Last week I screwed up free-book Wednesday by posting it on Tuesday. Then I couldn’t post it again until Thursday. So free-book Wednesday kind of didn’t really happen.
This might be why no one wrote in looking for my copy of “Cake Ladies: Celebrating a Southern Tradition,” by Jodi Rhoden. It’s a book for committed bakers, but the finished products look like they’re worth the trouble.
I’m also offering up “50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker,” by Lynn Alley. That’s where I got the recipe for Hot and Sour Soup I wrote about in my column Sept. 28.
If you want either book or both, send an e-mail to jennie.geisler@timesnews.com. Give me your name, your mailing address (just so I can send the book. It will not be published) and the name of the book you want.

For those of you who are just here for the food, here’s a recipe I tried on Monday. My husband called it decadent. I tried to defend it by saying it contained pumpkin and walnuts, but he’s right. It probably is kind of decadent.
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Muffins
I added a a 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the muffin batter, and a streusel topping from another recipe:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cold butter
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts
Combine sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter until it makes coarse crumbs, stir in nuts and sprinkle on top of muffin batter before baking..