Mama had cataract surgery earlier this week and was suffering from cabin fever so I went down and picked her up to spend the night with me. A friend of mine came over and she fried some catfish for us that was slap ya mama good. Except I really can’t slap mine, even if she hadn’t just had cataract surgery. She might look like a little white haired old lady but this lady wrestles her tractor for goodness sake. Don’t mess with a lady that can change her own tractor oil.
After supper, we decided to go out for a milkshake and a ride. I’d been dying to try the Chick-Fil-A Autumn Spice milkshake even if I’m not the biggest pumpkin spice fan. I imagined that it might taste like Biscoff cookies. You know, the airline cookies. The milkshake was good, I’ll preface it with that. But the longer I ate it, the more it started to have a taste similar to smoked sausage. Now while that may sound pretty disgusting…it somehow works. It didn’t stop me from eating it anyway.
We rode through the country and I remembered that I was out of my favorite syrup. I’m a Southern girl. I sop biscuits with Golden Eagle syrup. Haven’t heard of it? It’s sometimes hard to find but we were going to pass by a store that I knew sold it. It’s the best, hands down. It’s a mixture of honey, cane syrup, cane molasses, and corn syrup. I have an inherited love for it from my grandmother. I would watch her at breakfast, sipping her black coffee from a saucer and sopping her buttered toast in Golden Eagle syrup. I wanted to be just like her so I sopped it too and the rest is history.
I have a confession, though. I am a grocery goblin. I buy groceries on an impulse sometimes. That means my cabinet is full of quarter-eaten bags of chips, crackers, and whatever else. I like the thought of it in the store but I don’t like it past about two bites. My friends tease me that I always come out of a store saying something like, “look what I found!”
My mom and friend told me to just go into the store and get the syrup. And I really had the intention of going into the store, getting the syrup, and getting out. But I remembered my Google search from earlier in the day for Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes. I mean I realize that it’s October and the chances of finding them seemed slim. But when I picked up the syrup, I decided to take a slight detour. It was actually in the opposite direction but we’re not calling anyone out.
Suddenly, lights from heaven shone down from above. The choir sang and the crowd cheered. At least in my head but who’s being critical? On the shelf, actually two shelves, sat several boxes of the precious vanilla Christmas Tree Cakes. I grabbed two boxes, mostly knowing I would only eat one cake out of the ten, and swiftly ran to the checkout. I grabbed a Coke to wash down the taste of my smoked sausage milkshake and I couldn’t quit laughing. I’m sure the cashier questioned my sanity but I couldn’t wait to tell my mom and friend, “look what I found.”
As soon as I got to the car, they were both shaking their heads. They already knew that the grocery goblin had struck again. “With all them groceries you have at your house, did you need anything else?” Mama asked. I just needed to start decorating my food cabinet for the holidays.
So now I proudly display my Christmas Tree Cakes on top of my microwave. The grocery goblin is satisfied, even with the lingering taste of my smoked sausage milkshake. Maybe I need to wash it down with my other find of the day, my favorite Duplin Peach Cotton Candy wine.
Messpot Diaries 