If Martha Can, So Can I

This has been my hair coloring inspiration for a couple of years now.

Martha embraces her grey! Gracefully. Yet, keeps it current with highlights. And so, this is how I roll now, too. Martha's been consistent for quite awhile now and although she's quite a bit older (sorry, Martha) than I am, this works well for me. Saves me a colorist appointment or two each year. I get compliments.

More Martha...

Baking and Candy Making with Jill

FANTASTIC CARAMELS

1 cup Butter

2-1/4 cup Light brown sugar

Dash Salt

1 cup Light Karo corn syrup

14 oz. Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

1. Butter sides and bottom of 8" or 9" square pan
2. Melt 1 cup butter in 3-qt. saucepan over medium to medium high heat
3. Stir in sugar and salt
4. Stir in corn syrup; gradually add Eagle Brand
5. Mixture will be at rolling boil
6. Continue to cook, stirring intermittently intil candy thermometer reaches 245º

My dear friend Jill of Jill Stone's Wild Ride really wanted to make Christmas cookies, so we set yesterday as the day. I assumed she'd want to make sugar cookie cut-outs, but this time she wanted me to choose. And since I've been gluten-free for over 4 months, I'm much more interested in making candies than cookies. I choose Fantastic Caramels (because they are), Mrs. Bates' Fudge, and Thumbprint cookies (because they are a favorite of CA, and I have not made them in 25 years. Truly. They are labor intensive--so many steps. And, mostly I don't like to make them because my fingers get all gunky.)

I am an administrator, by heart and by experience, so I suggested to Jill that we mix-up a double batch of the cookie dough and let it chill while we make the Caramels. One tip I remember from my Caramel-making days is that you can't over-stir the Caramel mixture as stirring cools the boil slightly, making it almost impossible to reach 245°. Jill is a hard-worker, both persistent and patient, so she takes on the Caramel stirring.

In the meanwhile I chop walnuts and whip up some frosting. While the cookies are technically Jam Thumbprints, CA's mom always filled the little wells with colored frosting. CA is a traditionalist, and since we're making these cookies for his dining pleasure he gets them just the way he likes them. 

(And after 6+ weeks of tending my abscess wound, he deserves anything he desires!)

When the Caramels reach 245°, we pour them into a very square 8"x8" well-buttered pan, and set that on a wire rack to cool.

(JAM) THUMBPRINTS

Better Homes and Gardens c.1969

2/3 cup Butter

1/3 cup Sugar

2 Egg yolks (reserve egg whites)

1tsp. Vanilla

1/2 tsp. Salt

1-1/2 cups Flour

3/4 cups walnuts, finely chopped

1. Cream together butter and sugar
2. Mix in egg yolks, vanilla, and salt
3. Gradually add flour, mixing well
4. Chill at least one hour
5. Shape dough into 3/4" balls
6. Dip cookie dough balls in slightly-whipped egg whites
7. Roll in finely-chopped walnuts
8. Place 1" apart on greased cookie sheet
9. Use finger to make indentation in center of each cookie
10. Bake at 350° for 15-17 minutes 
11. You may have to re-press the indentation
12. Cool completely
13. Place a dollop of colored frosting in center of each cookie
14. Enjoy!

Guess what? My fingers do not get gunky! Because, as I form the buttery dough into balls, Jill dips them into the slightly-beaten egg whites and rolls them in the walnuts. Beautiful!

Just as we finish baking the cookies the Caramels are ready to cut and wrap. I cut; Jill wraps. Actually, we wrap Jill's in 4"-square parchment papers and I put mine into tiny fluted candy papers.

In accordance with Jill's time-tested Wild Ride (see link above), she has other places to go; people to see. But, I'm determined that she have a batch of Mrs. Bates' Fudge, and she's interested in learning a simple and creamily-delicious recipe. 

I take the helm for this one, and Jill looks over my shoulder while continuing to clean-up our baking mess. Bless her. The only tricky part of this recipe is knowing when to pour the bubbling mixture into the buttered pan. The recipe intimates that one will intuit the precise moment--"when the sheen is just off" or something close to that. All I can really add is that experience is the best teacher. I know: Yadda, yadda... But, one does learn from failure. And, this stuff still tastes great no matter if it's hard or runny. Runny is best because then you just call it fudge sauce. 

A couple of additional tips: 1) you cannot double this recipe, 2) you must cut it before it's completely cool, then re-cut when cool, 3) I find my square 5"x5" pan is the perfect mold, but that size is almost impossible to find. Mine came from E. Dehillerin in Paris. 

A happy day for both Jill and I. 

We will need a batch of the Fudge for home consumption, and I want to try a batch of Peanut Butter Fudge. There's lots of frosting left for Molasses Sandwich Cookies (lemon frosting), and I've promised RvH Banana Bread and a few giant M+M cookies...

Why Do I Never Sleep Well Before a Travel Day?

    (These pans are 5" square. Use just one for thicker fudge.)

Just tired enough. Nope. Not gonna happen. My mind begins a slow spin. I'd considered baking cookies to take to my MIL (86) and my 93-year old Dad, but between the soup making and the spaghetti sauce prep I lost the thread

So... At 12:20am I start thinking about my Mom's fudge. Actually, it's called Mrs Bates' fudge as my Mom learned the recipe in her junior high Home Ec class. (Mrs. Bates' actually showed up across town at our elementary school and taught all my sisters (4) and I  7th grade science.)

We didn't have any exotic ingredients in our home growing up, but we always had Hershey's cocoa, Karo syrup, milk, and vanilla. So, we often whipped up this recipe. And, whipped we did because once the mixture reaches soft-ball stage you must quickly add 3 T. of butter and the teaspoon of vanilla. Then, you stir and stir and stir, until the shine is JUST off the gooey chocolate and you can tell the spoonfuls are slightly mounding. You have to hurry like the dickens to get it poured and smoothed. If you've neglected to butter your dish or pan, you're probably going to end up with a sugary mess. Still edible, I can attest.

Smarty pants me thought I'd judge soft-ball stage with a candy thermometer, but I had a small glass of cold water at the ready. Good thing. Soft-ball arrived a good 15º before the candy thermometer registered it was near. And, I got to retrieve the chocolatey glop out of the water and eat it. Blast from the past!

Let me just say that it was a rare occasion indeed when the Jacobs' family had nuts available. These were toasted at 350º for about 7 minutes before I roughly chopped them.

I sure hope my Dad appreciates this tin of Mom's fudge. He's not the most sentimental of guys, and he's a world class bad and sometimes inappreciative gift receiver. World class. At one point in the past I digressed into giving him a pair of socks with some cash inside. The socks were a part of an old family story he loves to tell. An eccentric shirt-tail relative was known to bark at Christmas or birthdays, "And, don't give me any more damn! socks." The 20s were so that he could choose his own gift. He'd always return anything else he was given. Cash worked.


MRS. BATES' FUDGE

• 2 cups sugar
• 3 T. Hershey's cocoa
• 2 T. Karo syrup
• 1 cup Milk

Butter the serving pan or plate. Set aside. Waxed paper works, too.
Mix the first four ingredients and stir over medium-high heat
Continue cooking until mixture thickens and reaches the soft-ball stage. (When chocolate liquid is dropped into a small glass of cold water, you can easily form a ball using your fingers.)
Now, you must work quickly. Remove from heat.
Have ready:

• 3 T. Butter
• 1tsp. Vanilla

Add the butter and vanilla.
Stir the chocolate mixture rapidly until butter is blended in.
Continue whipping lightly until it begins to thicken. You should notice the sheen is dimming and the spoonfuls begin stacking up.
Pour quickly into prepared pan or plate.
Smooth quickly with a knife or spatula.
Nuts are optional. Today, I sprinkled them into the buttered pan before pouring the fudge over.
Cut squares before fudge hardens too much.
Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken Pasta Soup: modifications

Oh, yes. This soup has appeared before on this blog. It's my favorite soup. One that always merits homemade chicken stock.

We're having this for dinner tonight, and sharing some with my mother-in-law this weekend.
As I was making this batch, I realized that I should include some modifications that have evolved over time. The recipe as it first appeared in Bon Appétit in November 1999 was in fact excellent. I've made it so many times, tinkering a bit just happens.

Here are my suggestions:

• I never measure the vegetables precisely. Always a bit generous with quantites.
• I don't sauté the mushrooms as I don't want them to break apart. I usually add them just before the chicken when the pot is at a full simmer.
• This is a soupy soup, so I usually use close to 6 T. of flour. Because I'm cooking gluten-free, today I used cornstarch to good result. I used 6 T. of that, too, where usually when you substitute you use less cornstarch.
• If you're lucky enough to have a Fresh Market near you, their whole boneless chicken breast is the perfect size for this recipe. But, I've sometimes used rotisserie chicken or chicken breast.
• I have used uncooked pasta in this soup, but you can control al dente better if you cook it separately.

The Laundromat

Prideful people like moi actively avoid any form of public do-it-yourself-laundry (Just rephrased that from self-laundry. Ah-hem...) That's why our pouffy comforter has been unwashed since purchase. And, I'm not reminding anyone just when it was purchased other than to say it was not in 2014.
Now I can procrastinate with the best of them. Plenty of experience. Got that one down pat. But, when I'm a bit low I make myself do one task I dread at least once a day. Builds up my self-esteem. There's nothing so much a downer as repeatedly walking past the same pile of papers, the cluttered island, the laundry sorted piles, procrastinating throughout the day.

So, today after the gym and library, I bundled up our king-sized comforter, checked out my laundy options on Mr. Google, and headed out. I did not enjoy my chore. But, I pressed on knowing that the clean comforter will be a daily boost, and the sense of failure I've stewed in nightly is gone! When I draw the covers up to my chin tonight, I will be smiling and giving myself a silent high-five.

For sure, the laundromat met many of my low expectations but the attendent was smiling, helpful, and kind. And, I spent all my 2+ hours of waiting time tucked into my car, sitting in the sun with my iPad.

If that's not lemonade out of lemons, than I'm not Marielle!