5 Yummy Fudge Recipes!

Fudge is one of those treats that seems to go hand-in-hand with the Christmas season. Just like trees, lights, and nativity scenes - fudge makes its appearance on cute little red and green colored plates around the end of November and all through December.

This year, my wife has been experimenting with some fudge recipes that have been in the family for years and some others that she found online. If you haven't already guessed, my wife is big into Pinterest. I used to think that Pinterest was destroying my life and our relationship, but I got over it, and shocker - our relationship is just fine! Honestly, if that was going to bring our marriage down, then we probably had larger relational fish to fry.

Anyways, back to fudge (always a good segue). This year, she is reprising some tried and true recipes and trying out new ones. In total, she has made 5 different types of fudge. Feel free to eat your heart out - I'll be eating fudge.
But don't worry! I've typed out or included links to all of the recipes that my wife has made so you can stop eating your heart out and try a bit of fudge, too.

1. 4 Minute Microwave Fudge
This first recipe I'll share is an easy one that originated with my mother. I'm sure she didn't make it up, but I attribute its existence to her.

Interesting side story about my mother. She decided over a decade ago that she would give up eating candy. You might be thinking "what would ever inspire someone to make such a rash decision?" No, she's not diabetic nor suffering from any serious medical problems. Here's the reason. She was helping an elderly gentleman who had been smoking practically all of his life to stop smoking. She made a deal with him that if he would stop smoking she would give up something that she really liked - candy. He accepted the deal. He quit smoking and she quit eating candy (she allows herself to eat desserts only on Sundays, per the arrangement). He has since passed away, but she remains faithful to her commitment. Yes, my mom is that kind of amazing. She still makes the fudge for her family to eat. I know, it sounds like torture, but she does it anyway.

This recipe is perfect for kids to help with - then you can praise them for their delicious creation. Our 6 year old was so proud of the fudge she made!

Here is the recipe:

• 2 Cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup butter/margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (added later)

Combine all ingredients (except vanilla) in a bowl, microwave and cook on high for 4 minutes. Remove, stir until smooth. Add vanilla. You can also add 1 cup of chopped walnuts if you want. Pour into a 9x9 pan and cool 1 hour.

2. Peppermint Oreo Fudge
My wife copied this recipe down and made it for the first time last year. It was a huge hit and she decided to make it again this year. We took it to a church party and there were no left overs. Not sure how I felt about that (glad that others enjoyed it, but sad there was none left... you can probably identify). In the top picture, it's the fudge that has chocolate on bottom and pink in the middle with cookie crumbles on top. My wife said she probably got the recipe from Pinterest, but couldn't find the link anymore. So, we're not trying to take credit for coming up with this - just sharing the deliciousness with all of you.

• 1 bag milk chocolate Hershey Kisses
• 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate candy melts
• 1 bag peppermint candy cane Hershey Kisses
• 1 cup white chocolate chips or candy melts
• 2 cups crushed Oreo cookies
• 2 cans (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

- Prep a 9x13 baking dish by lining it with parchment paper and lightly spraying with non-stick spray.
- Combine milk chocolate Kisses, milk chocolate chips or melts, and 1 can sweetened condensed milk.
- Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. It should pull away from the pan. Fold 1 cup of crushed Oreo cookies into the mixture.
- Pour chocolate mixture into the prepared dish
- Combine candy cane Kisses, white chocolate chips or melts, and 1 can sweetened condensed milk.
- Stir over low heat until smooth and completely melted. It should pull away from the pan.
- Pour the white chocolate mixture over the chocolate Oreo mixture and spread evenly.
- Sprinkle the remaining Oreo crumbs over the top and press lightly into the fudge.
- Let cool ~5 hours

3. Mint Truffle Oreo Fudge
This recipe is one that my wife came up with. In the second picture, it is the all chocolate one with cookies on top. She made it for the first time this year. It's a bit gooey, but definitely yummy. It is a spin off of the Peppermint Oreo Fudge.
There are three main differences.
First, instead of using peppermint candy cane Hershey Kisses, use a bag of mint truffle Hershey Kisses.
Second, instead of using white chocolate chips, use regular milk chocolate chips.
Third, instead of using regular Oreos, use cool mint Oreos.
Everything else is the same as the Peppermint Oreo Fudge.

4. No Bake Reese's Fudge Bars
This recipe was also gleaned from Pinterest, which linked to the Six Sister Stuff website. Don't know anything about them, but they have some great fudge recipes! My wife made this one just the other day and it is probably one of my favorites.
I highly recommend clicking the link and trying it out.

5. 4 Ingredient Rocky Road Fudge
This recipe was another grab from the same website above. Here is the link.
It's been a tough job, but someone had to taste test and decide which of these 5 recipes are the best. Honestly, I can't tell, but this one is also amazing - especially if you like marshmallows and nuts.

Now, you might be wondering if we are a family of gluttons. I promise we aren't - at least not too extreme. My wife's affinity for fudge making serves a number of purposes. First and most obvious, she likes chocolate and she knows that the kids and I do, too. She also likes to try new recipes and gets a great deal of enjoyment out of cooking. She says its a stress reliever. In addition to these reasons, my wife loves to make gift plates for the neighbors and other friends. She has a very giving heart. It's just one of her ways to show love and spread some Christmas cheer.

Hopefully you will enjoy these recipes as much as we have!

Wife's Wisdom: How our Flood didn't Steal Christmas

With the Christmas season upon us, there has been an increased level of activity in our home - particularly in the area of Christmas decorating. During our first Christmas as a married couple, we decided to continue my wife's family's tradition of decorating the tree and home as a family while listening to Christmas music and then enjoy a cup of hot chocolate together. We continued that tradition this year with both of our children joining in. Our older daughter was actually helpful and did a great job getting the ornaments on the tree (albeit mainly bunched in one area). Our two year old mostly ran around the room, but at least he didn't destroy anything.

My wife has an amazing eye for what looks good. She picked out a beautiful Christmas tree, and after the lights and decorations were on, she thought that adding some gold mesh glittery garnish (I really don't know what it's called) would make the tree look just right. She made the garland by getting some gold mesh (which you can probably get at any craft store like Hobby Lobby), bunching it up and creating bulges by tying gold and green pipe cleaners around it. Quite inventive, if you ask me. You can see what I mean below. She spent a great deal of time putting the finishing touches on this tree.

Here is the result:

About a week or so ago, she decided to put some presents under the tree, hoping that our 2 year old wouldn't grab, unwrap, scatter, or otherwise destroy the presents. He has done amazing and hasn't opened a single one.

It was shaping up to be a picture-perfect Christmas in our household.

Then last Saturday happened.

While at a scout activity, I got a text from my wife asking if I knew anyone who had a shop vac that could suck up water. This is not the text you want to get - ever. Then, later, I got a phone call from her, frantically asking if I'd come home early from the activity.

I discovered that the discharge from our washing machine had somehow pulled out of the wall and leaked gallons of water onto the floor and had seaped into our bedroom and the family room carpets. Then, just to make it more interesting, the Christmas tree fell over, spilling water all over the presents and drenching that part of the floor as well.

Here are some pictures of the fallout:

 

After most of the water was wiped up with all of the towels in our house, we used fans and shirts to try and dry out the carpets.

 



 Here I am trying to dry up the carpet with the shop vac where the tree had fallen over.

 We had to pull up the carpet and get the wet padding out to avoid mold. Which put our bedroom in quite a bit of a mess.

Talk about a stressful morning for my wife! To add a bit of perspective to the situation, my wife is in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy, I had been away for the previous 2 days, and she was at home with two young children and her father-in-law who was visiting that morning.

Yet, in the midst of floods and a toppled tree, my wife's wisdom does not disappoint. When the tree fell over (for the second time) my daughter was, naturally, very upset and exclaimed, "Christmas is ruined!" Noticing a teaching moment, my wife stated:

"Christmas is not ruined. Christmas is not about trees or presents, it's about Jesus."

I've thought about my wife's statement quite a bit since our Christmas flood of 2013 (hopefully it won't be an annual thing). We spent a lot of time, energy, and money on the tree, the decorations, and the presents. My wife certainly put a great deal of her soul into making sure the tree was lovely, the presents precisely wrapped, and the decorations on the tree trimmed just right. She loves to make sure things look beautiful and is a natural homemaker. As I've said before, her ability as a homemaker is a beautiful gift that she gives to me and our children each day. And yet she recognized that the tree, the decorations, the beautifully wrapped presents, and even a dry carpet are non-essential Christmas items. She knew that there is truly only one essential Christmas emblem - Christ Himself.

Most presents are likely to be forgotten or broken as time passes; trees will be mulched, trashed, or gather dust in an attic; most decorations eventually break; but God's gift of his Son to each of us is as timeless as eternity.  I believe John put the essence of Christmas best when he wrote:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). 

I'm grateful for my wife who, right in the midst of what seemed like a Christmas season-ending disaster, had the insight to teach all of us in our family what Christmas is really about.

Since the flood and tree falling incident, we have fixed the carpet (after a couple of late nights) and put the tree back in place. We have yet to redecorate the tree or put the angel on top - it's a combination of fear that it will fall again, not wanting to replace broken lights, and simple laziness since Christmas is so close anyways. So, the tree looks much more plain than it did before. But, each time I look at that tree, I remember our little experience last week. Some of the frustration comes back, as does some sadness for all of the hard work that my wife put into such a beautiful tree which she doesn't get to enjoy, but my wife's wise words also come back to mind each time I see our relatively bare tree. It might be odd to say, but we were given an early gift this Christmas season - a reminder that no matter what happens, the real gift of Christmas is always given, waiting to be received.

Creative introspection: Am I a hypocrite?

This blog and some life events have inadvertently forced me to do some introspection. Someone I am working with mentioned how acts of service should be done secretly, without cameras or fanfare. He mentioned how bothered he was by people doing service and then videorecording it so others could see it because it felt disingenuous to him.

His comment was quite serendipitous because I had been trying to evaluate my own motivations for writing this blog, and truth be told I was wondering whether my true intentions were actually noble. For example:
Am I trying to create a false image of what my home is really like?
Am I trying to win favor with the online community for the sake of vanity and popularity?
Am I being a hypocrite because I may appear to be a supportive husband online, but sometimes struggle with living up to that ideal in the real world?

These and other thoughts have wandered through my mind since the inception of this blog. I remember having similar thoughts while I was in graduate school and had gotten very much into working out for about a year. I gained about 15-20 lbs of muscle and looked great. I told myself I was doing it to be healthy and to gain some weight (I've always been a super skinny guy). But, at the same time there were definitley some pride stroking reasons as well. I looked more appealing to women, people gave me more compliments about my appearance. I began to wonder if I was actually working out for me or for the way I appeared to others.

These same questions, I think, could apply to any of our actions. I'm not here to write a sermon or to tell you how you should live or think or anything. That's not my place. I simply am taking this space to discuss some of my motivations for doing this blog.
I would be a complete liar if I stated there was no self-serving aspect to this blog. There is a natural tendency for people to accentuate the positive and downplay the negative when others' judgments might be imposed. Obviously, I hope that people read the blog - why else would I write it? Yes, I would think it great if I had a huge number of followers, and that would most likely boost the self-esteem, at least in the short-term.

Now, the real question: am I a hypocrite? Am I creating a false image of myself as a supportive husband when in reality I'm not all that supportive, loving, or caring?
Hard question!!
But, it deserves an honest answer. Yes, I more than likely am a hypocrite. There have been numerous occassions during our short marriage when I have been a jerk, unsupportive, doubtful of my wife's abilities, and demeaning. On one recent occassion, my wife mentioned that she was grateful that I was writing this blog, but also wished that I would be more supportive in real life just as often. That cut pretty deep.

Does this mean that I'm engaging in character fraud? No. I am also a caring, loving, and supportive husband at times as well. My wife recently posted a link on her facebook page (and mine, too) that I found exceptional. It is entitled I Didn't Marry my Soulmate. At first I thought, 'Gee, thanks honey.' But, the article basically states that marriage is a choice which requires continually choosing and working to be happy with that person - problems and all. After reading the article, I was genuinely touched.

Knowing that on occassion I struggle to be the caring, supportive, loving husband that my wife deserves, I also realize that I need to work at being caring, supportive, and loving. Now, I could stop writing this blog because my motivations are not perfect. But, couldn't anyone stop doing anything for that reason? For example, I could choose not to wash dishes anymore because I don't like washing them and when I do wash them I secretly hope that my wife notices how clean the kitchen looks and praises me for it. Can you imagine if I told my wife I couldn't wash the dishes anymore until my motivations for washing the dishes were pure? She would likely say, "Get over it and do them anyway."

I think that a quote by Dieter F. Uchtdorf sums it up best when he said,

If you define hypocrite as someone who fails to live up perfectly to what he or she believes, then we are all hypocrites. None of us is quite as Christlike as we know we should be. But we earnestly desire to overcome our faults and the tendency to sin. With our heart and soul we yearn to become better with the help of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Even though I may be a hypocrite, this blog is an exercise to increase my capacity for love, kindness, and support for my wife, while at the same time sharing with the world some of the amazing things my wife has done. Despite some of my human instinctual self-interested reasons for writing, I do believe that my wife is an incredible woman and that her awesomeness should be shared and praised, both online and in person. Not sharing with you or telling her that she is special because of my own personal shortcomings would not, in my opinion, be a more noble alternative.

So, honey, if you're reading, and I haven't told you already yet in person, I love you and think you're amazing!

Now If I could just get back into working out.....