Every person has memories of growing up. Some of the memories are good, some are bad, still others may be sad. The lucky person is able to hang onto the happy ones, forgive the bad ones and learn from the sad ones and more forward. My family memories include trips we took as a family, holiday celebrations, and day to day events that I tend to repeat with my children. I realized recently that many of my memories are connected to food. I think the main reason for this is that my mother loved to cook. This is a passion that she passed on to me and that I have passed on to one of my son’s.
My mother prepared mainly comfort foods. These were the foods that my father preferred. Her specialties were pot roast, baked chicken, wonderful gravy and chocolate fudge. After many years of trying I have finally mastered making gravy that is as smooth and rich as my mother’s. I have not been able to duplicate the chocolate fudge. No matter how many times I try her recipe it seems that the texture is never right. Her chocolate fudge recipe includes boiling the ingredients and then beating the fudge by hand until it thickens. I have watched her do this hundreds of times, yet I cannot master the timing. If you cook the chocolate fudge too long it gets dry and hard. If you do not beat it long enough it is too soft to cut. I have tried beating the fudge with a metal spoon, like my mother always did. I have tried wooden spoons, as well as electric mixers, and still most of the time the chocolate fudge has a grainy texture.
When my son was learning about cooking he suggested we try a different fudge recipe. He found one that had marshmallow cream as an ingredient. He followed all the instructions on the recipe and produced a creamy good tasting fudge that had a perfect consistency. When I tried to make the recipe my chocolate fudge was dry and a light color. I had my ingredients too hot. I think I have a mental block when it comes to making fudge. I am so sure that it will not turn out, that it doesn’t.
My son and my mother have pointed out to me that there are so many good fudge shops that I should just buy the fudge. I mentioned this to my husband and he told me that he does not like fudge. It has not bothered him that I cannot make it because he would not eat it anyway. He told me to stick to making my mother’s pot roast recipe.
When I tried to make the recipe my chocolate fudge
