By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! Hot weather has returned. Summer in Arkansas in always a hot one. My hubby was from the Pittsburgh, PA area and he hated Arkansas summers. He loved all the other seasons, just not summer.
Tonight, there are 20 of us, this crazy family of mine, meeting at the Catfish Barn in Rock Island. I guarantee there will be a crazy story come out of it. I sent the family a group text and told them to make sure they bring cash or a check, because they don’t take debit. My nephew, Michael, says, “I am only bringing one check.” We all know what happened the last time. He wrote it wrong and had to scribble on it and had it all messed up. Did he learn a lesson? I guess not because he is doing it again tonight.
While we were on vacation we met up with my other son, Jimmy and his wife Jessica. They have just moved to Hendersonville, TN so they met us at the Cracker Barrel for supper. Every time I go in Cracker Barrel, I feel like I am at a yard sale. I want to turn stuff over and see if there is a price on the back. Keep in mind, the Cracker Barrel is just right down the road from our hotel in Mt. Juliet, TN. We leave and you can almost see the sign from our hotel. We have the address in the GPS, and it takes us past Cracker Barrel and has us on the interstate going 12 miles out of the way, when we just passed the restaurant. Jimmy is texting me wanting to know where we are, and I said, “on this interstate and can’t find a place to turn around.” Who knows how many miles we drove, got off on an exit and turned around and finally made it all the way back to Cracker Barrel. I am telling you we couldn’t find our way out a paper sack. I felt like Chevy Chase in European Vacation, just going in circles and not being able to turn in.
Speaking of the Cracker Barrel, my nephew, yes Michael, everything crazy happens to him. He is at Cracker Barrel in our area, and he orders dumplings, and he noticed the waitress never brings him any silverware. He gets his food and asks the waitress if he could have a spoon for his dumplings and she leaves and takes forever to come back and she tells him, and I am not lying, “we don’t have any clean.” and walks off. He’s like what am I supposed to do? She leaves and finally comes back with him a spoon. Was that spoon clean? Who knows. He got to eat his dumplings. The moral of this story is if you go to Cracker Barrel it wouldn’t hurt to carry you some plastic silverware in your purse. I know I told y’all I wasn’t going back after what happened on our last trip. Over time the memories fade and you forget. We did have good food at the Cracker Barrel in Mt. Juliet, TN. Something crazy is always going to happen to us for sure.
This is just a little something I saw on a towel at the Cracker Barrel. It said: “90% of being married is yelling ‘WHAT’ from other rooms.” I am telling you that is a true statement. This recipe is a lemon flavor, and I just love lemon!
SUGAR COOKIE LEMONADE CRUMBLE
The crust: 1 17.5 oz. bag of sugar cookie mix (like Betty Crocker), 1/2 cup butter
Lemonade filling: 16 oz. cream cheese (room temperature), 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 3/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 3.4 oz. box of instant lemon pudding mix, 1 egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease the bottom of a 13×9 baking dish for the crust. In a large bowl, mix sugar cookie mix and butter together with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Set aside 1/2 cup for the topping. Press the rest of the mixture in the bottom of a baking dish. For the filing, using an electric mixer, thoroughly blend cream cheese and sugar till smooth, add flour, lemonade, vanilla, pudding mix and egg. Beat until smooth. Drop filling evenly onto the crust in spoonfuls and gently spread. Sprinkle the 1/2 cup reserved crust mixture on top and bake for 30 minutes. Cool 1 hour then refrigerate three hours or until you serve it. Enjoy!
