By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying “fall” in Arkansas. I have not turned on the heat, but I have turned the air back on. Y’all know our family is crazy. We always have this contest to see who can wait the longest to turn on their heaters in the house. Everyone has caved and turned the heat on except me and Jacob. I have to beat him. Told y’all we are crazy!
I have told y’all that my middle E, Evan, is a man of few words, but when you get him in the car by himself, he opens the floodgates and starts talking. This is what he was telling me here a while back. He said, Nana, you know how chess players use calories by using their brains?” I actually didn’t know that. He said, “Nana, if you burned calories by talking, you would be a twig.” Wonder why he would say that? I don’t talk that much. Just kidding, I really do. Too bad I can’t burn calories by talking.
I took him to Fort Smith the other day to get some new work shoes, and he started talking and told me he didn’t like going to town with me. He said, “well, you are like a kid. You are easily distracted by sparkly things.” He goes on to say that “I am easily distracted by everything, and I have to pick up stuff and look at it for like ten minutes.” I can’t imagine, me doing that. I guess I have ADHD when I go shopping.
All the E’s refuse to go to Walmart with me because they say that I talk to everybody in the store and that we are there way too long. I guess what I am saying is, if y’all want to have a good time, ride shotgun with me and we will go shopping.
Hope you have a Happy Halloween. I can’t wait to hand out candy to all the little trick or treaters. This week’s recipe is for a apple cider donut cake. Sounds good fall dessert. It had me at apple cider. I love apple cider.
APPLE CIDER DONUT CAKE
1 box white cake mix
1 4 oz. box instant vanilla pudding
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of cloves
1 cup apple cider
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup cinnamon sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the cake mix (dry) and the pudding, cinnamon, nutmeg and the cloves. Add the apple cider, eggs and oil. Beat two minutes. Gorgeously grease a bundt pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. It will be 35-40 minutes. Let it cool 20 minutes in the pan and then turn it out onto a cake plate. Let it cool completely. Brush cooled cake with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Slice and enjoy. I would probably make this in a cake pan. I have issues with my bundt pan. I would have to grease and flour it to keep it from sticking. Have a wonderful week and be kind.
