The "Best Desserts on Earth" Story

It was an ordinary day. I was making a dinette cake. Yep, LDub can cook. Kind of. For years my wife would make dinette cakes for me so that I can put strawberries on it. Sort of like a shortbread or shortcake, but much sweeter. Her own recipe. Well the first time I made it myself. Cooking can't be hard, can it? I waited until Carol came home from work and showed her what I had done. It wasn't as puffy as when she makes them, but it looked good. I think she was impressed, until we had it for dessert with the strawberries on it. Really gross! "OK, show me what you used to make it," she said. I got out the flour, sugar, etc. and lined them up on the counter. "This is what you used?" she asked. Seems I used 10X sugar instead of flour for the main ingredient. "It was white," I told her, "and I know that flour is white." She got out the marker and marked the names on all the ingredients because she knew I was going to try again. And it was great the second time around. Now I make all my own dinette cakes. I got to thinking of all the good desserts that Carol has made for me over the years and composed a list and a little about each dessert. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies - Carol used to make them more often, but since I am semi-retired now, I tend to eat more during the day and the cookies would put the weight on me. They are so soft and delicious they melt in your mouth. You can really taste the butter in them. I like them when they are a little undercooked. More gooey that way. Great for dunkin'.

2. Cherry Pie -Carol's speciality pie. On special holidays, when everyone is coming to the house, she will bake an extra cherry pie and keep it hidden somewhere so after the guests have left, we have an extra pie just for Carol and me and maybe the kids. The pie is so sweet and the cherries and crust just melt in your mouth. Starting to get the idea that I have a sweet tooth.

3. Lemon poppy seed cake - My daughter Brynn's favorite as well as mine. The most moist cake you'll ever eat. Almost liquid! I like to dunk everything and this dessert sinks right to the bottom of the milk when you dunk it. The lemon icing on top of the white cake with the poppy seeds in it is remarkable.

4. Sugar Cookies - Yep, another cookie favorite. These cookies are so sweet and moist they are to die for. Add the raisin on the top and I can eat at least 2 dozen with milk before I even notice how much more I weigh.

5. Pumpkin Cookies - Much like the sugar cookies, but made with Carol's famous pumpkin bread. For years she has made loaves of pumpkin bread for presents, because that is what people put on their list as a gift from us. I like the pumpkin bread, but after she makes them into cookies with the caramel icing on them, they're fantastic. Another belly buster.

6. Carol's Apple Dumplings - My all-time favorite dessert which I can eat as a main course. As a matter of fact, when she makes them, we do eat them as the main course. Then you have to have an extra one for dessert. She uses Granny Smith apples and you have to make sure you have all of the core out of it. Lots of brown sugar and regular sugar. An her special gooey syrup for on top of them. Out of the oven and into the bowl. Milk and sugar on top and you're ready to go.

Carol has a few more desserts she makes, but they are recipes that are from relatives or neighbors. The 6 I listed above are recipes she developed herself over the years. She also can make some of the best down home eat'in meals, but that will have to wait for another story. I gotta finish off the rest of the dinette cake first. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.