Despite the mismatched pans, the cake turned out beautiful, and it looked marvelous atop the new platter, so I was thrilled to share it with my neighbors that Wednesday evening. Everyone raved. Nobody even noticed that one layer was slightly more well done than the other. Fortunately no one was in any danger of a surprise drug test, because the quantity of poppy seeds would have guaranteed a failure. And that was only using two-thirds of the amount called for.
The recipe had also required six egg yolks. Not wanting to waste the whites (normally this somewhat pinchy tendency is seen in someone who has survived the Depression—ruling that out, it must be the repressed German in me), I naturally put them in the fridge until I could think of a use for them. Hopefully it wouldn’t involve some other dish that I did not yet possess. At first I thought I’d make a lemon meringue pie. Kill two birds with one stone, egg whites and lemons. And then I remembered my grandmother’s chocolate chip meringue cookies, aka “forgotten cookies.” My sister Amy had the recipe. I called her. She couldn’t find it. Call Mom. Five minutes later I had the recipe in hand—but no time to make the cookies. Thus, the whites sat peacefully in the fridge for a few days. Family members were warned not to throw them away. Would they go bad? I assured myself that no they would not, or at least no more so than the whole eggs sitting next to them still in their shells.
A few days later, with only three million other things to do, I set out to make the cookies. The recipe called for two egg whites, two cups of sugar, vanilla, one cup of pecans, and a bag of chocolate chips. I had six egg whites. No problem, just triple it. Christmas was only a few days away; they would make great gifts. Mind you this meant using six cups of sugar as well, three cups of pecans, and three bags of chocolate chips! I decided that the sugar probably couldn’t be skimped on. It was bound to be crucial to the structure, but I drew the line at three cups of pecans and three bags of chips—that would get darned expensive. Never did I consider using only part of the egg whites. Nothing gets wasted around here.
