Oh Fudge!

Last week both Thatbaby and I had a very full social calendar.  While I had party after party racked up, Thatbaby was meeting up with a friend for coffee.

Well, Thatbaby and Superbaby didn't have any coffee, but Superwoman and I sure did!  We met up at Javamama - a combo playgym/coffee house for a little boys day out. 

The boys had a great time.  There was so much to do and play with.  Every toy imaginable with separate areas for the play kitchen, dress up, tables, and lots of things to climb.

Most of the kids were around Thatbaby's age, but when a gang of older boys showed up, Thatbaby and Superbaby wanted to be like one of the in-crowd.  They started following the older kids around, doing their best to include themselves.  Especially Superbaby, who took to petting the older kids.

And I realized how thankful I was for daycare when I saw Thatbaby going down the slide by himself.  We don't do a lot of slide time, but he has slides both inside and outside at daycare.  When he got to the top of the slide, I offered my hands to help him down, but he promptly turned himself around and slid down on his belly.  I love the independence!  It means I can sit back and let him do his thing.

When we got home from our playdate, I got myself all dolled up for my girls' dessert exchange!  I'd been to cookie exchanges before, but this was my first dessert exchange.  It's a brilliant idea  Each person brings a dessert and we all get to take home delicious holiday goodies.  After we sat around eating them first.

There were cookies, brownies, tea-cakes, and golden graham smore treats.

I used it as an opportunity to start my holiday fudge-making.  I decided to be smart this year.  No cake balls.  No truffles.  No sugar cookies.  Nothing labor intensive that was going to make me pull my hair out as I made dozens of treats for our friends, family, and coworkers.

I made chocolate for the party - some with peppermint and some plain.

White chocolate for Thatboy's coworkers (my coworkers got Chiffon cake, since there aren't as many of them).

And peanut butter fudge for Thatboy's family.

 

Fudge couldn't be easier to make - it takes less than 10 minutes for the hands on part, and the rest is just a time thing.  And one recipe can be adapted to hundreds of different types of fudge between the various types of chips and toppings out there.

Thatgirl's Easy Holiday Fudge

4 Tbsp butter

1 bag of mini-marshmallows

1 cup cream

2 cups sugar

1/8 tsp salt

3 cups of chips (chocolate, white chocolate, peanut, chocolate peanut butter...)

1 cup toppings (crushed peppermint, chocolate chips, m&ms, crushed oreo cookies...) 

1. Line a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil.  Melt butter, marshmallows, cream, sugar, and salt in a saucepan.  Simmer, stirring until the butter and marshmallows have melted (about 5 minutes.)
2. Remove from heat and stir in the chips.  Stir until the chips are melted and the fudge is smooth.
3. Pour the fudge into the pan.  Sprinkle topping over the still hot fudge.  Refrigerate until hard.  Cut into squares before serving.