That cake looks FANTASTIC! YUM! I've been cooking up a storm. I never know if we'll have 2 or 3 or 20. Usually the odd drop-ins all day when our friends figure out who's got the food! I stuffed a pumpkin with lentils, wild rice, amaranth, toasted pecans and dry cranberries and roasted it almost all the way, made pumpkin pie, baked sweet potatoes and regular potatoes and the regular get mashed tomorrow, made a salad of tomatoes and will pick arugula for it tomorrow, roasted carrots, beets and creamed the beet greens. Tomorrow I finish off the corn bread. We are also going to hang mini bagels with bird seed for the birds and probably begin baking holiday cookies tomorrow if people drop in and decide to bake. I dried herbs all this week to begin making herbal holiday cookies, teas and treats!

Julie, When we first moved here in 1999, my neighbor told me he grew cherries and apricots in addition to plums and pears. I asked him why he would 'waste' his time and space on them since they usually bloom early, freeze, and don't produce a crop. He told me that the apricots and cherries produced a crop for him just about as often as the peaches and plums. After living here for a few years and going through the ups and downs of fruit production, I can tell you that every year we have a good peach and plum crop, he also has a good apricot and cherry crop. So, yes, I think I am going to go for it and plant both apricots and cherries to go with my peaches and plums. My neighbor is turning 87 years old this year and he just planted 4 new trees--2 peaches, 1 apricot, 1 cherry. He is assuming he will still be around to harvest fruit from those trees in a few years. (Good for him! I like his positive thinking.) As a concession to his advancing age, however, he did plant dwarfs so he won't have to climb ladders to pick the fruit! He doesn't search for any special variety--just buys whatever they have at the feed store or home center store. He doesn't give them any special treatment. G.M., After all the time I spent dreading doing the peeling, I had a brainstorm. Why couldn't I drop the apricots in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds and then in ice water. That is what I do with tomatoes when I process them and the skin slides right off. Guess what? It worked with the apricots. So, I guess it took me about an hour or so. What a relief! I put the peel and apricot pits in my compost pile. Maybe an apricot will plant itself (although if it did, there is no guarantee it would ever fruit). Oops, sunshine is gone again and rain is back! Dawn

Is this something like what you are looking for, by any chance? Coconut Foldovers 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 1 egg 1/4 cup milk 3/4 cup sugar 3 teaspoons unsalted butter 1/3 cup evaporated milk 1 cup shredded coconut 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon Combine flour, baking powder, and salt cut in shortening to the size of small peas combine egg and milk-mix well add to flour mixture-mix well form into a ball cover and chill for 60-90 minutes meanwhile, combine sugar and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan, over a low flame heat and stir until mixture bubbles add butter and condensed milk, stir add coconut, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon-mix well remove from heat, cool divide dough into equal portions rollout each piece to a 6-inch circle place 3 tablespoons filling onto 1 side of each circle fold in half and press egdes with a fork to seal place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet bake @ 400 degrees for 15 minutes remove from oven serve hot

This reminds me that I used to make them like my Mom did, which was like Daisyinga's Mom makes, but with fresh apples, and I sprinkled sugar on top while they were hot. I haven't made any for a long time, because I can't get good apples anymore. Here is a good different way to make something similar, if you can get the apples. I made these last year when a neighbor gave me some apples from an orchard somewhere. Unfortunately, they have moved away! SWEET MINI APPLE DUMPLINGS 2 8-oz tubes refrigerated crescent rolls. 4 apples, cored, peeled and sliced into 8 wedges 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1 cup water 1 Tbls (m-l) cinnamon Cut each crescent roll in half, forming 2 triangles from each. Roll up 1 apple wedge in each triangle, crescent roll style. Arrange in a sprayed 13x9 inch pan. Set aside. Put butter, sugar and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Pour over crescents. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Makes 32. Sue