Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

Ok, first off….I need to apologize for two things…

One. After falling asleep in my 3 year old’s bed whilst trying my darndest to get him to sleep, I was awoken to my 9 month old screaming; apparently he was having a nightmare that did not want to end immediately. So, I fell asleep in my bed holding him, all the while dreaming of writing this post for you.

It was supposed to be up, right here, for you all, last night.

It wasn’t. I’m sorry.

Two. I need to say I am sorry for the quality of these pictures. While my husband is an amazing photographer, I am not. When the camera is around, I can sort of take pictures, however, when he is not, and the lens has been detached from the body, I don’t go near it. Hence the not-so-pretty pictures you see before you.

After all this, can we still be friends? I have a slight feeling you might want to after eating this soup!!!!

This was an off the cuff, on a whim meal.

Every few months I take my family on an extreme whirlwind eating adventure that lasts about a week. Inevitably, we always find our way back to “normal” (whatever that is), but for that week, they are forced into whatever I make for them.

This time, it was not veganism, or raw, or eating only meat (I know, I know…my quest for the best way to eat does not make any logical sense….) this time, I decided I wanted the challenge of trying to not only live off of $60 a week for groceries, but actually make really yummy food.

We’ll see how long this one lasts.

Nonetheless, I decided to go and buy black beans in bulk; they were like 1.69 a pound!!! And this beautiful goodness is what I ended up with.

Wait for it…..

Here’s what you do

Rinse beans and soak in a large pot overnight or for about 5-6 hours

In a slow cooker (set to low), throw your pre-soaked beans…

The Ortega Chili’s….

The Garlic….

The Onions…

The Tomatoes and Water…

The Broth or Bullion Cube….Wow this picture is exceptionally bad…

Blurry Chili Powder…

Cumin….

Cayenne Pepper…

The Salts and Pepper (forgot the picture…oops)

Now give it a stir, put the lid on and go about your life for about 8 hours (or 4 if you set the crock put on high)

Come home, take in that incredible aroma that just wafted up to your nose….

Ladle out some soup….

Add your garnishes

and perhaps a warm tortilla with butter….

Sit down, relax and enjoy every minute of that soup! You slaved all day after all…

Ingredients:

4 Cups Dried Black Beans

1 4 oz Can Diced Ortega Chilis

1 12.5 oz Can Southwestern Style Diced Tomatoes or Ro*Tel®

5-6 Cups Water

1 Can Chicken Broth (or one extra cup of water and 1 Chicken Boulion Cube)

1/2-3/4  Onion Diced

2 Large or 4 Small Garlic Cloves Chopped

2 Heaping tsp Chili Powder

1 Heaping tsp Cumin

1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Seasoned Salt

1/4 tsp Garlic Salt

Avocado

Sour Cream

Grated Cheese

Preparation:

Soak Beans overnight or for about 5-6 hours.

Place all ingredients into a crock pot (set to low for 8 hours or high for 4).

If most of the water has been reduced, you can add another cup or two and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Serve with Garnishes and Enjoy!

Blueberry Corn Muffins with Honey Butter

I adore cornbread. I like it dense, I like it dry; in a muffin or a loaf; melt some honey butter over the top of it and I feel my life is complete. Bring me some cornbread and you have a friend for life; whether you like it or not. Use this information wisely.

For the following reasons, I have decided that you need to make this recipe tonight:

1. The incredible flavor and love of life that it will bring you

2. The sheer ease

3. (This is my favorite, well maybe not, I think number 1 is; this definitely is number 2. Well it really is number 3 but….you know what I mean.) It costs so little to make!!!

4. If you have any leftover you automatically have breakfast!!

Incredibly tasting and cheap to prepare recipes that can be used for multiple meals bring me joy…

I bring the following information to you with only one warning – Do not take these out of the oven when anyone else is around! They will be gone forever and you will not get to eat anything but the crumbs of half of one after you have fought your way through the crowd. I know because this happened to me.

Those were the best crumbs of my life…

Ok, are you ready? Here. We. Go.

For the honey butter

Ingredients

1 stick butter

1tbsp honey

In a bowl, throw an entire stick of butter and 1 tbsp of honey….difficult I know….

Set them aside for a bit so that the butter softens

Mash em and mix em together until well blended and creamy. Scrape all of that goodness out of the bowl (with your…..you guessed it! Your rubber spatula) and into a pretty serving dish.

For the muffins

Ingredients

2 packages Jiffy corn muffin mix

2 eggs

1 can creamed corn

2/3 cups milk

1 pint blueberries

Preheat the oven t

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 muffin pans with paper muffin holders or grease with butter. Or be like me and realize after putting paper muffin holder thingies into one pan that you don’t have enough to do both so you grease the second one.

My son though that right before I took this picture was a good time to rearrange the paper cups…

In another one of your obnoxiously colored bowls combine corn muffin mix

eggs

creamed corn

and milk

Whisk until fairly smooth; it will be lumpy and chunky, I mean, how smooth can something be when you have whole corn kernels in it??

Next, add the blueberries and mix the batter together

Reserve a handful of blueberries for your son who loves them so much….and that alone makes you smile….

Pour the batter into the 24 muffin cups filling each about half way. Try not to overfill them, but do make as much of a mess as possible and drip a ton on the pan itself so that it will be extra hard to clean later. Let the mixture sit for about 3-4 minutes before placing the pans into the preheated oven.

I couldn’t decide on pictures so you get both…

Practical…

Artsy….

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes. Serve with honey butter.

This is where I would have taken a picture of the muffins as they came out of the oven, however, we had people over and I was talking…boy do I like to talk….and the picture taking was overlooked as I tried to fight them off before the muffins hit the table.

I hope you understand….

Now, sit with a muffin in front of you for a few minutes. Take in the beauty. The aroma…. Now, dig in and enjoy. You deserve it.

** I have done 2 things differently in this post and would greatly appreciate feedback. 1) I put the photo instructions/descriptions above the photos rather than below them. 2) I have placed printable instructions below (by printable I mean you can highlight, copy and paste into a word doc without the pictures. Unless you really want the pictures, then by all means copy, paste and print the whole thing).

For the honey butter

1 stick butter

1tbsp honey

In a bowl, throw an entire stick of butter and 1 tbsp of honey. Set them aside for a bit so that the butter softens. Mash em and mix em together until well blended and creamy. Scrape all of that goodness out of the bowl and into a pretty serving dish.

For the muffins

2 packages Jiffy corn muffin mix

2 eggs

1 can creamed corn

2/3 cups milk

1 pint blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 muffin pans with paper muffin holders or grease with butter. In a bowl combine corn muffin mix, eggs, creamed corn, and milk. Whisk until fairly smooth; it will be lumpy and chunky, don’t worry about that. Next, add the blueberries and mix the batter together. Pour the batter into the 24 muffin cups filling each about half way. Try not to overfill them. Let the mixture sit for about 3-4 minutes before placing the pans into the preheated oven. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes. Serve with honey butter. Enjoy!

Sweet n Tangy BBQ Sauce

Have you ever dreamed wonderful dreams of making your own BBQ sauce?

Yes you say???

Well then, you’re not only pretty much a recipe geek like me, but you are in luck!!

I made this for the first time the other night and it came out A-mazing…

If I do say so myself….

It was super easy, I had all of the ingredients, and, I ended up making it in the crock pot!!!!

Could life get any better???

Well, I could think of a few things that would be pretty sweet, but homemade BBQ sauce made my day…my week in fact!

Go get your cowboy boots on, and if you don’t have any (generally not the common attire in Orange County), slippers or flip flops will do, and prepare yourself because you will be salivating before this creation is complete.

** Note, this recipe does not call for bananas; I am just a bonehead and forgot to take them out of the way when setting up the shot. And yes, I do buy the most green bananas on Earth; what can I say, the hubs likes under ripe bananas and I like to make the hubs happy….it’s the little things

Ingredients 

1 cup Ketchup

1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar (this is the tangy part; like less tang? Use less Vinegar)

3 Tbsp Dark Brown Sugar (I used light brown cause that’s what I had)

1 Tbsp Yellow Mustard

2 Tbsp Tomato Paste (not shown cause it was kinda an afterthought)

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Maple Syrup

1/4 tsp Garlic Powder (another afterthought)

1/4 tsp Chile Powder (and yet another afterthought)

** I doubled the recipe so the pictures may not reflect the accurate measurements**

Actual recipe yields about 1 cup of sauce

Directions

In either a medium saucepan or crock pot, pour Ketchup… If you have not gotten a rubber spatula by now we need to have a talk!

Add the Apple Cider Vinegar

and the brown sugar

Note to self…we are in need of a serious manicure…what the heck happened!

Add the mustard…

and the tomato paste….

and the maple syrup….

and all of your spices…

Now stir and stir and then leave it for a bit. We want all of those wonderful flavors to mix together. Let it sit over low heat, stirring occasionaly for about 30-45 minutes to let it reduce.

When you feel like you have had enough stirring and reducing and paying attention to something on the stove, take it off, let it cool, then transfer it to an airtight container in the fridge.

or…

If you want to use it now and have opted for the crock pot and need some ideas on what to do with this amazing stuff…

Here you go (again, I am here to take the wonder out of your kitchen adventures):

Throw in some meatballs (that’s what I did, Meatball Recipe Here), sausage, rotisserie chicken or pulled pork (eat it alone or make sandwiches)

Make a meatloaf and slather it on the top prior to baking

BBQ burgers and chicken are always wonderful

Add some onions and peppers and put it on top of anything and you will think you have died and gone to heaven!

I hope you enjoy making and eating this goodness as much as I did!!!

The Best Meatballs….Ever

I know that may seem like a bold claim however…I need you to make these, end up eating until you feel your stomach fighting back…eating and eating even though you should have stopped 5 meatballs ago but they are just so good, and moist and you cry out:

“I

Can’t

Stop”!!!!

Ok, maybe your reaction will not be as severe with equal parts love and discomfort as mine was,

however,

I pretty much promise you will love them all the same. If not, there is no money back gaurentee…Just puttin it out there….

Here’s what else I love about meatballs, other than the fact that they are delicious,

You can make a ton, eat some now, eat some tomorrow, and freeze the rest for other quick meals in the future.

I know what you’re thinking

She’s a genius. How does she think this stuff up???

I am here for you.

So, again, go put the kids to bed, or if you are desperate like I usually am when attempting to make dinner, go put on another Dora or Diego or Veggie Tales…whatever the kids are into nowadays (Duck Tales is my personal fave…Woohoo) and give yourself about 15 minutes (ok maybe 20) to create something the stuff that dreams (and wife/mom of the year awards) are made of 🙂

The What

2 lbs Ground Meat (I used beef but feel free to experiment)

1 cup bread crumbs with Italian Seasoning ( or you could dry about 5-6 slices of bread, throw it in the food processor with 2 tsp basil and 2 tsp parsley)

3 Eggs

1 Cup Parmesan Cheese

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 medium onion (finely chopped)

4 medium garlic cloves (finely chopped)

The How

Pull out another brightly colored bowl and get to work…

Crack 3 eggs into it (please dig out your shells, no one likes crunchy bits in their meatballs)

Whisk the eggs vigorously. Like your life depends on it. Let’s try to keep the eggs in the bowl though

Throw in your 2 lbs of ground meat. Does that not look a little like the state of Louisiana???

Add your breadcrumbs…

and your cheese. Please refrain from pulling some of the cheese out and eating it. remember, it is touching raw meat…

use your beautiful hand to sprinkle in your salt…

Add your pepper. Take a big whiff of the aroma that is working its way up to you. Sneeze. Move on.

Finely chop your onions so that you don’t have to dig through each meatball picking them out before your son will actually eat them.

And add it to the lower left quadrant of your bowl.

Chop your garlic with the fun garlic roller/chopper that you bought on a whim at Target and have used like every other day since….

and, now the fun part….

Dig in. No not with a fork…this is raw meat here people! With your hands. Squish it, mix it; do whatever you have to do to get it all mashed together.

Go grab your cookie scooper (who woulda thought that sucker had another amazing purpose), and scoop out portions of the meat mixture, roll it into beautifully formed balls and….

throw them on a plate. I got 50 meatballs in total out of 2 lbs of ground beef. You may want more or less depending on the size that you prefer – that’s what she said – note to self, too many reruns of The Office lately….

Throw about half of them into a pot of water that you so diligently started boiling after you finished mixing the meat and thoroughly washed your hands and before you started “ball rolling”…maybe that is where the phrase came from…

**please don’t throw them in but rather gently place with a spoon or spatula. Boiling water hurts when it splashes your face**

Boil them for about 5 minutes

then retrieve them with a slotted spoon and set aside. You will lose some of the onions. Please don’t be sad. It’s a part of life. Onions come and go….

When you are done boiling all of the balls, let them cool for a bit, stick them in a few bags and throw them in the freezer.

Or, add them to some marinara and throw it over spaghetti.

Or, put them in the crock pot of bubbling bbq sauce that your just made (Oh don’t you worry, that ones a comin’).

Or, just sit down at the table with a fork, no need for a knife, and eat….and eat….and eat until your insides feel all warm and fuzzy.

No need to thank me, that’s what I’m here for 🙂

Nutty English Toffee

A little nutty

A little sweet

Just like me

Well, ok, I might be a little nuttier…

So, here we are again with another candy-making recipe. I apologize for not posting sooner as promised. If you have children, a spouse, a job, and 3 sets of families vying for your time and attention right before Christmas, you will understand. If you don’t, just make the toffee, eat it, and you will never again be upset in your entire life. Promise.

Toffee – Stand alone, it is probably my most favorite candy on all of the Earth. I love the buttery flavor, the texture; how it’s not super hard but not soft; just somewhere in between. Add a layer of chocolate and nuts, and you will think you have died and gone to Heaven.

So go put the kids to bed (I’m assuming here that you’re like me and don’t do any “me” related stuff until the clock strikes 9pm), turn on an old episode of The Office (one that you have seen so you don’t have to pay attention to plot lines, but can laugh a lot) and mentally prepare yourself, because you will end up eating most of it.

Ingredients

** note the BEAUTIFUL and professional photos (my husband was home when I decided to embark on this adventure, it pays to have a super talented and hot photographer husband)

Candy Thermometer

1 lb Butter (I used Salted but I have read some recipes that say not to. You decide)

1 lb Sugar (I tried this with brown sugar and the consistency was not quite right, still tasty though)

1 cup Semi-Sweet chips

1/2 -1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans because I had them but any will do. Get creative)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions

Generously grease an extra-large (or two medium) cookie sheet(s) with butter (please use butter and not something that you spray out of a can. That stuff scares the bejesus outta me). Oh and please warm up your coffee that you have been attempting to drink all day and drink it now.

Chop your nuts. Laugh at yourself for the silly thoughts that just ran through your head and move on.

I used a knife and chopped the pecans by hand instead of using a food processor. For some reason every time I use the food processor I end up with some “nut dust”. I didn’t want “nut dust”….

You get the point…

Moving on….

Spread the chopped nuts in an even layer over the cookie sheet (or sheets if you opted for two medium ones) and set it off to the side

Cut your pound of butter (4 sticks) into sections and dump it, along with the pound of sugar into a large pot.

Yes, when stated like this, it kind of seems like toffee may not be that good for you. Please ignore all of this butter and sugar, we are making toffee for Petes sake….any apprehension you feel will quickly diminish after your first bite…

Insert your candy thermometer into the pot and clip it onto the side. Make sure that the thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pot, but rather just resting in the liquid.

Bring the butter and sugar to a slow, rolling boil over medium heat. Patience….

Boil over medium heat stirring constantly until the mixture reaches between 295 and 300 degrees on the thermometer.

As soon as it hits that temp, stop stirring and let it boil to 305 degrees.

The concoction should be about the color of caramel, or a little lighter. Here is where I missed the picture of what the toffee should look like…imagine the color that your vanilla ice cream turns to when you mix it with caramel and it has been sitting for a while. But thicker. That’s about the best I could do…

Immediately remove the boiling butter and sugar from the heat and pour in the tsp of vanilla. Please have this already measured out…time is of the essence here.

Pour the liquid toffee mixture into your pre-greased cookie sheet(s) spreading the mixture evenly with your trusty rubber spatula. Let it sit for a few minutes and then sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Please do not touch the toffee…this stuff takes a long time to cool down, I know because I touched it, and it hurt.

I love this picture because it shows what chocolate looks like when it is melty (that point where its spreadable); you know what it looks like but it’s just not something you can describe.

With your rubber spatula, (please tell me that you have one by now), spread the chocolate into an even layer over the toffee. Now when I say even layer, I mean get the chocolate over as much of the toffee as possible. Do not spend hours making it perfect. It will not taste any different. Promise.

As you can see above, mine was by no means perfectly spread and not one person told me that their toffee did not have equal parts toffee, chocolate and nuts. PS if anyone does notice that and calls you out on it, please take the candy away from them and give it to a more appreciative recipient.

From here, I put mine in the fridge for a bit, then in the freezer for a few hours to speed up the hardening of the chocolate. It depends what kind of combination of patience and self-discipline that you have. I have none. Hence the freezer.

When the chocolate has completely set and hardened, take it out, turn it upside down onto the counter or a cutting board and give it a few whacks with the side of a wooden spoon.

Please eat about 5 or 6 pieces and tell yourself that you will start dieting as soon as the holidays are over. Store the rest in an air tight container to eat at a later time, or if you can part with it, put some in a cellophane bag, wrap a pretty ribbon around it and give it to your neighbor as a gift.

Now, go sit down with a glass of wine (and maybe some more toffee) and relax. You deserve it!

Toffee Teaser

 

Yes I made it

No it is not quite ready for you yet
The texture and consistency just weren’t quite right

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t delicious and that I didn’t eat about half the pan
But hey you can wait one more day right…

Ok if you can’t….please go get a Heath Bar and indulge your needs. Just know it tastes so much better when your hands were the ones that created it

Check back tomorrow 🙂

 

Black and White Peppermint Bark

There are three things that I am sure of:

1) I don’t eat bark (why is it called bark? Did it at one point resemble the bark on a tree? Was it named  after some old lady’s dog? Someone please tell me…)

2) I don’t like peppermint

2) I love this candy

That said, I am not sure what truly inspired me to make anything I might not actually eat this year, other than I thought it would look pretty, and well, other people seem to like it.

I did like it though, in fact I kind of loved it.

Imagine biting into a cold, snowy day when you don’t have to go to work (or school) and all your worries have been swept away. Now that is what you have to look forward to. No worries.

My version of this goodness does not require a ton of ingredients, although it might not be the stuff you have in the back of the pantry from your last baking adventure, so you may need to make a quick trip to the store (and please don’t go to the grocery store, find a Target or Wal-Mart, it will cost sooooo much less)

It is also not a difficult process, just time consuming really (candy making = time consuming)

So get get ready, turn on a Veggie Tales for the kids, put on your apron (please tell me you have one) and get to it!

The Team

* are you proud, there is a picture this time 🙂

24 oz White Chocolate

12 oz Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate

6 or 7 Candy Canes

1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract

Sea Salt

The Game Plan

Preheat the oven to 225

Unwrap and break up the candy canes into smaller pieces

Get out your food processor and chop those babies into itty bitty pieces (if you don’t have a food processor, put that on the list of things you will be buying at Target or Wal-Mart, in the mean time, wrap the candy canes in a paper towel and beat them with a meat tenderizer, or anything hard really)

Line a 9×13 baking dish with a piece of foil and spread the semi-sweet chips out in an even layer. You will not completely cover the foil, just make sure that they are not piled on top of one another

Put the dish into the preheated oven for just about 5 minutes

When your timer buzzes take the dish out of the oven, and please put on your oven mitts or this candy making process will have to be traded in for a trip to the emergency room.

Smooth the gooey chips into an even layer with your best friend, the rubber spatula, sprinkle with the sea salt and place the dish into the fridge for about 20 minutes

Now here is an important part of the recipe. You have 20 minutes of freedom (as long as your freedom has not been detected). Go grab a book, sit on the kitchen floor (unless your floor looks like mine right now, then don’t, feel free to use a chair) and read. By all means if you don’t like to read, go do some dishes, play a game of words with friends, or maybe do some blogging 😉

Ok, I think your 20 minutes are up

Take the dish out of the fridge and put it in the freezer. You want to make sure that the chocolate is as cold as possible so that the heat from dumping the white chocolate in does not melt it

Go get your double boiler (unless you are like me and do not own one, then get a pot, a steaming basket or small colander and a bowl…please make sure all of these are metal or glass, we don’t want you melting anything but chocolate today)

Place water in the pot and set it on high to boil (do not fill the pot so high that water will directly touch the steaming basket or bowl)

Dump the white chocolate into the bowl and set it in the double boiler

Stir the chocolate around with your rubber spatula

When it has completely melted through, pour in half of your candy cane dust and the peppermint extract. Please make sure to also spill it all over your hand so you smell like a fresh winter day just like I did.

I think I could be a hand model

Pour the melted white chocolatey pepperminty goodness on top of the semi-sweet layer, which you so diligently have already gotten out of the freezer and placed right next to your double boiler. Good for you! Way to be prepared!

Smooth the white chocolate into an even layer, sprinkle on the remaining candy cane dust and place the dish back into the freezer

After about an hour or 2, the chocolate should be hard and ready to break apart

Here is the fun part

Take a large cutting board and place it over the top of the dish

Flip the dish upside down so that the entire sheet of hard Peppermint Bark lands face down (dark chocolate side up) onto the cutting board

Grab a wooden spoon and get to whacking that bark into pieces (leave the foil on so that you don’t end up shooting candy cane bits at your dog)

Easy now, don’t get crazy. Those pieces shouldn’t be too small, just small enough to spread out amongst the ones you love

Now you can either package these beauties up and give them out as gifts, or you could eat them all, clean up the mess and pretend like none of this ever happened. You decide.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy them!

Creamy Dreamy Fudge

Oh Fudge…It is creamy…like biting into a stick of butter…but not gross like biting into a stick of butter (please, imagine texture at this point and don’t go bite into a stick of butter).

It is dreamy…like biting into Timothy Olyphant….wait…no….don’t….nevermind…

Wait what were we talking about?

Fudge

Beautiful, delectable, melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

This is what you call a family recipe. I have no idea where it originated, but it was what my grandmother always made, and what my dad still makes, and what, as of two years ago, I make as well. Why then, you ask, am I sharing this top secret family recipe with you? Two reasons really, 1) this goodness should not be kept under lock and key and 2) I just don’t have the time to make it for all of you….

So prepare yourself; unbutton your pants (because you will eat at least half of the batch and those pants will be ready to pop open) and please find some time when your children are not running under your feet and the dog doesn’t need to go out and you are not trying to empty and reload the dishwasher and sort the laundry.

Time is the most important part of this recipe.

Have fun and please, love it as much as I do.

The Suspects

* Note, this is where I would generally put a picture of the ingredients, however, I forgot to take one. So please use your imagination.

4 1/2 cups sugar (make sure to use good quality sugar, not the store brand stuff, it just doesn’t come out as tasty)

1 stick salted butter (sectioned)

1 can evaporated milk

1 jar jet-puffed marshmallow creme

18 oz (1 1/2 bags) chips (semi sweet, dark, butterscotch etc.)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

The Modus Operandi

Grease a 9×13 baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, dump the chips and the marshmallow creme. Set aside. And please make sure to use your most obnoxiously colored bowl.

In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, bring butter, sugar and evaporated milk to a slight boil (please be patient and do not turn the heat up higher than medium. Remember that whole “time is the most important part” part. It really is).

As soon as the mixture starts to bubble, set the timer for 11 minutes and stir constantly. This is the most important part!! Constant stirring. If you have weak arms, I apologize, think of this as a pre fudge eating workout. Or you could always have someone help you with this part.

When the 11 minutes of stirring heaven are finished, pour the hot saucy liquid into the chip/marshmallow, and please be careful. This was just boiling 2 seconds ago.

Stir until smooth.

Please make sure that you stir so vigorously that your picture (if you are taking one) is also slightly out of focus.

Now, with a rubber spatula (if you don’t have one, go buy one. It is the best invention ever) pour the fudge from the bowl into the pre-greased dish. At this point, the mixture should not be liquidy, more gooey.

Spread it around so that it is even.

Lick the spatula.

And then let it sit on the counter taunting you for 10 minutes.

Place it in the fridge for about an hour to let it set up. I know, an hour seems like a lifetime when you are waiting for the best fudge ever, but remember that time discussion we were having earlier….

Take it out and let it sit for another 5-10 minutes before cutting it, unless of course you are Hercules and then by all means, have at it.

Now, please pop some of that goodness in your mouth and realize that you have just experienced what I like to think of as a small dose of Heaven on Earth.

Enjoy!