Grandmothers, Love, and Christmas Fudge

I’ve shared on my blog before that I am not much of a cook. That particular domestic gene, along with the loves-to-shop one, got left out when I was being formed. (See sign on my fridge, shown at left!) Not that my family ever went hungry, mind you. But casseroles and easy recipes are among my favorite things. {{grin}}

I was married several years before I learned to make gravy. Why? Because I would always serve gravy when my mom was with us for dinner. And I would always say, “Mom, will you show me how to make gravy?” And then she would make it and I was happy until the next time, never paying attention because I loved Mom’s gravy. It was perfection!

I lasted much longer––decades longer!––without learning to make fudge. Why? Because my mom made what she called “Million Dollar Fudge” every December, and it was to die for. She made it every year until into her 90’s. She would begin early and prepare batches for her children and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We all counted on it and eagerly awaited it and missed it when she stopped making it. I think my daughters missed it even more than I did. To them, it spelled “Grandmother’s love” during the Christmas season.

For the first time in about 15 or 16 years, I have a daughter and grandkids living away from Boise. There was a huge hole in our Thanksgiving, and there will be an even bigger one over Christmas. So I was sitting in my office last week and it suddenly hit me. I’m the grandma. (Yes, I actually knew that already, but not in this context.) My mom is gone. She will never again make her wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth fudge. It’s up to me to make it. It’s up to my fudge to become the “Grandmother’s love” for the Christmas season. Especially for the kiddos in Texas.

I don’t have Mom’s Million Dollar Fudge recipe. If she had it written down anywhere, I never saw it. I believe she had it memorized for decades. So I opened up my Southern Plate cookbook, wrote down the ingredients for Decadent Fudge, and over the weekend, went to the store to buy everything I needed. Last night, finally, I made my first batch. Not all that hard, to tell the truth, and I am feeling so much more grandmotherly this morning!! I’ll make one more batch (they are a family of six, after all, and Christmas is still several weeks away), and then ship the candy off to Texas.

Funny post script: I thought I would need to buy a candy thermometer. But it turned out I had one in the drawer, still in it’s original packaging. I should have taken a picture of it. That packaging was straight out of the 70’s. I kid you not. I guess it has been in my “baking drawer” for 25 to 30 years, moving from house to house, always there but never opened.

Okay, better get to writing. Have a word quota to fulfill. Then, if there is any energy left at the end of the day, I’ll make that second batch of fudge for the Texas bunch.

~robin