I have been gone for awhile………but, I am back!

I have not been gone in the physical sense, but I have been very ill, along with my wife we have been helping each other thru our health issues. I am sorry for not getting back to this, but under the circumstances I hope you understand. When you reach a certain age, it seems harder to bounce back. I am really jealous at all of the younger people and older people that are able to keep their mobility and stamina up. I see people older than us and they are walking around the block, riding bicycles and walking their dogs. What is that all about? We have a neighbor that is retired and obviously older than we, but they just put in their own lawn sprinkler system!! That is not normal, or is it? I drove by and waved a simple wave, they didn’t see that, but I got a visual that would scare off anyone, especially if you ever had a plumber in your house working on the floor, it is called plumbers crack. No, that is not something that you would smoke!!! (I didn’t say that), but something that is “proudly” displayed by all plumbers in America. But, in this case it was just my next door neighbor, he probably didn’t notice or care that half of his “lower” cheeks were protruding from his jeans. I told my wife about it and she just shook her head. What is it about that blue collar men have to do? I can’t button my pants, because of this ailment that I have so I have my zipper half way down, I bent over to pick a weed and I noticed this flood of cold air hit the top of my lower back, (does that make sense), I think you have the picture. Anyway I noticed it right a way. It seems that someone that is showing his “crack”, proudly, that he would sense that something is not right and it is “glowing" to the rest of the world to see. I would think after doing his chore that he would notice a definite sunburn line, when he took a shower to clean up, where none normally exist, unless he is wearing a bikini that is “really” low and that would really be a picture, be it an ugly one at that. Well, enough of that I can’t talk about it too much longer. I feel this draft, no not there! I have to go back to bed to get warm again. It is terrible when you have to get warm and then you have to get cold, it seem my last bout with the flu really took me down and I haven’t bounced back yet, hence the reason for this long dissertation. Back to my original reason for this blog, my wife made this fantastic cake last night. It is from the Paula Deen’s show on Food Network, “Paula’s Home Cooking”, and she made it and I can’t stop eating it. Now remember this is something that I shouldn’t be eating because of the fiber at least that is what I shouldn’t be doing for the next few weeks. Well, here is the recipe and remember do exactly as it says, and don’t eat it for a least the next day for the flavors to meld….if you can…..

Grandgirl's Fresh Apple Cake from Georgia
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen


Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Yield: 16 to 20 servings
Cake:
Butter, for greasing pan
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups peeled and finely chopped apples
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Sauce:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease a tube pan.

For the cake: in a large bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, oil, orange juice, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract; and mix well. Fold apples, coconut, and pecans into batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a tester comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours.

Shortly before the cake is done, make the sauce: Melt the butter in a large saucepan, stir in the sugar, buttermilk, and baking soda, and bring to a good rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Pour the sauce over the hot cake in the pan as soon as you remove it from the oven. Let stand 1 hour, and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Episode#: PA1C23Copyright © 2003 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved