By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! Boy it’s been hot in the River Valley. It is August, what do we expect?
When you go on vacation you pay for it. When you get home you have so much laundry and stuff to catch up on. The first night I was home, I told Ethan and Evan “I will cook supper for y’all since I have been gone a week.” Evan said, “we want chicken!” he said, “it’s been some tough days.” Six days to be exact! Poor kids must have nearly starved to death. I have them spoiled rotten!
Back to my vacation. One day my brother wasn’t feeling well, so Peggy and I took him back to the hotel room so he could rest. We went to downtown Mt. Airy and had so much fun shopping and talking to the town folks. Ya’ll are going to get tired of me telling y’all how friendly everyone was. We go back to the hotel, and we are walking through the lobby, and we had to go by the pool area. I hear someone yelling and I told Peggy, that sure sounded like my brother. She said, “no, that’s not him.” And we heard it again. I turned toward the pool area and low and behold he was in the pool by himself having a good ole time. I guess he got his second wind and decided to enjoy himself while we were out shopping.
There are seven wonders of the world. I have never been to any of them. I have been to Niagra Falls, the Grand Canyon, seen the Natural Bridge in Virginia, the Redwoods, been to the Ocean, the circus and saw the fat man dance, eat a whole cake and kill a bottle of Coke (why I’m not doing that gig is beyond me). Anyway, I got off track thinking of how much fun it would be in the circus. My vacation to Mt. Airy was in the top three vacations I have been on. If you get a chance to go, then go.
This week’s recipe is a pecan dump cake. Y’all know me and my dump cakes. Y’all be safe out in this heat and smile because when you are smiling the whole world smiles with you.
PECAN DUMP CAKE
2 packages of pre-made sugar cookie dough (the kind in the tube)
1 can coconut pecan frosting
2 cups chopped pecans
1/4 cup caramel syrup
1 box vanilla cake mix
3/4 cup butter, unsalted (1 and 1/2 sticks)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick spray. Spread the sugar cookie dough on the bottom of the pan. Spread the coconut pecan frosting on top of the sugar cookie dough. Sprinkle the pecans on top. Then drizzle the caramel on top of that. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top of the caramel. Do not mix. Add the sliced butter to the top and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
