Oh Fudge!

Every year, The Blogette goes to an annual cookie exchange with her gal-pals.  This year, she is taking fudge and wrote a story for her friends about it.  The director asked her to share it on the blog.  When she asked how the fudge story related to golf, he suggested that since the story proves that both males and females can master the recipe, some readers may want to make it for their spouses....some golfers may want to make it for their caddies...well, you get the drift.  We hope you are getting into the holiday spirit, and if not -just make a batch of fudge!

My mother taught me how to make this fudge, but it is my grandmother’s recipe.  It was always on our family cookie trays around the holidays, and was given to friends and neighbors as a gift.  From the time I was in high school, one of my holiday jobs was to place various cookies on a plate on Christmas Eve – not exactly a burdensome task as the fudge was always there!   As a young teacher in Indiana, I taught biology and coached volleyball.  One Christmas, I took a cookie tray in to the office staff at school.  Again, the fudge was there.  The athletic director had played high school basketball for the Cambridge City Wampus Cats, a rival team of my father’s Fountain City Little Giants.  When he asked for the fudge recipe, I questioned whether such a former foe was worthy of possessing the recipe.  Assuming it was for his wife, and softened by his culinary compliments, I decided to give him a copy.  About a week later, I was surprised to receive some peanut butter fudge from Mr. Craig.  Not only did he make the fudge himself, he added his own experimental (and delicious) twist by substituting peanut butter chips for chocolate ones!  A few years passed and I gave the recipe to Angie Karch – my good friend across the hall who taught math.  One evening, I got a call from her at about 10:00 with a question from her pre-teen daughter Natalie.  “Do you really have to stir it constantly for six minutes?” she wondered.  The answer is yes, or it will burn and stick.  Don’t turn your back on this fudge!  Natalie now has two little boys of her own to make fudge for.  When I got married, I got a bonus daughter - Brooke.  In an effort to include her in my family’s traditions, my mother transferred the job of CEO (cookie executive officer) to her.  I can just see her at Mom’s kitchen counter, eating cookies and placing them on the plate.  Every year, the fudge was there.  When my mother-in-law Virginia moved with John and me to South Carolina, she became part of the fudge heritage.  Her favorite way to eat it was with one piece stuffed into each of her 82-year-old cheeks.  Not a problem really until she tried to talk, or got tickled about something, which was often.  When John’s courier business took off here, it was not uncommon for me to make 10-14 cookie trays every year for his clients.  I still have the lists I used to figure out how many cookies it took to fill them - - that would be 21 dozen!  I wonder now how in the world I did that.  I think it was because the fudge was always there.  For me, a cookie tray is just not truly ready for Christmas unless there is fudge.

Our Family's Holiday Fudge 

2 c. sugar

10 large marshmallows

½ stick butter or margarine (1/4 cup)

1 small can (5 oz.) Carnation evaporated milk – do not use Eagle brand!

1 t. vanilla

6 oz. chocolate chips

Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and boil six minutes while stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add vanilla and chips.  Stir until mixture is well-blended and pour into an 8 x 8 square buttered dish.  Leave enough in the pan so you can sample some while it is warm.  Chill until firm before cutting.