Online Friends Can Be Real Friends

A zoom class with friends across the globe.

Goodness knows when the internet was unleashed it was a bit like Pandora's box. Yes, it can be a dark and murky and dangerous space. But there is also much good to be found there. I have learned how to do many things, like programming the garage door opener button in my car, by watching YouTube videos. There are plenty of recipes and music for me. But the single best thing the internet has given me are the friends I've made. Friends from so many places I have never been. Let me tell you about a few. 

The first "online person" I got to know was Dr. Jim who has a ukulele site. When I was learning to play, I emailed him to ask a question about a song on his site. Little did I know then that he was a real physician who did this as a hobby and would answer my questions during his lunch time between seeing patients. He called me once because he said it would be easier to answer my question that way instead of email. When I answered his call, he paused for half a second and then sounded so surprised (he lives in New England)..."You sound southern!" Well, yes. Yes, I do.

When my ukulele skills were better, I started a ukulele band and wrote a blog about each performance. It was an easy way to keep our performance schedule public. Another ukulele player was starting SMUG (Saturday Morning Ukulele Group) a similar band and I became the one to answer his questions. Then after many, many email exchanges, daughter Jessica and I planned a vacation to Prince Edward Island, Canada where David lived. We got to meet him in person and had the loveliest dinner at his home with David and his wife. And play with his ukulele band.

Knitting Pipeline retreat in Georgia

The knitting world has a strong online presence. Like all of these people I've become friend with, it starts with an exchange of information. I "met" Mary on Ravelry, a knitting website. There were many friendly exchanges with knitters but for reasons we don't understand, Mary and I "connected." When I first learned that Mommy and J-Daddy were expecting a baby I was told "Don't tell anyone yet!" Well, to keep from exploding from excitement, I shared my news with Mary! She lives in New York and knew no one close to where I live. Thank goodness. Mary and I finally met years later at a knitting retreat in Maine.

Knitters in Ireland

Another knitter I met on Ravelry was Missy who talked me into coming to a knitting retreat with a bunch of people I didn't know and hosted by a podcaster I had never listened to. I met so many people there and we have stayed in touch for years now. I traveled to Ireland with some of those folks a few years ago. And some of them have visited with me here at the farm. And that first retreat lead to other retreats in other states. And more new friends.

And in the last few years (during the pandemic) I found online piano friends. This group, Piano With Jonny (PWJ) is the most global of all. I have not met any of these folks in person—yet— but people do get to meet in person while traveling. Like traveling from the Netherlands to Japan. We got to see videos of these pianists playing together. It's such a fun way for those of us who stay close to home to be part of the bigger world. Yesterday I was in a zoom group with a handful of people from Iran, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and several states in this country scattered from one coast to the other. 

(If you are interested in learning piano or dusting off rusty skills, it's a great platform. There are many free lessons on YouTube but to join and have full access there is a modest fee. Worth every penny!)

This all gets me back to the Christmas cookies I wrote about last time and my piano friend Joyce. (See the previous post.) She said she was happy to share her recipes. I'll share one today. More coming later.

I got these recipes in the mail—the actual mail—just before Christmas, too late to share for your holiday baking. Both cookies are equally delicious.  But the raspberry cookies especially would be a great Valentine treat.

RASPBERRY BARS

  For 1/2 sheet pan, yield up to 96 cookies (Joyce cut these into tiny bars)

3 cups all-purpose flour

2-1/2 cups quick or old fashioned oats (if old fashioned, pulse in processor about 10 times)

1 cup chopped nuts, pecans, almonds or walnuts (more fine than coarse)

2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

3 sticks butter, at room temp

1 (18-oz) jar seedless raspberry jam (not jelly)

Whisk all dry ingredients together, set aside.

Stir butter in bowl of KitchenAid mixer, using paddle attachment.

Add dry ingredients all at once, mix on low speed until texture of crumbs or pebbly sand.

(Do not mix into a cohesive mass—it needs to be loose.)

Preheat oven to 350º. Line a 1/2 sheet pan (18x13-inches) with parchment, waxed paper or foil. Spread 2/3 to 3/4 of crumb mixture into pan and pat down. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven.

Spread jam over top, spreading to 1/4 inch from pan borders. Sprinkle remaining crumbs over top. Return to oven and bake 30 minutes more.

Cool completely, then loosen edges and turn out entire sheet onto a cutting surface. Cut into bars or triangles. DO NOT CUT BARS IN THE PAN! It mars the pan surface.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Cookie

Friendship sometimes comes in the mail. And it might look like an assortment of cookies!

When Daddy-O brought the mail in on Saturday it included a couple of packages. This close to Christmas, we get a lot of packages. He had no clue what the white box held.

But when I opened the box, he didn't hesitate to dive in and sample. This gorgeous cookie assortment came from a new friend. She and I both belong to an online piano group that has turned into a friend group. We both enjoy the weekly live lessons and we both belong to the very active Facebook group where we share the piano music we are working on. 

These wonderful piano lovers cheer each other on, offer suggestions and give support when the going gets hard. The piano group is global. I love it. I can chat with Ann-Marie in Sweden, Kirna in the Netherlands, Martyn in the UK, Kumi in Japan and Mary in Spain. I could keep naming friends around the world and across the United States. There are beginning pianists and professional pianists, all working to help each other. 

Joyce and I are in the same country, but we have several states between us. Thanks to the internet we can be friends. We discovered that both of us are early risers and have enjoyed chatting via messenger just before the sun comes up. We talk about our piano challenges, our grandchildren and our busy days. One day she told me that she was in the midst of her annual Christmas baking. I have no clue how many of the boxes she has shipped across the country. When she asked, "Do you want me to send you one?" she got a big YES! 

If I counted correctly there are a dozen kinds of cookies and our box included about 4 of each cookie. She must have baked for weeks! I also saw the photo of the decorated cookies she makes for her daughter-in-law's dance students. I have no clue when she finds time to practice piano. But she does.

Thank you, Joyce, my piano friend, for being so generous! She has promised to share recipes but like the rest of us, it is too close to Christmas to do one extra thing! I'll post them later.

Our family starts arriving tomorrow. Busy little people will be here to "help" do the last things that need to be done before Christmas Day. No new blogs for a while. But I'll be back!  

  

Since this blog has been about piano friends I'll leave you with a Christmas song.

Merry Christmas!

Pre-Thanksgiving Prep

My mother wrote this down for me many years ago. 
It's fun to see her handwriting.

 My cornbread is in the oven. Two 8x8 pans, ready to be mixed into dressing for Thanksgiving Day. I came here to look up the dressing recipe that my mother gave me many years ago. Decided I would share it again in case you are looking for a recipe. I made this last year and it was as good as I remember. It's the simplest recipe out there. 

As far back as I can remember, we had dressing. Not stuffing. Dressing is baked in a dish separate from the turkey. Stuffing is just what it implies—it's stuffed inside the turkey and it cooks while the turkey is roasting. I've never had stuffing. Ever.

Both son-in-laws have made dressing from their family recipes. And both are good. All three are similar in taste. My family's version is the least complicated. I know my mother used sage, so I added that even though she didn't include it in her written recipe. This recipe dates back to a time when full instructions were not always included. Cooks just "knew' what to do.

So if you are the one responsible for the dressing this year, here is my mother's recipe. Read the notes below the recipe. 

CORNBREAD DRESSING

1 9x9-inch pan of cornbread (I used the recipe on the White Lily self-rising cornmeal mix bag)

1 egg

*1/3 cup celery, chopped fine

*1 medium onion, chopped fine

*a little Pepperidge Farm seasoned herb stuffing mix

enough chicken or turkey broth to moisten (and make it "mushy")

I added a few shakes of ground sage

Crumble the cornbread with your fingers so that there are no large pieces. The texture is a fine crumb. Mix all ingredients together, adding enough broth to make the mixture "mushy." Put into a greased 9x9 pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned on top.  

Notes:

*Double everything for a 9x13 pan. And the cooking time was nearly double, too. My double batch filled a 9x13 dish, plus a 1-qt dish which went into the freezer.

*Mother always stressed the importance of chopping the celery and onion fine. She said no one wants to bite into a big piece of celery. 

*I had a thought during the night! I did a reverse weigh of the stuffing I had left to figure out how much I used! It was right at 1 cup for a 9x9 pan of cornbread.

*It can be mixed the day before and refrigerated until it's time to bake. Adjust your time if baking straight from the refrigerator. 

 

And that's all she told me! Sometimes she added a little mashed cooked sweet potato to keep the dressing moist. (Instead of the can of chicken soup folks use now.) Last week I used the herb stuffing mix. How much you ask? About that much! I know you hate answers like that, but I can't tell you any more. 

And how much broth? For my double batch it was a little over a quart. I was using boxes of Swansons and I had to open the 2nd box. It always takes more than I think. 

A better question would be "how do I know when I've added enough?" My mother only said "mushy." I would add "but not soupy." Mine sloshed around a little in the dish when I put it in the refrigerator.

If you are brave enough to make this recipe that doesn't have precise amounts, remember that my mother never measured anything. So it's unlikely the amounts she used would have been exactly the same each time. And it always worked. I don't think precise is a requirement here.

Tomorrow, the day before Thanksgiving, I will mix up the dressing and have it ready to go into the oven on Thursday morning.  I'm pretty sure there will be enough to fill a 9x13-inch dish for the Thanksgiving table and a smaller dish to go into the freezer. I'll freeze it before I bake it. 

Our Thanksgiving visitors for the week!

Birthday Dinner

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

 

I got a text yesterday wishing me happy birthday that continued, "I hope you aren't cooking your own birthday dinner!" Well, it turns out that I did cook supper last night. We can have a "birthday dinner" some other time. Yesterday afternoon was busy so I planned a slow cooker meal and tried a new recipe. This one is good enough to share. The recipe is at the bottom.

What I did give myself as a birthday treat was extra time at the piano. I started piano lessons at age 6. And for well over 50 years everything I played was some kind of music written down in a book or on a piece of sheet music. I have stacks and stacks of music and shelves full of books. 

A curiousity you would see on my music shelves was the collection of fake books that I could not play from. If you are not a musician, that just means you only get a melody line and the chord names written in the appropriate place. (These are called lead sheets.) Not a complete written out song. Most fake books have hundreds of songs. I clearly remember buying my first fake book in 1974. The cover has fallen off but I still have it. Over the years I kept adding another fake book to my collection even though I didn't know what to do with them. It's a mystery why I even bought the first one, much less several more.

But it must have been a deeply buried desire to one day be able to sit down and play freely. No need to focus my eyes on tiny little black dots printed on the page. As I have aged, that is becoming hard to do. Buying those books was like planting seeds. Seeds that finally started to grow about two years ago when I started learning new music skills*. Learning chords—even the crazy sounding jazz chords with long symbols. (Easier to play than to read.) And most importantly learning that a lead sheet is a suggestion of a song. I can play it anyway I want to. Change the rhythm, change the chords, even tinker with the melody.

This has become my brain work. I have friends who love jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, Sudoku, cryptograms...all ways to keep our brains working. What I am doing is the same thing in musical form.

I only play for myself, in my own home. There is no goal to play "out" somewhere. It's just for fun. But oh, what fun I'm having! Here is a song I recorded yesterday. I remember hearing it when I was growing up. Some of you might remember this tune, too.

I gave myself quite a gift. The gift of not thinking I was too old to learn something completely new. Yes, this way of playing is THAT much different from reading music. So maybe it's time for you to try something you've always wanted to do. Instead of saying "I'm too old" say "better late than never!"

Now on to what was cooking in the slow cooker while I spent most of the morning at the piano. Beef Stroganoff is a perfect slow cooker recipe. The meat was so tender when it was done. It's close to how I usually cook stew meat (cubes of beef you can buy already cut up at the grocery store.). This recipe has more seasoning which upped the flavor. And the sour cream added richness.

Because we are a household of two, before I added the sour cream, I put half the cooked meat into a freezer container to save for later. You really cannot freeze it successfully after the sour cream is added. The sour cream will separate or curdle when it's thawed and reheated. When we are ready to have it another night, I will thaw, heat and then add the sour cream. Or, it would also be fine with NO sour cream.  You just can't say you're having "stroganoff" for dinner that night. It's the sour cream gravy that makes it stroganoff.

SLOW COOKER BEEF STROGANOFF

1 (10-1/2 oz.) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

8-oz. sliced mushrooms (I used baby Bellas)

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2-1/2 lbs. beef stew meat, cubed (I buy this already cut into cubes)

1 cup sour cream

16-oz. egg noodles

In your slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, garlic, Worcestershire sauce and dry onion soup mix until blended. Add diced onions and mushrooms and stir. Add stew meat and mix until coated in the soup mixture.

Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. (I cooked mine for 9 hours because of my schedule.)

When it's done, skim off any excess fat, then mix in sour cream.  

Serve over cooked egg noodles.

You can't get much easier than this. I will say that when I first took the lid off the slow cooker and added the sour cream, I thought the gravy was too thin. But I let it sit that way while I cooked the noodles. From the time I started heating the water to boil the noodles until they were done and drained was about 20 minutes. And by then, the gravy looked much more like "gravy." 

If you read the blog you saw that I saved half the recipe for the freezer BEFORE I added the sour cream. And we still have enough left for supper tonight. I don't mind leftovers for one night. More than that is too much!

This recipe came from Easy Family Recipes. You can find her excellent website online or follow her on Instagram, like I do. The recipes are just like she says—easy. 

*I joined this online piano lesson site 3-1/2 years ago. It has been more than I hoped for.

All Things Pumpkin

My friends and I needed some post-hurricane time to visit, to compare notes of our damage which ranged from "none" to "significant." So I invited everyone here for lunch. I promised it would be "all things pumpkin" since it's nearly Halloween. And I told them it would all be very simple. We just needed to be together.

Turns out it was a good thing simple was my original plan. I had two extra kitchen helpers yesterday while I was getting ready. These two plus their mom are here for the week. That's always fun.

And it's always interesting to see how they view the world. I told a friend yesterday if I were ever in need of an album cover for my music, this photo would be my choice. My own piano practice will resume next week.

And now here is my complete "all things pumpkin" menu. 

I think it's a good sign that we all had such a pleasant time that I never ever thought about making photos of any of the food. But I'll share the recipes. We enjoyed appetizers on the porch while everyone gathered. I had grand visions of making the pumpkin shaped brie I made last fall, or even a pumpkin dip. But then I needed something even easier.

Boar's Head makes a great pumpkin pie dessert hummus. I put it on a platter with cinnamon pita chips and pretzel squares. And on another platter I made my new favorite appetizer. It's also the quickest one I know to make.

EASY APPETIZER

Take Boursin or Alouette cheese (any flavor) and let it soften a bit. 

Then use the back of a spoon to spread it thin on a platter. 

Sprinkle with crushed pistachios (the roasted, salted kind)

Drizzle with honey. 

Serve with Wheat Thins or other sturdy crackers on the side.

ORANGE JUICE SPRITZER

1 (12-oz) can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

2 cups cold water

Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tbsp)

2 (12-oz) cans cold Seven-Up (or other lemon lime soda)

orange and lime slices for garnish

Mix concentrate and cold water. Add lemon juice. Gently stir in soda just before serving. Serve over ice  in glasses. Garnish with slices of orange and lime.

Makes 12 half-cup servings

When I invited everyone it was chilly weather and chili sounded perfect. Yesterday turned out to be a warm but I stuck with my plan. This is quick to make, I made a double batch on the stovetop the morning of the lunch. I did measure my spices out the day before to simplify things. This chili was Mommy's standard slow cooker meal for after trick-or-treating with her children. I first posted it here in 2011 when Little Sister was a baby. She's a teenager now. And we are still using this recipe.

TURKEY, WHITE BEAN, PUMPKIN CHILI

2 lb. ground turkey 

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (I use the jar kind)

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chili powder (more or less, to taste)

1 teaspoon oregano

2 bay leaves

1 (15-oz) can pumpkin puree (not the pie filling kind)

2 (15-oz) can great northern beans, rinsed & drained

1 (4-1/2 oz) can chopped green chiles

2 cups chicken broth (sometimes I add a little more)

Optional toppings: sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, minced cilantro, etc.

Heat large skillet over high heat. Add turkey and cook, breaking it apart, until done, about 5 minutes. Add to Crockpot. Add oil to skillet, then onions and garlic. Saute about 3-4 minutes. Add cumin and saute another minute. Add to Crockpot.

Add beans, pumpkin puree, green chiles, chili powder, oregano, salt and bay leaves. Stir to mix. Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

If you want to skip the Crockpot, make it in a large pot on the stovetop. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for about an hour or so, stirring occasionally.

And this dessert is a favorite that friends of mine made years ago when they hosted a bridal luncheon for my older daughter. We loved it and have been making it for nearly 20 years now. It's another "make the day before" recipe.

PUMPKIN CRUNCH

15-oz. can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
12-oz. can evaporated milk cup sugar

3/4
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 box yellow cake mix
1 and 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 to 1-1/2 cup chopped nuts

Mix pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, and cinnamon thoroughly and pour into a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish.
Sprinkle dry cake mix (straight out of the box) over pumpkin mixture. Pour melted butter over cake mix. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Bake 1 hour at 350º. Let cool completely

Topping:
1 8-oz block cream cheese, softened
1 box powdered sugar
1 8-oz container Cool Whip

Using a hand mixer, blend cream cheese until fluffy. Mix in powdered sugar. Then mix in whipped topping. Spread over cooled pumpkin cake. Refrigerate. Cut into squares to serve. Can sprinkle lightly with cinnamon or chopped pecans to garnish. (I never do this part.) 

And there you have it—an entire menu of pumpkin foods. Appetizer, entree and dessert. 🎃

Yesterday was a reminder for me that hospitality is about the time spent together. Even if you are stepping over toys on the floor and eating on paper plates. I had to keep it easy yesterday. I was making grilled cheese sandwiches for the little people while my friends were chatting on the porch. But it was all just as it should be. A relaxed time to get together. 

And one last pumpkin themed food. Jecca made these fun quesadillas for little people's dinner one night. It's too cute not to share.

Odds are I won't post next week, so it's time to say....

Hurricanes Are Fattening

Easy Vegetable Soup

Stress eating anyone? Has it happened to you? I'm finding it hard NOT to be stressed right now. We are still trying to get things done post storm—along with everyone else who needs contractors and tree services and insurance adjusters at the same time. Again, I am so aware that we are okay. We are the lucky ones. But it still has be be dealt with.

Every time I make the 30 minute trip into town, I ride through winding wooded country roads. I knew the storm blew hard through there. But after a couple of weeks, it looks even worse. But the green leaves are falling and the leaves on the downed trees have turned brown and have shriveled, so I can see more now. Huge root balls where big trees were uprooted are in the woods, in people's yards, in public spaces. Big gaping holes, enormous holes are left where the trees pulled up. No doubt what color our soil is here. We live in red clay territory.  

The news? All disturbing. I only watch the highlights in the morning now. We can't live in a hole or under a rock, but I can limit how much TV news I see. I think most of us are dealing a little more stress than usual right at this moment in time.

And that's how I found myself doing some major stress eating for the last couple of weeks. Then I visited the doctor several days ago and I had to step on the scales. Standard procedure. When I saw the number, I told the nurse that obviously hurricanes are fattening! She laughed and agreed. Junk food. More snacking because we weren't doing anything else for days. Eating what was the easiest to make, maybe without power. 

So last weekend I made a big pot of my "get back on track soup." The recipe has been on the blog for years. It was a WW recipe.  Over the years, I have tweaked it enough to share again. It's still a very light soup. But it's tasty and it's filling. I don't mind eating it for several days in a row. It really helps me move back into a better pattern. I don't have to think of what "healthy" recipe to cook for a few days. I promised Daddy-O  that while I eat this soup for days, I would make him anything he wanted. He doesn't love soup, but he will eat a small bowl as a side dish. At least I know he's getting vegetables.

EASY VEGETABLE SOUP

1 16- oz bag frozen vegetables for soup
1/2 medium head cabbage, finely chopped
1 medium onion, diced  (or 1/2 large onion)
1 15-oz can cut green beans, drained
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 pkg dry Ranch Dressing mix (all I had this time was dip mix)
1 tomato can full of water (swish to get all of the tomatoes) that's about 2 cups

1-quart low sodium chicken broth 
freshly ground black pepper, to taste 

Put all ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes or longer, until vegetables are as tender as you like them. We like ours cooked longer, until the cabbage is very tender. This time I probably let it simmer a little over an hour.

There is no meat in this. (Much to Daddy-O's dismay.) You can certainly add some. I have added cooked chicken, leftover roast, etc. But when I'm in this "less is more" mode, I prefer just the vegetables. In my mug of soup, I like to crumble two saltine crackers into it. That's how we ate soup growing up, so for me it's comfort food.

And last night I enjoyed "comfort food" for my soul. We had a concert at our church that had been scheduled months ago. The college students who sang had just gotten back to campus after it was closed for a couple of weeks to get things up and running. I sat in our very old sanctuary (built in 1857), looking at the evening sun stream through our beautiful stained glass windows and listened to the rich harmonies of old hymns. And I let the words "peace like a river...love like an ocean" seep into my being. 

 

What A Difference A Day Makes

Wednesday morning, Sept 25

 

Like so many people in our state and our neighboring states, last week didn't end like it started. I have photographed this barn hundreds and hundreds of times for years. I've documented the sunrise in all seasons. When I walk into the kitchen each morning to get coffee, the old barn and the sunrise is my first view of the day.

Saturday morning, Sept 28

Then on Friday morning my sky view was unlike anything we had ever seen. Hurricane Helene blew right over us. Here. Hundreds of miles from the coast. In a place where hurricanes don't exist. Until last week.Typically by the time a hurricane makes its way this far inland, it's no longer a hurricane. The storm has lost most of its fury and we might get rain and wind. Not this time.

We were lucky. I almost didn't share the photos of this barn because our damage looks minor when you see what happened in North Carolina. We have watched in horror at the complete destruction others are dealing with. Communities are trying to figure out how to get children back to school. Our schools here start next week, two weeks post storm. Just north of us, they are digging wells at schools to provide water in hopes of reopening in a few more weeks.

We have more significant damage across our farm. Barns will have to be torn down. Roof repairs need to happen. But our house was untouched. And we had a generator that ran for a week. We were among the lucky ones. I only want to say how quickly things can change. In ways that we can't predict. 

Everything is  better with ice cream.

Now on to kitchen things. My cooking keeps getting simpler and simpler. And the internet provides endless possibilities of 2 and 3 ingredient recipes. I am fully aware that these shortcut recipes are not gourmet kitchen creations. But they are tasty. Good enough to make again. Some days "good enough" is as all I require.

Apple Spice Cake

This quick cake popped up a couple of times in the last few weeks. I had a can of apple pie filling in my pantry that needed to be used sooner rather than later. (Can't remember why I bought it a year or so ago.) I made this the day before the storm not knowing it would be our treat for days while the power was out.

The original used nothing but a box of spice cake mix and a can of apple pie filling. It reminded me of the Pumpkin Spice Muffins we have made for years. I had to adjust to use what I had on hand. Here is what I did:

APPLE SPICE CAKE

1 box yellow cake mix

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1 can apple pie filling

about 1/2 cup water, enough to be able to blend ingredients

Blend the apple pie spice into the dry cake mix. Cut the apples in the canned filling into bite-size pieces. If the apples in the brand you have are soft, you could mash them up. 

Stir pie filling and water into the cake mix. Spoon into a greased 2-qt baking dish. Bake at 350º for 30-ish minutes. I watched until it got brown on top.

Sometimes I do have spice cake mix on the shelf. But the yellow cake and apple pie spice was great. You could use pumpkin pie spice, too, or even cinnamon with a little nutmeg. USE WHAT YOU HAVE!

The original recipe didn't even use water. I could not even get the cake and pie filling mixed, so I added water, about 1/2 cup, like the pumpkin muffins. Enough to mix things together. It's still a stiff batter. I just realized you could copy the pumpkin muffin recipe even further and make muffins. 

Also keep this recipe in mind if your circle includes anyone with an egg allergy. No eggs here!

And then last night Mother Nature brought us another unexpected event. But this was a wonderful one. Way down in the Deep South we got a glimpse of the Northern Lights.