Book Group Night

It’s our last meeting of the year – we take December OFF for the holidays – and I feel like a failure! For the first time since being pregnant or having small, nursing babies, I didn’t finish the book!! Ugh! I usually save the book club choice until the last week before our meeting, so the details can be fresh in my mind. So far, my M.O. has worked – until this week. Everything that could go wrong did – including a child being sent home from school with LICE. My free hours for the past few days have been devoted to delousing everything in our house, including parents, children and furniture. I’m exhausted. And although the first 40 pages of Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” were utterly fascinating and disturbing, I just didn’t have the brain power to overcome my unforeseen obstacles. This was a week for a romance novel.

To make up for my lack of literary brain power, I’m making Pumpkin Dump Cake, a recipe I found through Amy’s Fall Recipe Exchange. It’s in the oven and smells scrumptious. We have a Thanksgiving Pot Luck for our November meeting. Hopefully my book groupees will forgive me my literary trespasses when they eat this cake.

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Here's What You Need:
1 (29 oz) can of Pumpkin
1 cup of sugar
1 (12 oz) can of evaporated milk
3 eggs
4 tsp. of pumpkin pie spices (or combination of cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves/ginger
1/2 tsp. of salt
1 box of yellow cake mix
3/4 cup of melted butter
1 cup chopped pecans

Here's What You Do!

First you're going to combine the pumpkin, sugar, evaporated milk, eggs, pumpkin pie spices and salt in a mixing bowl. Beat well. Pour this lovely mixture into a greased 9x13 glass pan. Sprinkle cake mix over the pumpkin mixture and then sprinkle in the pecans. Pour melted butter over it. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. When you stick the knife into the center and it comes out clean, you're good to go! Make sure you keep an eye on it at the end as it'll burn easily. This will make tons of goodies for you (or 12-15 people) to enjoy!