Oh Fudge!

My first first real job, with taxes taken out and everything, was at Marla's Bakery. What a wonderful place to work. I not only got to work the counter and wash dishes, but I also got to help make a variety of treats sold at the bakery.

They were many good and delicious things for sale at the bakery - danish, coffeecakes, cookies, but Marla's was famous the New York cheesecakes. My only regret now was that I didn't pay enough attention to how things were made or write down any of the recipes. Oh, I did pick up a few tips, like lining the cake pans with parchment paper to insure the come out clean. Also, use dental floss (not mint flavor!) to cut the cheesecakes cleanly. After spending an entire day rolling truffles, I can do that in my sleep.

Marla's is closed now, and has been for many years. However, Chef Marla still works locally and a few years ago, an article was written about her in the local paper. I really enjoyed reading about her and remembering my days at the bakery. In that article, she shared a few recipes, including her fudge recipe. This was a stroke of good fortune as I am fudge-making deficient. In the past, my fudge always turned out too soft. This, to me, is a easy, fail-safe recipe that works every time. It also freezes well, which is good since this make enough for an army!

Marla's Fudge
4 1/2 c sugar
1 can (14.5oz) evaporated milk
18 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 c butter
3 T vanilla

Put chocolate chips, butter and vanilla in large bowl and set aside. Butter a 9x13 pan.

Combine sugar and milk in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for 6-8 minutes (or until it reaches a temperature of 238-240 deg.), stirring constantly.
Pour sugar mixture over chocolate/butter/vanilla mixture in bowl, and beat with mixer at high speed until all butter in incorporated. Pour into pan and refrigerate.

It may take 4-6 hours to set up.

Chef Pik Prepares Pumpkin for Freezing

This is the first of a series of videos shot with our special guest cat, Chef Pik.
I hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie

I'm not exactly sure when I decided that I wanted to learn how to cook, I mean really cook...to know how things are done from beginning to end.

It started maybe 8 years ago. I decided I was going to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. I wanted to start with the pumpkin and everything! I was curious about how different it would taste by using a fresh pumpkin verses canned pumpkin, although I hadn't ever made a pie from canned pumpkin so I don't really know what I expected.

So, I started with my pumpkin. It was a pretty big one. It would have made a great Jack-0-Lantern. A couple of years later that I found out that there was such a thing as a "pie" pumpkin. But I digress...

I put that pumpkin up on the counter and began cleaning it out and cutting it up into pieces to roast in the oven. Cutting a large pumpkin into 2" pieces is not easy work. I remember this taking me almost an hour. However, I was not discouraged.

So, after roasting, peeling and the mashing my pumpkin, I was ready to make the pie. Now, this is not a blog about my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, so I will not be sharing any pie recipes. In fact, I remember this particular pie very well because it looked beautiful but...well...it tasted awful! I was so disappointed that I had spent the better part of an afternoon on something that really just needed to be thrown away.

It could have, in fact, been the recipe I used, but I'm pretty sure it was the pumpkin. You see, most decorative pumpkins, although edible, aren't really edible. In our quest for bigger, rounder, flatter bottom pumpkins, we've sacrificed the mild flavor for bitterness and a creamy flesh for stringy flesh.

Now that we are on the farm and I have a garden, I grow my own pumpkins. They are a small, sugar variety. I can't tell you the exact variety, because I did not save the original package of seeds, and I save the seeds from year to year so that I don't have to buy more. I use this pumpkin to make pumpkin bread (thank you Aunt Jan for your wonderful recipe), pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin rolls. NO pumpkin pies...I just buy those at the store.