Friday, July 23, 2021

Where Has Summer Gone?

Apple Pineapple Dump Cake


Goodness, what a summer! (Is it still summer?Is it all over? I've lost track.) After many, many months of barely seeing family—at least close enough to touch them—we had an uninterrupted six weeks of family in residence. And for one of those weeks, we had the entire family together. That hasn't happened in nearly two years. It was fabulous. But it's taken me a couple more weeks to recover from all the fun. 


We did some house swapping during this family time. Besides the farm, we have a lake cabin and its little sister cottage that sits a few feet away from the cabin. So after much moving around between "houses" it's been a bit of a treasure hunt to find things at home. Partly because we just forgot where things were. That was a long time to be away.


For most of the six weeks, we lived at the lake and let Mommy, J-Daddy and the little girls enjoy the wide open space at the farm. But they also had time at the lake to enjoy the water activities. Thankfully, the farm and the lake aren't too far apart, so we got to see them wherever they were.


The pandemic lockdown started just weeks after Little Lady was born, so Little Sister and Baby Girl had only see her once right after she was born. They were all excited to be together at long last. And Little Lady tried her best to do everything the big girls did. It was fun to watch it all.

We miss having them here, but it's also been good to settle down and do some of our regular things. One of the activities we've enjoyed during our year of stay-at-home is the virtual Chautauqua series from our local Chautuaqua society. Earlier this week we enjoyed a lecture on "Food Fads from the 1940s through the 1960s." I watched "with" a friend in Manhattan and we had so much fun texting as we listened, sharing our memories about many of these foods. 

If you are interested, the lecture is available on YouTube until Thursday, August 5th, 2021. Here is the link and the description from the Spartanburg County Library:

"Remember Jell-O salads and cheese sprayed out of a can? When every pantry held Velveeta and all the kids wanted to drink Tang? Join historian and author Leslie Goddard for a nostalgic look at the food innovations and marketing approaches that transformed how we ate at midcentury."

And you might think I made this dessert the night of the lecture to be on theme. I did not. To be honest, I REALLY wanted dessert that night and this was the only thing I could come up with that used ingredients I had in the house. In my mind, it's a desperation dessert. But it certainly checked all the boxes of the food fad lecture!


APPLE PINEAPPLE DUMP CAKE

1 (28-oz) can apple pie filling (the kind with extra fruit)
1 (20-oz) can crushed pineapple packed in juice
1 box yellow cake mix (the two layer size)
2 sticks (1 cup) of butter, melted

Spray or grease a 9x13-inch pan. (I lined mine with foil for easy clean-up. It was that kind of night.)
Dump ingredients into pan in this order: spread pie filling over the bottom of pan, pour crushed pineapple with the juice over the pie filling; sprinkle dry cake mix over the pineapple; pour melted butter over the dry cake mix. Don't stir.

Bake at 350ยบ for 50 to 60 minutes, until golden brown.

You could swap the apple pie filling for another fruit filling. I've done this before with cherry pie filling. And you could sprinkle chopped nuts over the top before baking, too. We don't do nuts here any more, but the crunch of the toasted nuts would be a nice addition.


This is really rich, but it hit the spot. And hopefully satisfied my dessert craving for weeks to come. I would have added a scoop of ice cream to my dish if there had been any in the freezer. Of course, if there had been ice cream here, I wouldn't have made dessert!


REMINDER:  If you subscribed to this blog by using the email box that was on the right hand sidebar, remember that there are major changes happening to that service. I have read all of the alerts and to be honest, I didn't understand most of what they said. BUT if you used that sign up option, and find that in the coming weeks you are no longer getting any blog notices, that may be why. I think there are other feed services out there that you can use. 

And you can always find the blog by searching for it. thegrandmothergig.blogspot.com  Check in from time to time to see what's new.



 

3 comments:

  1. Sounds as though you've had a wonderful summer with family visiting and having fun. Love the downward dog pose done by all three, even the littlest one! Now, it's time to recuperate. I bet it seems quiet at your house.

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    1. That little one is 18 months old. But hung right in there with the cousins! Yes. It's way too quiet here at the moment.

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  2. You had me smiling throughout this post and then I get to your note at the end -- oh boy, can I ever relate. I've been receiving notices about my subscribers as well and have to also admit it's all a bit Greek to me how to deal with it. I like your little note.

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Hi, y'all! I love that you've taken time to tell me something here. Makes me feel like we're neighbors.