By Sheri Hopkins
Hello everyone! Hope y’all are having fun shopping and enjoying all the traffic in Fort Smith, AR. It does not matter what day you go; it is crazy traffic. I am almost done with my shopping, now the wrapping is another story. When I was young, I loved to wrap, and I would go to my moms and wrap all her gifts, and I loved it. But nowadays, I wish I had a wrapping fairy to do all mine.
I love this time of year and my big crazy family. Our party is the 21st so I will have a lot of stories to tell after that. My nephew Michael and my niece Kelly will probably get into an argument. I will have stuff to tell.
I always like to think back to my memories when our children were small and how much fun Christmas was. We always had a real tree. They looked like Charlie Brown trees until we started going to Lowes and buying the pretty ones. There is just something special about a real tree. Most of y’all know about my crazy husband and all the crazy gifts I received at Christmas. I have new readers, so I have to tell them about some of the gifts. When we were dating, I always got great gifts, and then I said, “I do” back in 1985 and the gifts went downhill from there. I believe the first of the crazy gifts was a clock and it was carved out of wood. It was in the shape of a turkey. I was young, like first year of marriage and I get a turkey clock, and it had a beard and all. If I am not mistaken it’s still hanging in Chuck’s little shop. Then the year I got the famous confederate soldier statue, yes you read it right. I was sooo mad over that confederate soldier statue I threatened to knock Chuck in the head with it. It was carved out of some kind of metal. It would have hurt. That same year I got a moo moo, for you young people, that have no clue, it is a big flowing gown that usually had a big flower print all over it. Girls this did not come from Victoria’s Secret, trust me on that. I admit I wore the moo moo, it was comfortable. I was mad about it though. It sure came in handy when I used my flashlight, that he also bought me, when I had to go outside at night. Hot pink flashlight, I might add. Come to think of it, I believe it matched my moo moo. Those were the good ole days. I usually ended up mad on Christmas, I always got over it and we had a good day. The list is endless of the 28 years we had together, and I miss him dearly. Hug those big lugs this Christmas and tell them you love them.
This week’s recipe is for a blueberry dump cake. I love the cherry version, too. Make this recipe and slap a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side and enjoy.
BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE DUMP CAKE
1 21 oz. can of blueberry pie filling
1 15 oz. package of yellow or lemon cake mix
8 oz of whipped cream cheese (you can buy it or make your own)
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter very thinly sliced
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease or spray your 9×13 pan. Pour the pie filling into the bottom of the pan, spread to the corners. Top with 1/2 of the cake mix, then spoon the cream cheese over the top. You can do little spoonfuls all over the top because it’s hard to spread. Top with the remaining cake mix and top with the butter slices. Bake for 35-40 minutes. It will be a golden brown. Cool for about 15 minutes and enjoy.
