Sunday, December 14, 2008

the weather outside is frightful.

We are in the middle of a blizzard in South Dakota. We got the call from the school at 7:30 pm, telling us that school is cancelled tomorrow. Today (Sunday) was definitely a snow day, too. We only made it outside to shovel one side of the driveway so that we can hopefully get out of the house tomorrow. It's 20 below zero and the wind is swirling the snow in all directions. We had a cookie baking afternoon. Thought I'd share my favorite no-fail fudge recipe with you. I have an awesome toffee recipe too, but it fails a good bit before you learn to get it right (or maybe it's just that I failed multiple times). This fudge recipe though, is fail-safe, and I like to buy the cute take out containers that you can find now at craft stores and hand out fudge as gifts to neighbors and friends.

Fudge:
Butter a 9x13 inch pan lightly, place parchment paper inside (should hang over two sides), and lightly butter the parchment paper.
Bring to a boil: 4 1/2 cups white sugar and one can of evaporated milk.
Boil for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and add: 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup of milk chocolate chips, 1 cup of butter, and 3 tsp vanilla. Stir until all is melted (I do this in my stand mixer and add the sugar/milk to these ingredients). Then, stir in 3 cups broken up walnuts (optional).
Refridgerate overnight. Loosen the sides around the parchment paper with a knife, and then lift out the paper with fudge inside and cut to desired size.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

time flies

Kelly and I won't win any blogging awards any time soon - we haven't blogged since September! Sorry! We are here, alive, and well. maggie delaney has had an incredibly busy fall. A tinge of insanity on all fronts, but the good kind, not the bad. I can honestly say this is the first Saturday I remember since September where I've actually sat on my couch, watched tv, and had time to blog. We are watching the American Girl Samantha movie on tv, and I just needed to tell you all that I'm a bit sad AG is retiring Samantha and Nellie this year. One of my friends thinks that AG will retire the historical dolls and bring them out of the vault every seven years - like Disney does with movies. I just hope Samantha and Nellie are not gone for good.