By Memorial Day weekend. We did a small cookout at my parents' Sunday — Ryan grilled, Dad watched, Mom directed traffic. Wally sat in a folding chair on the back porch with a Diet Coke and a baseball cap. He was outside for the first time in weeks. The sun was good for him. He sat there for an hour and ate two bites of a hamburger and watched the twins run through the sprinkler, which we set up in the backyard for the first time of the season. He smiled the whole time. He said "Mandy, this is a good day." I said yes Dziadek. He said it again twenty minutes later. It was true both times.
Friday night Ryan and I needed to leave the apartment for an hour. Mom had taken the twins. We drove to the dive bar on Western — our bar, the one from our second date, which we hadn't been to in months because of the twins. The lights were off. There was a sign on the door. PERMANENTLY CLOSED. THANK YOU CHICAGO. Ryan stood in the parking lot for a minute and didn't say anything. Then he said, "Mandy, look at this." I looked. He pulled out his phone and took a photo of the sign. Then he turned and we went to the bar two blocks down, the slightly worse one, with the sticky floor and the cheap beer and the Golden Tee in the back. We sat at the bar and drank two beers each and held hands across the bar top.
"Where did we even get married," Ryan said at one point, which was not a question, just a thing he said to himself. We were married at St. Linus. He knew. He was in his head about places that close. The bar from our second date. The closing of any place that knew us when we were younger. He put a quarter in the Golden Tee machine and lost on the first hole. I drank the rest of my beer. We went home. We went to bed. We woke up Saturday and made pancakes and got the twins ready for the cookout and the world turned its other leaf, which it always does whether you ask it to or not.
The cooking this week was the cookout. Burgers, hot dogs, Mom's potato salad, watermelon, chips. The blog post was a Memorial Day grill list. Thirty-eight comments, which is fine, holiday weekends are slow.
The cookout was really the whole week for us — the food, the folding chairs, Dziadek in the sun, the twins and the sprinkler — and if I’m being honest, a dessert like this S’mores Poke Cake fits that kind of day better than anything fancier ever could. It’s the kind of thing you set on a picnic table and people just find their way to it. I didn’t make it this particular Sunday, but I kept thinking about it afterward, about how some recipes just belong to good days, and this is one of them.
S’mores Poke Cake
Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes (plus chilling) | Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil, and water as directed on box)
- 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
- 1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Bake the cake. Prepare and bake the chocolate cake mix according to package directions in a greased 9x13-inch pan. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- Poke and fill. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes all over the top of the warm cake, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the cake, letting it sink into the holes. Let the cake cool completely.
- Make the chocolate ganache. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until just simmering. Remove from heat, add the chocolate chips and vanilla extract, and let sit 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Pour the ganache over the cooled cake and spread evenly. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Add the marshmallow layer. Spoon marshmallow creme over the chilled ganache layer and spread gently with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Toast the marshmallows. Scatter mini marshmallows evenly over the top. Use a kitchen torch or place the cake under a broiler for 1—2 minutes, watching carefully, until the marshmallows are golden and lightly toasted.
- Finish with graham cracker crumble. Toss graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and sprinkle over the toasted marshmallows. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 480 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 20g | Carbs: 70g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 340mg