The Mattress

Today I spotted a mattress in the road. What’s so odd about this? It was in the road in Clarksville, MD, dear people! A mattress! Dumped in the road! In Clarksville! The horror! My friend spoke thus: ‘What is this, white trash town?!’

The offending mattress

I had to pull over and take a picture. Goodness me, whatever next in Clarksville…..Big Issue sellers…? 😉

The proof is in the pudding

Is it really? Another friend – a British one – announced her dismay at hearing some Americans use this very phrase.

The original phrase is “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”. Which means you have to eat the pudding to know what’s inside of it.

The modern version of “The proof is in the pudding” implies that there is a lot of evidence that I will not go through at this moment and you should take my word for it, or you could go through all of the evidence yourself. Apparently.

But this is a paraphrase of the original phrase, which means nothing, suggested my friend. I think her actual words were: “WTFing hell do they mean by that?”

There might some proof in here. Or some rum, or whisky, or even a penny.

Deer nibbling my bushes

Two handsome deer spent an hour nibbling the berries on my bushes this morning (which made me giggle in an immature way when I kept thinking about that).

Cute as buttons, they were, despite the ticks.

Bill the deer

His brother, Ben

Pumpkin Crunch Cake (aka Cholesterol Raising, Have a Heart Attack Cake)

I’m no cook, but as we are heading towards Halloween there are many recipes around involving pumpkins. Not real pumpkins, though. Canned pumpkin puree stuff.

Eat your way to a heart attack with this monstrosity 😉

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 1 9×13 inch cake

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup margarine, melted
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9×13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix well, and spread into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle cake mix over the top of the pumpkin mixture, and pat down. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over the cake mix, then drizzle with melted margarine.

Bake for 60 to 80 minutes, or until done. Top with whipped topping when ready to serve.

Open a can, make the cake

Hello Halloween.