Lessons Learned From Mom

My Mother was my biggest influence when it comes to cooking. She was a wonderful cook. She comes from the beautiful Maine coast. Her cooking was basic down home New England style cooking. I tend to follow her style. One of the first things I ever learned to cook was Hersheys Cocoa Fudge. The recipe came from the tin of Hersheys Cocoa. Following is this very basic recipe.


HERSHEY'S COCOA FUDGE

2/3 c. Hershey's cocoa
3 c. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Thoroughly combine dry ingredients in a heavy 4 quart saucepan; stir in milk. Bring to a bubbly boil on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring to 234 degrees (soft ball stage). Bulb of candy thermometer should not rest on bottom of saucepan. Remove from heat add butter and vanilla. Do not stir. Cool at room temperature to 110 degrees. Beat until fudge thickens and loses some of its gloss. Quickly spread in a lightly buttered 8 or 9 inch square pan. Cool. Cut into squares.

Mom and I usually made this fudge together on Friday night. I did not have to get up in the morning to go to school. I was allowed to stay up late to watch tv. I remember watching her beat the fudge to thicken it. When it reached the right consistency she would pour it in the buttered pan. Then she would give me the cooking pot to scrape out. This was my favorite part of cooking this recipe. I got to officially taste the fudge.

On one memorable occasion I decided to make pancakes for my mother. It was to be a surprise for her when she got up. I got out the cook book and found the recipe I was looking for. I set to work assembling the ingredients and began mixing the batter. Things were going just fine then mom got up. She came down the hall and startled me. I hit the canister of flour. It went to the floor with a thud. A cloud of flour filled the kitchen and flour was everywhere. To make matters worse when I picked up the canister and put it on the counter I knocked off the eggs I had put there. plop.....plop..... the eggs hit the floor. Now I had flour everywhere and a slimy gooey mess on the floor. Needless to say, mom was not very happy with my surprise. She scolded me about cooking when she was not there to help me. My punishment was to clean up the mess. Well, I sure worked hard cleaning up that mess. It seemed the more I swept and picked up the more that was still on the floor. I finally got it all up and in the trash can. I do believe that if I went back to the home of my child hood I would still find traces of that flour. It was just everywhere!!

In this blog I hope to put in recipes and cooking ideas. I think menu planning with the recipes to go along with the dishes would be fun and useful. If any of the readers have ideas for this blog be sure to email me. I am always open to suggestion. How about some readers recipes? Send in your recipes and I can post them for everyones enjoyment.