If Jennie from Scruples & Drams were still alive, I know she’d have made the same decision to carry DOVE chocolates in her drugstore. Oh, she’d carry Cadbury, Fry’s, Nestle’s, and Hershey’s of course. There is nothing like good chocolate whether you love dark or milk, or with nuts or with caramel. Good chocolate should melt in your mouth. Last year, I made a life-changing that I hope I can continue on for the remainder of my baking life.
My husband and I had stopped at one of our neighborhood grocery stores so I could pick up a quick couple items to finish baking cookies. It was a crazy house with attitudes blaring. Customers caught me every other aisle to announce, “All out of flour, all out of sugar, or all out of salt.” In addition, wire bins stood empty, and shelves glared out of stock, shouting, “Bah Humbug!”
We were coming to the end of Covid, or so we had been promised, but it was the continuation of shortages everyone was facing. I had to think fast, my husband was waiting in the car. I had plenty of staples, but time had grown short, and I hadn’t bought little things like Hershey Kisses for my peanut blossoms, a recipe given by a dear friend, yes, you, Marian K. I don’t mind making changes but what else could possibly top a blossom???? The store had a couple of shelves of different types of sweet delicacies like Old Fashioned Christmas hard ribbons and crystally candy in yellows, reds, and greens, some with sweet fillings, but no Hershey Kisses. They had a scattering of chocolate stars, peanut butter cups, and many varieties of Dove. I grabbed two bags of the milk chocolate Dove and checked out, hoping I had no reason to return soon.
I mixed my peanut butter blossoms–double batch because I felt hopeful. After peeling each little squarish bundle of goodness, I topped each of the dozen freshly baked and still hot cookies with a promise. I finished the job of plopping and pushing down, just a bit, promises. After a cooler bite of the new concoction, still warm and melty-like but one that was kind of deformed and broken, I was sold. Jennie, Maude of Pins and Needles, and Maude’s mother Abigail in Where Two Rivers Meet, the girls of Main Street, would agree. They are the best cookies in the world. They wish you the Merriest of Merry Christmases and the happiest of happy New Years.
Take a few moments during this busy season to focus on Dove’s “promises”: 1. Compliment someone. You’ll feel better than they (he/she does) do. (Sorry, the English teacher in me can’t let it go. 2. Life happens between an inhale and an exhale! 3. When life isn’t going right, go left. And the girls’ favorite: 4. Dare to cross the line. If you remember the messages in the books, you’ll know the line they crossed to help someone or two.
And a word of wisdom from me. Put on a pot of tea, pot of coffee, or even make hot cocoa. Grab a whole cookie, one that isn’t broken or deformed, sit down, put your feet up and enjoy a few minutes of solitude and deliciousness. You deserve it.
This post is absolute TRUTH. God blessed me with a few talents, maybe writing is my strongest suit. I love to write poetry and have won a few awards. I have written both creative fiction and non-fiction, and have published and won a few awards as well. But when it comes to real crafting, drawing, sewing, or any other handwork, I’d say I deserve nilche, zero, nothing, even F. I told my husband when we were first married that if he lost a button on a coat or jacket, buy new. While this isn’t as true as it sounds, I have to admit when I was a freshman in high school (is this supposed to be freshperson now?), I earned a D on a blouse I sewed for putting in the sleeve in the wrong direction.). I think I have improved a bit, but not really proving it anymore.