By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! I’m back…I took a couple weeks off due to the death of my nephew, Jason Wagoner, Wag to most of his friends. He was a country and western singer. My mom, his mawmaw, always said he got his singing ability from her. He loved the Andy Griffith Show and knew every episode by heart. He also loved Gunsmoke. He was scared of birds and when he was little, he was scared of the sleestaks from Land of the Lost. He was one of the funniest guys you would ever meet. He could quote so many sitcom and movie lines. We always had so many laughs when he was around. He said our family is the only family that could make the movie Slingblade, a comedy. When they were kids, I would pick him, his brother and sister up on Friday evenings and we would go to Pizza Parlour and I would take them shopping. We would have so much fun. Lots of good memories with him, he will be missed.
I survived Halloween of 2023. This is the outcome – I broke my toe, cut my finger, and have a blood blister on one of my fingers from hitting it on something. I had a lot of trick or treaters, and I enjoyed every minute of it. All the family came over and I made a pot of chili a show dog couldn’t jump over and had all kinds of desserts and goodies. We had such a good time.
Speaking of Gunsmoke, did y’all know that Matt Dillon was shot 56 times during the run of the show? Doc and Ms. Kitty always nursed him back to health. I remember watching old shows that had quicksand in the episode and it would scare me to death. I was literally scared to death and thought I will never step in a mudhole again. I thought quicksand would be a real problem for me when I grew up. Come to find out, I haven’t had one issue with quicksand. Now I have to worry about falling and breaking bones and such as that. Life changes when you get old. In the words of my Aunt Pat, getting old is not for wimps and sissies.
Y’all be safe and have a great week, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. This week’s recipe is a fall dessert, better than anything pumpkin cake:
1 box of yellow cake mix
15 oz. of pumpkin (can)
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
14 oz of sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. of Cool Whip
1 cup of toffee bits (you can get these by the chocolate chips in the store)
1 cup caramel sauce or ice cream topping
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray a 9×13″ baking pan with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, mix together the yellow cake mix, pumpkin, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice until combined and smooth. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow the cake to cool and poke holes in the cake about 1″ apart. Don’t go all the way to the bottom of the pan, just make the holes about halfway down. Evenly pour the sweetened condensed milk over the cake, filling all the holes. Chill the cake in the refrigerator, then spread the Cool Whip on top and sprinkle the Heath bits on top of the Cool Whip and drizzle the caramel sauce over the top of the cake. Keep this cake in the fridge. It is better the next day. Enjoy the cake–you might want to make it for Thanksgiving!
