Three-Chocolate Fudge

Besides these deliciously easy Oreo Balls and Buckeyes, I’ve not made much candy around Christmas time. This year was different after Beth told me about this super-easy fudge recipe she found. After three successful batches which disappeared amazingly quickly, part of the fourth batch is now in the freezer until everyone is hungry for it again. We are big fans of The Fudgery fudge in Saint Louis’s Ballpark Village (formerly was in the Union Station shopping mall but that’s gone now), but the exorbitant price kind of spoils the taste a little for me. So this fudge is just as good as the Fudgery fudge; and, according to some folks here (myself included), it’s even better!

And cheap.

And easy!

Go ahead. Give it a try. See what you think!

Three-Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients

· 1 tablespoon butter

· 3-1/3 cups sugar

· 1 cup packed dark brown sugar

· 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

· 1 cup butter, cubed

· 32 large marshmallows, halved

· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

· 2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

· 14 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

· 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

· 2 cups chopped pecans, toasted

Directions

· 1. Line a 15x10x1-in. pan with foil; grease foil with 1 tablespoon butter.

· 2. In a heavy large saucepan, combine sugars, milk and cubed butter. Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly; cook and stir 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in marshmallows and vanilla until blended.

· 3. Gradually stir in chocolate chips and chopped chocolate until melted. Fold in pecans. Immediately spread into prepared pan. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Remove foil; cut fudge into 1-in. squares. Store between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container.

A few pictures and comments.

Before I started each batch, Josh cut the butter and the marshmallows and chopped the chocolate bars. I prepared the pan. For my record for next year: I used my airbake jellyroll pan.

Sugars, butter, and evaporated milk.

Vanilla and marshmallows ready to add.

Three chocolates ready to add (although technically since two are semi-sweet it’s only two kinds of chocolate…oh well).

While initial ingredients boiled for five minutes, I turned the heat down so the boil wasn’t so vigorous that I got splattered. Add vanilla and marshmallows, stirring as marshmallows slowly melt.

Add chocolate while stirring.

Doesn’t take long for chocolate to melt and turn the mixture into a creamy chocolate color.

(around here we skip the pecans…)

After fudge is refrigerated for an hour or so, I used a flip method to get it out of the pan.

Cover with a larger jelly roll pan,

do an easy flip,

remove original smaller pan,

and peel foil off.

That’s a lot of fudge to cut into bite-size pieces, so I elect the Fudgery method: chunk it up. I think it stays more moist that way also.

Cleaning the knife between cuts made for cleaner edges. Delicious either way but just looks a little nicer with clean edges.

I froze some for a trial, and it seemed to thaw fine and was just as good.

That’s it!

Meets my two requirements for a recipe to remember: easy and oh so delicious!

Kaiser Christmas

by Sarah

A couple weeks ago Kaiser Christmas was hosted at the fellowship hall again this year. There were several different games going on most of the evening, and thanks to all the space we had, there were different games of KeepAway with balloons, in which Brandy broke her finger.  It wasn’t hurting her too much though, so she still had a great evening. It was just warm enough to be outside and not freeze, so we recruited Jacob and Brett and played “Gray Wolf” which was really fun. I also played “Wrestle Time” with the younger kids which they LOVE. It was a really great evening of being with cousins.

The coloring table was taken over by the adults first.

Anya, Lola, and Jocie are three peas in a pod.

Many rounds of Dutch Blitz were played throughout the evening.

We were playing Hide and Seek, and this was the place that we ended up.

After awhile we took a break from games and sang for awhile.

Tim, Uncle Mike, and Jacob led the kids in a few special numbers.

Drew read the Christmas Story from the Bible, and then we did gifts, but we don't have any pictures of it.

Towards the end of the evening a bunch of different people played songs for Grandma on the piano. We don't have any pics, but Jenna also played a really pretty song on the violin.

The party broke up at about 8:30. It was a really fun evening, and we were glad that almost everybody was able to come.

Roasted Chicken

This recipe was shared with us by A. Janet who got it from Val. I think it is Dad and my favorite meal. So crazy easy and so crazy good that I usually don’t make side dishes with it because no one eats them anyway. Everyone’s too busy eating chicken. Go ahead, give it a try. Let me know what you think…

3-4# whole chicken

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon thyme

(or can use fresh spices which I never do because I don’t have them on hand)

Wash chicken off and pat dry. Remove giblets from chest cavity and discard to dog. Mix all spices well, then stir in oil. Rub all over chicken. With breast side up, bake on low oven rack uncovered at 450d for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit 10-15 minutes to allow the juice to redistribute to correct places. Serve and enjoy the tastiest chicken you’ve ever had!

A few notes - - -

*The skin will be very salty, but the breast meat will seem sort of bland. So you’ll want to dip the bland-tasting meat in the juices in the bottom of the pan and then all parts of the chicken will taste wonderful.

*I find it’s very risky to let the chicken sit for 10 minutes. My crop of mice can’t seem to leave it alone and so by the time we actually sit down to eat supper it might not have any skin left.

*I usually have one of the girls mix up the spices earlier in the day, and then at 4:00 I prep the chicken, add the oil to the spices, rub it on the chicken, and stick it in the oven. Prep time: about 10 minutes. A delicious healthy fast food supper.

*I always make two chickens for our family, and use the leftovers for chicken noodle soup, saving every drop of the juices which are so very flavorful.

*I have baked it on a higher oven rack, and at that high oven temperature, the splattering got all over the top of the oven which in turn started to burn and set off the smoke alarms every time the oven door was opened. Which, of course, it shouldn’t have been, but my mice are very persistent when the whole house smells so tantalizing around that time of the day.

*Serve with steak knives so everyone can carve their own servings. Not exactly a company meal because it’s rather messy.

Ready for the oven - - -

Ready for the table - - -

The Days Are Just Packed

There’s rarely a lack of littles around here. This was a couple weeks ago.

Some of our favorite people at one of our favorite places.

Evidence of littles

This was a joyous (interpret: loud) night

With lots of help, we got the k’nex roller up in one evening.

ASK was Chief Picker-Outer.

Such social kids we have

Ella was so impressed with Kate’s juggling talent.

That look on her face

Auggie doesn’t spend much time alone when he’s here

In case you’re wondering, that’s a lot of energy in one place.

After a bout with pneumonia, thankfully Grandpa is doing much better.

Lots of help!

That’s called multi-tasking.

Favorite visitors last weekend.

After several years o.d.-ing on Oreo Balls, a batch stays around an amazingly long time nowadays!

Kate celebrated the end of a semester, and straight A’s I might add , with a day trip with friends.

This week we had another busy Wednesday.

Who can see the best??

And this little guy would feed the fish all day if he could!

So a year ago we were in FL. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard, “Remember last year right now? We were….”, I’d have a nice chunk of cash saved up for next year’s trip…which is already being discussed and planned…

And that’s it for this time around.