a day in the kitchen...

I let 3 bananas get a little too ripe so this morning so I decided to make our favorite chocolate chip banana bread recipe. Once the mini loaves were in the oven and I was washing out my bowl I thought why don't I just keep going and stock the freezer. So next up I made brownies (from a mix) in my pumpkin & fall leaf pan. While they were in the oven - I had to think of what I could make next since I used up all the eggs in the house. While munching on a warm slice of banana bread...I remembered a recipe I saw on a blog recently for Pumpkin Crescent Rolls. Of course I didn't have crescent rolls (much less 8 cans) in the house but I thought the filling would work great with my WS pocket pie molds. Since you can't make a regular pumpkin pie custard filling with a top crust this recipe worked extremely well.
The results were fantastic with pie crust and I can only imagine how good this must taste using actual crescent rolls. I decided to have a cup a tea and a pumpkin pocket pie and read the mail before I tackled the remaining dishes...and as you can see I couldn't wait for the first taste even before the teapot got hot enough for tea :)
Pumpkin Crescent Rolls from Snarky Mom at Postcards From Insanity.

8 oz cream cheese, softened
15 oz can pumpkin
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 T flour
2 T cinnamon
1 t pumpkin pie spice
8 pkgs refrigerated crescent rolls
½ cup sugar
Preheat oven to 375. In mixer bowl, blend cream cheese, pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, flour and spices until combined and smooth. Unroll crescent rolls, separate and lay flat. Evenly spread 1 ½ T of pumpkin mix over dough. Roll into crescent shape and sprinkle top with sugar. Bake 11-13 minutes until golden brown.

My notes: I made the filling exactly as listed - yes, 2 TB of cinnamon! It sounds like a lot but we are cinnamon lovers as well and it tastes wonderful. Oops, I guess I didn't make it exactly as listed - pumpkin pie spice is just a combo spice of cloves, ginger & nutmeg so I used 1/2 tsp of ginger, 1/2 tsp of cloves and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg because I just bought them all fresh for the pumpkin pie dessert I made earlier this month and of course, I used standard pie crust for the pocket pies. I definitely will be trying this in the future with the crescent rolls.

Click on the link to her post HERE to view the post showing this recipe and 17 others that are traditional Thanksgiving recipes for her. I will be trying some more of her recipes soon!
Our favorite banana bread...

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 mashed bananas
2 cups sifted flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, milk and mashed bananas, blend together. Add sifted flour and soda. Pour the chocolate chips into a small bowl and toss with a TB of flour until they are coated. This helps the chips from sinking to the bottom of the bread while baking. Mix in and pour batter into 3 buttered mini loaf bread pans (or 2 regular ones). Bake at 350 degrees for approx 45-50 minutes. Test with a toothpick after 40 minutes.