Desserts

by June T. Bassemir  

4/11/2012

The spring visit with my Massachusetts daughter and husband was a pleasant one but our two new desserts were a disappointment.  She brought down a new chocolate dish from a recipe she saw on the Internet.   It lacked a sweetness that would have improved it enough for us to enjoy, instead it made a nice lunch for the seagulls.  “Never mind”, I said, “I wanted to try Delores Miller’s old fashioned Poppy Seed Torte anyway”.. and I had all the ingredients ready.

The recipe was a bit difficult to read but together we decided the order of things and I proceeded to mix everything up. Unfortunately, with the lively conversation going on at my elbow (the kitchen table), I mistook the number of tablespoons of flour for three (the same as the corn starch) instead of one.  Discovering it later, I just added more milk to the simmering custard in the pot.  “That should do it.” I thought and rested easy.  Eventually the half cup of poppy seeds went in; the egg whites whipped to a thick consistency with sugar and vanilla; then finally crushed graham crackers decorated the top.  In the oven it went for thirty minutes.  “Oh …Oh…I forgot the “butter the size of an egg”…..Yippes!

Well it came out of the oven looking yummy but unfortunately there was no time to eat it as we had to dash out to the Community Theater.  No one was ready for dessert when we came back late at night so the Poppy Seed Torte waited until the next day….. long after breakfast which didn’t include dessert.  By now the meringue on top was no longer fluffy and only a good son-in-law making points said it was “tasty”.  It’s fortunate that my cooking mistakes are not lost on the seagull population.  They sit patiently waiting on the dock at my back door. I think I have lost my touch in making desserts and maybe it's my imagination but it looks like these birds are getting fat.

copyright June T. Bassemir, 2012