Sweet Treats

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

I was headed out the door to go to the grocery store the other day and I asked my wife if there were any last-minute items she wanted me to add to the shopping list.

She thought for a minute and then said… “Cake.”

“Cake?” I asked. “Just… cake?” I mean, there are a lot of ways I could interpret that request. Did she want me to get a cake mix and frosting so we could bake a cake for dessert? Did she want me to gtt a whole cake from the store’s bakery section?

Did she want a couple of slices of cake from somewhere.

She said she was just feeling like she wanted some cake, so I should just take those instructions and see where I landed.

Long story short, I found these pre-packaged varieties of slices of cake and picked up three different ones so she’d have her choice of cakes, and that seemed to satisfy her cake needs. It’s

See VIEWPOINT, page A6 VIEWPOINT

From page A4

funny how a need for a sweet treat can just hit you. We will sometimes get on an ice cream kick at our house, and the freezer will look like a Baskin-Robins with all the varieties.

My go-to is chocolate chip cookies, but brownies are also a staple of ours. I can also tell you all of my children’s favorites, and we try to keep them in stock if we are expecting a visit, so if you check our pantry, you’re sure to find: Golden Oreos, Nutter Butters, and those cheap Walmart brand iced oatmeal cookies. Even our 18-month-old grandson has a favorite. When he visits, it doesn’t take long before he’s pointing at the apple-shaped cookie jar and asking for a Hershey’s Kiss (although a Kit-Kat will also do in a pinch. Fun fact: Mean old Granna will only let him have one, but when she’s not looking, Pop will sneak a coule more here and there. I got that from my Dad who was always willing to let us kids crab a candy bar from the store or an extra cookie after dinner. I took up the mantle when I had kids of my own, coming through with the occasional “sneaky snack” right before bedtime. Got to get in their good graces, right?

Is that why they call them “brownie points”? Maybe…