Recipe and Cookbook Review - If You Can't Stand the Heat by Robert Medina

Firefighters are heroes! I have to admit I've always had a "thing" for a fireman in turnouts. My husband actually used to be a volunteer firefighter, but that was many years ago. I was really excited to find Robert Medina's cookbook If You Can't Stand the Heat. As I thumbed through the cookbook, I marked all kinds of recipes I want my husband to make for us (he's the fancy chef around here). I did find an easy-to-make dessert that I'm sharing here with you!

Dump Cake is my kind of recipe - just a few ingredients, no fancy spices I've never heard of, and, well, it's cake! Go get your 9"x13" metal pan.Turn on your oven to 350 degrees F. Open a can of crushed pineapple and dump it in the pan, juices and all. I used the back of a spoon to kind of spread it around to the edges.

Then open a can of cherry pie filling. Rather than dump it, I kind of spooned the cherry pie filling onto the pineapple so I could arrange it nicely (my OCD kicking in there). Try not to eat too many of the cherries,  even though it's very tempting. I only ate one because there's just never enough in the can, you know?

Then open the box of cake mix. Robert Medina recommends yellow or white cake. I used yellow cake, although it looks white when you pour it all over the pineapple/cherry mix. Don't stir! I got a clean spoon and kind of spread it out nicely. The next step is to sprinkle 2 ounces of crushed walnuts over the cake batter. I got walnut pieces, put them in a zipper bag, and smooshed them with my rolling pin to crush them.

 

Then take a stick of butter (not margarine, real butter) and cut it into teaspoon size pieces (that would be eight pieces normally). Arrange them on top of the walnuts and put the pan into the oven for fifty minutes. Your house will begin smelling amazingly tropical very soon.

After fifty minutes, remove the pan from the oven with oven mitts and set the pan on a wire rack to cool a bit. Don't burn your mouth, wait until it cools before you try it. I used a spatula to cut a piece when it was warm. The consistency is like a cobbler and it's absolutely, positively delicious! I love it!

 

My daughter ate a piece, then left for work early so she wouldn't have another piece. My son ate three pieces and wanted more, but we're making him wait until his brother gets home from work so he can try it too. My husband, who hates pineapple, said, "This is REALLY GOOD."

I can't wait for my husband to make the Shrimp and Crab Martini! You can grab a copy of If You Can't Stand the Heat, a New Orleans Firefighter's Cookbook by Robert Medina at http://fireitup.tateauthor.com/. Best of all, every purchase of this fabulous cookbook helps support the National Fallen Firefighter's Foundation.
Disclosure: I received this book at no charge in exchange for my honest review.