Saturday, June 24, 2017

I heard it through the grapevine

At the little Methodist Church we attend, the last Sunday of every month (except December) is Fellowship Lunch Sunday when everyone is invited to stay after the service and eat a meal together in the Fellowship Hall, a meal consisting of whatever edible goodies the congregation have brought with them. In your part of the world such an event might be called a Pot Luck or a Covered-Dish Dinner, but we call it a Fellowship Lunch.

You're invited even if you haven't brought anything. There's always plenty to go around. Methodists are funny that way. Some people bring the same thing every month, especially if their contribution has received compliments in the past, and some people bring something different each time. Patsy always brings a casserole, Nina can be counted on for meat loaf, Randy always brings his strawberry shortcake, and so forth. In recent months Mrs. RWP has joined the desserts crowd and brought a cherry dump cake several times, a scrumptious delight that contains cherry pie filling, yellow cake mix, crushed pineapple, butter, shredded coconut, and chopped pecans. One struggles to maintain one's girlish figure at events like these.

This month my talented wife decided to make something different involving apple pie filling and angel food cake mix. These were the only ingredients in the new recipe that she found. Not one to settle for merely what a recipe says, she decided to add some California raisins:


No, not those! She reached into the pantry and pulled out these:


But in the end she decided not to add raisins after all and used pecans instead.

Can you figure out why?

No? Look a little closer:


As Shakespeare once said, though, all's well that ends well.


10 comments:

  1. Not being bound by a recipe is the mark of a true cook I believe...

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  2. I reached clear into the back of my cupboard a couple of weeks ago for a an of evaporated milk that I was sure needed to be used soon. I did not check the date but I should have. When I opened the an the milk was curdled. I didn't knnow it would do that. I love a good dump cake and they are so easy to make.

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  3. Some friends stayed in my house a few years ago when I was in New Zealand for my usual 6 month stay. When I came back my food cupboard had been cleared of everything which had an expired 'Best Before' date. I was not amused. A food scientist friend (who was a director of a multi-national food company) told me that 'Use by' generally means use by but 'Best Before' means if its smells ok then it probably is ok.

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  4. Thanks for the comments!

    Sue, she usually sticks to recipes but felt this one needed something more! The apple-pecan cake was very good indeed.

    Emma, there are very few things worse than curdled milk! Another good dump cake is made with blueberries instead of cherries.

    Graham, the box of raisins had neither "Use by" nor "Best Before" though. What's a person to do? Just toss it, I think. Of course, this one was more than two years past the date, so the choice was obvious.

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  5. My aunt taught me to make dump cake years ago....applesauce & crushed pineapple first, a yellow cake mix spread over...a cube of butter sliced on it and then plenty of coconut & nuts & voila! A delicious mix that I still make. Actually, if it weren't 96* out today I might consider baking it right now!

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  6. Hill Lady, I don't know anybody who doesn't love dump cake! But this apple-pecan creation was really good and not quite so sweet to the taste (which is a good thing, in my opinion).

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  7. Good day sir. Sending you felicitations. If I might be so bold, I should like to thank you for sharing such a delightful blogpost with your adoring public amongst whom I of course include myself.

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  8. Pudding, your felicitations are received most graciously at this end, if I do say so myself. And I do, or rather, I just did. You seem in fine fettle today, kind sir. Keep up the good work. I'll be in the area all day.

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  9. Hahahaha, yes I've found aged dried fruit in my cupboards too, and I have a mixer now so have been baking some. I suspect your lovely misses can bake rather better than myself mind you, lovely looking pie!

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  10. A.C./Michelle, I have no complaints at all about her cooking!

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<b>My new favorite poem</b>

...is the following one, purportedly by Billy Collins: Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House The neighbors'...