Some time ago I was invited to a party where folks were supposed to bring along something from their favorite food group. I considered all the food groups and skidded to a standstill at Chocolate. Now that is a group that stands out all by itself. Besides, it was close to Valentine’s Day, and of course, what would that be without chocolate?
I think that chocolate could be considered a group because it is an ingredient in so many things. There’s the liquid side: chocolate milk for the kiddies, chocolate martinis for the advanced taste. Then there’s the solid side that I shall divide into sub-groups: the obvious is dessert, but that would take this entire page using small print just to begin. Onward to main courses. It is a little known factoid that a bit of chocolate in your chili gives it that je ne sais quoi that has folks hungering for your secret recipe. I’m all about secret recipes, especially if it happens to be me who has the secret.
This brings me to the aforementioned party and my contribution to the evening. I brought fudge. To make it appear as something really special, I printed up a fancy label featuring my name and a chicken and stuck it on a recycled chocolate box.
It might have been the label with the chicken that did it, but the response to my fudge was very positive. Folks asked if I’d made I from scratch. “Yes” I lied, smiling. “I did”. This was a perhaps stretching it a bit but there was a chicken on the label and they scratch and I did put several ingredients together by myself and that could be considered scratching. I overlooked the fact that there wasn’t the usual slaving over a hot stove, stirring and occasionally dipping fancy thermometers into a pot.
What I didn’t expect was folks’ looks of awe as they asked me for the recipe. I liked the awe. I don’t always get a lot of awe from my baking efforts. “What”, I asked myself, “Would they think if they knew I’d whipped it up in a bowl in ten minutes?” So I ignored the requests, thinking that they would surely forget about getting the recipe and just remember that I was awesome. Well that fudge stuck in their minds like sidewalk gum on a shoe and a month later the request came again. Would I please send my fudge recipe?
Busted!
So here it is the month of valentines and hearts and – of course – chocolate. So I shall come clean. More than that, I shall share my recipe. Here it is so write it down because I’m not going to give it out again.
- Roast some walnuts.
- Melt three cups of chocolate chips.
- Mix with one can of sweetened condensed milk and two teaspoons of vanilla.
- Stir in the nuts and pour into an 8” x 8” pan lined with plastic wrap.
- Chill in the fridge until set, then cut into squares. That’s it.
Don’t forget the fancy label and if you like, scratch a picture of a chicken beside your name. That way you can say you made it from scratch.