For want of an S

It's probably just me, but I have great difficulty in distinguishing between desert and dessert.

Now, I am clearly far less likely mention the desert as I am to ask for dessert, but that doesn't mean that I say the right word, which means that I am more likely to say pudding or sweet or "yummy things" ok, so I don't say the last one, but you see what I am getting at here.

So, I want to know...how do you pronounce dessert or even desert and how do you remind yourself of how to pronounce either, do you even bother to use words as fancy as dessert or do you, like me, stick to the plainer versions of pudding/sweet?

Most words I can eventually work out how to say correctly, once I knew that fascinating had four syllables not five, I stopped saying "fanasticating", and I will always have trouble with words like ships/chips as I find it hard to distinguish between sh and ch, but it's only my extremely annoying family that notices (and points out!) this, most people don't even notice. But dessert? This one constantly eludes me!

I shall stop there as even the spelling of des(s)ert is beginning to look wrong as I've typed it out enough times!!