I didn't fall off of the end of the earth! I'm still here, somewhere. Lets see if I can bring this out of date blog, back to the present.

My dear hubby presented me with an early anniversary present a couple of weeks ago. (our anniversary is tomorrow). He gave me a cast iron pie dish! I didn't even know there was such a thing! Since cherry pie is his very favorite pie, I made him one in it. I used a recipe from Mary, his step Mom. He has always like her pie best, so I asked her for her recipe. My first pie in this unusual pie dish turned out perfect! Cast iron holds the heat much better than other kinds that I was a little concerned about how to bake in it. The crust was nicely browned even in the bottom of the pie. I will use it again soon and try a pumpkin pie. Here is a photo of the first pie.

It is hard to imagine that Solomon will be 20 years old in the spring! He looks good. I haven't ridden him for several years, except for about 15 or twenty minutes last summer. He has arthritis in his right stifle joint and has a little hitch in his gait if he is moving faster than a walk. One evening last week when we were putting the horses in for their evening feeding, I noticed that Solomon had a wet mouth, kind of foamy around his lips. I looked at his mouth but didn't see anything. I put him in his stall and he started to eat his supper, but he would hold his head at funny angles and stick out his tongue. He stopped eating and walked over to the door and stood there. This was out of character for him as he is a pig when it comes to food. I asked Ed if he would get the halogin flashlight, which he did. I grabbed his tongue and pulled it out of his mouth to the side and Ed shone the light in his mouth and he had a piece triangular piece of wood stuck between his upper molars! Since his tongue was pulled out to the side, he couldn't bite me, so I stuck my hand in his mouth and knocked it loose and it fell out! What a relief for him! He went right back to eating and enjoying his supper! Whew! Glad that was a easy fix!

I was given several overripe bananas a couple of days ago, so this morning I made a Banana Nut Cake with Caramel Frosting. For someone that doesn't like the taste of ripe bananas it was pretty good. Better than that, it was very tasty! I was quite surprised! It was moist and just sweet enough and I can't stop eating it! Ed wasn't sure he would like a banana cake, he wanted me to make a Banana Nut Bread, and since I had a few more of the bananas left, I made one of those too. I added a cup of dried cranberries to the dough along with the nuts and it was tasty too. Ed loved it with the dried fruit in it.

A couple of weeks ago I made an Old Fashioned Fruit Cake from a recipe book that my Mom has that was published in the 1940's. It makes a 10 pound cake, and takes 16 cups of fruit, but it is so good! I don't make it every year, but when I do, it makes enough for our family holiday meals and some goes into the freezer for the next year. It keeps very well. It is dense and fruity. Nothing like the ones you buy in the grocery store. It is best made before the holidays so it has time to mellow. So yummy!

The fall leaves here in central Indiana were just beautiful this year. I took my camera and went on a couple of picture taking drives. Here are a couple of photos that I took before all the leaves fell off.