This October, my friend Adam provided me with a treat of a lifetime, a trip to Chicago’s Superdawg drive-in. Featured in Patricia Schultz’s book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die, A Traveler’s Life List,” Superdawg is certainly a sight to behold and a flavorful punch to enjoy.

Superdawg (caveman meets processed meat?) and his lady friend.

Sitting under the odd glare of Superdawg and Ms. Superdawg (just a guess on that one), we feasted on Chicago-style hot dogs served to perfection.

Served with a pickle spear on top…  “Is this Gastrointestinal Heaven?  No, it’s Superdawg.”

Wanting to commemorate the event, since now I only have 999 more places to visit before I die, I ordered myself a gray Superdawg t-shirt. Playing it safe, I ordered a XL sized shirt and gleefully returned to Minnesota with my incredible new shirt in tow.

Official Superdawg apparel

Bounding downstairs, while wearing my new Superdawg shirt, I awaited my family’s accolades. Instead, I received sort of a worried stare.  Yes, the XL shirt was a little snug on me.  Horror of horrors, I had apparently graduated to XXL.  This is a life change I am unwilling to accept.  The move to large was okay.  It’s okay to be a large man.  The move to XL was a little insulting.  Hey buddy, now you are above large, you’re extra large.  The move to XXL however is just not right.  Now, you are extra extra large.  As if being extra big was not enough, now I am double extra huge.  No, the line must be drawn here!

As a result, for the last nine days, I have been especially good about keeping my calorie count down and kicking up my exercise. Unfortunately, the side effects are becoming slightly harmful.  This evening, while preparing dinner, I went to return the kitchen shears to their home in the knife block and accidently tried to plunge the scissors into the kitchen radio.  Oh dear, my extreme dieting appears to have made me mildly delirious and a tad bit dangerous to myself.  “Superdawg, please help!  Feed me!”

The poor radio almost bit it at 6:17PM.

There may not be a Superdawg within reach, but you certainly can enjoy this super taste combo. Combine fluffy pumpkin cookies with the rich flavor of molasses and kick in a blast of pumpkin spice flavor.  Yep, these cookies are that good.  Enjoy!

PUMPKIN MOLASSES COOKIES

½ cup Butter

1 cup Sugar

½ cup Pumpkin

¼ cup Molasses

1 Egg

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 1/3 cups Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

½ teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoon Cinnamon

¼ teaspoon Ginger

10 ounce package Pumpkin Spice Morsels

1/3 cup Sugar

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and 1 cup sugar.

Mix in pumpkin, molasses, egg, and vanilla. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.

Mix “flour mixture” into “pumpkin mixture.”

Stir in pumpkin spice morsels.

Refrigerate dough for 1 hour, if you would like it to be easier to handle.

Form tablespoon size balls of dough and roll in 1/3 cup sugar.

Place sugar coated balls of dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake for 12 minutes.

 

Makes about 46 cookies.

Revised Source: “Pumpkin Spice Molasses Cookies” recipe on back of Nestle Toll House Pumpkin Spice Morsels wrapper.