Joyce's Birthday Hodge Podge

Welcome to this weeks version of  Hodgepodge...so glad you stopped by to read my answers.  I hope you will hop on over to our hostesses blog and wish her a Happy Birthday.  Here are my answers to this week's questions.  if you want to play along then grab the questions, answer them yourself, and link up at Joyce's and see what everyone else said.  It is a lot of fun.

1. When did you last sing happy birthday to someone? When were you last sung to? Does that embarrass you or do you enjoy being the center of attention on your special day?
We sang happy birthday to Carissa at her 18th birthday party on September 1st and then to Lura and Charlotte at Bible Study last Wednesday...oh and we sang it at church on Sunday.  At both Midway and Rock Mills we always celebrate the Birthday's and Anniversaries of the week.   Happy Birthday Joyce.  I hope your day is amazing.  My birthday is April 15th and I will enter a new decade.  I will be 60.  I think I am going to celebrate the whole month.....well...except for the Holy Days.  Happy Birthday was sung to me at my Surprise Party on my 59th birthday given in my honor by my Porch People family.  It was a huge surprise....the first one ever.  No one ever gets by me with a surprise like that.

2. Name a famous or 'infamous' person who shares your birth month and day. Is that someone you'd like to meet in person if it were possible?  Taking a different route with the question....My dad's birthday was April 14th and he was working in Ft. Meyers, FL.  He stayed home on the 14th because he just knew I would be born.  He left early the next morning to travel 4 hours to Ft. Meyers and my mom went into labor.  She had to take a taxi to Good Sam Hospital where I was born.  .April 15th is quite an infamous day. On April 15th, Lincoln died, in 1912 the Titanic sank, income taxes are due, the Boston Marathon bombing occurred.  Famous people born on my day were: 
Emma Watson - actress from Harry Potter
Leonardo da Vinci-Renaissance artist, inventor, polymath, musician, and architect who painted the Mona Lisa and drew the iconic Vitruvian Man.
Elizabeth Montgomery - Samantha Stephens on the show Bewitched. I always thought she looked just like my best friends mom.
Bessie Smith -Empress of the Blues who sang in the 1920s and 1930s.
Michael Ansara - Husband of Barbara Eden(I Dream of Jeannie fame) was Cochise in the TV series Broken Arrow.

3. Someone hands you a box tied up in a lovely bow...what are you hoping to find inside?
I like to get jewelry.  I would love a camera, something homemade,  tickets for something, gift certificates.  I love boxes with bows.  I love to wrap boxes with huge elaborate bows. 

4. What is something you can guarantee about yourself?
I am a Christian.
5. Talking about art and beautiful cities here...'The Last Supper' in the Santa Maria della Grazie Abbey in Milan, Italy or 'The Mona Lisa' in the Louvre, Paris...which would you most like to see up close and in person? Why?  I have seen the Last Supper in the Santa Maria della Grazie Abbey in Milan and felt as if I had died and gone to heaven.  It was amazing.  Italian art museums that we visited were amazing. 

6. Your favorite dessert?
I cannot chose just one.  Dessert depends on how I feel.  I like different desserts in different seasons....Carols molasses cookies, Celia Towlers homemade chocolate ice cream, Apple pie or apple schnitz, Beth's apple dumplings, Amy's sweet potato dumplings, Mrs. Betty Jeans Key Lime/Strawberry cakes, Deborah's Birthday Cakes, Mrs. Shirley's Coconut Cake (and I don't even like coconut), my cousin Judy's lemon cake. 

7. This coming weekend marks the official start of autumn (in the northern hemisphere)...what is something you do to get ready for fall? What is one thing you're looking forward to on your fall calendar? Spring or fall-which do you prefer?
I  do some seasonal decorating outside in the fall.  I do some inside.  I love this time of year.  I have had years when I went all out....but not so much lately.   I love the scents of autumn.  Frank and I will cut back some of the bushes and as the nights cool I will begin moving plants inside for winter. 
Fall is my all time  favorite season of the year.  I grew up in South Florida with two seasons....summer and hurricane..... and I always wanted to live somewhere where there was an explosion of glorious color. 

8. Insert your own random thought here.  I am a huge apple fan.  I love the things...raw, dried, whatever....one of my favorite easy peasy recipes is this Apple Dumpling recipe I found.  I thought I would share it with you today.....

Easy Peasy Apple Dumplings - (Diabetic friendly)

Ingredients: 

1 or 2 large Granny Smith Apples

2 10 ounce cans Reduced fat refrigerated Crescent Rolls

1 cup light butter

1 1/2 cups sugar ( I use Splenda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 12 oz. can Mt. Dew(diet).  I use Sierra Mist Diet too

 

Direction: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F . Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cut each apple into 8 wedges and set aside. Separate the crescent roll dough into triangles. Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end. Pinch to seal and place in the baking dish.
2. Partially melt butter in a small bowl in microwave and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the apple dumplings. Pour Mountain Dew over the dumplings.
3. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Watch them to see how much they're browning . Depending on your oven it make take less time or more . If they seem to browning too much but don't look done in the middle , cover with foil .

So, what is your favorite way to eat an apple????  The Apple Festival is coming to Ellijay, Ga....on the 12th of October.  I can taste them now.  Whoooo hooooooo!