I'm meeting my mom's friend, Jackie, and her niece, Meagan, for dinner in a couple hours, and I have strict orders to bring "Emmer's chocolate crackers" as my plus one. For those of you who aren't Shugarts or Millers and didn't grow up in Merkel, Texas, you might be wondering, Who is Emmer? And what in the world are chocolate crackers?

Emmer (Emma) is my mom's mom, my Meme. And these are her chocolate crackers....

Talk about nostalgia. A childhood staple that went hand-in-hand with visits to Meme and Pawpaw's house, it's been at least a decade since I stood over stove, stirring 'til my little arm couldn't stir anymore, just to have a taste of these sweet & salty beauties.

Driving to the store to pick up the necessary supplies -- I don't keep Karo syrup and pet milk in stock on the regular -- a text from my mom confirmed my suspicions. A recipe for chocolate crackers doesn't really exist. My Meme doesn't believe in recipes. She wings it -- a little pinch there, a pour there, eyeball it until it looks right, bake it until is smells done. Winging it works for her (you've never had better Southern cooking in your life), but I'm more of a methodical girl. So Mom did her best at piecing together a makeshift how-to, I threw up a prayer, and (hallelujah!) twenty minutes later, I had a batch of chocolate crackers to be proud of.

The salty crunch of the cracker and the melt-in-your-mouth fudgy center.... Mmmmmm. Meme, wish you were in Charlotte to share a few with me!