat in pumpkin.  Stir flour mixture in.  Spread evenly in pan. Bake 13-15 minutes.

3.  Immediately loosen cake and flip on to wax paper sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Peel off wax paper (the one that originally had flour on it!) and roll up cake and wax paper (the one with powdered sugar) together.  Cool on wire rack.

4.  Make frosting by beating cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla together.  

5.  Unroll cake and remove wax paper.  Spread entire cake with frosting.  Re-roll cake and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate at least one hour.

And...

Ranch Potato Bake

• 4 pounds Russet potatoes, cubed
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 4 tbsp. butter, cubed
• 8 oz. Colby-Jack shredded cheese
• 8 oz. Ranch

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly grease 9x13 baking dish.

2.  Put potatoes in baking dish.  Sprinkle with chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Top with butter cubes (be careful to evenly distribute the butter!).   Cover dish with aluminum foil, and bake 1 hour.

3.  Remove from oven and mix in cheese and Ranch dressing.  Bake another 10 minutes.  

As always, enjoy:)  And let me know if you try something!