Holidays stir me to think about recipes because hungry folks accompany gatherings this time of year.
Recently, as I perused cookbooks and recipe cards, I enjoyed remembering several skilled cooks who have passed my way throughout the years. Recalling recipes was a walk down memory lane.
Recipes are heirlooms that any Southern gal can inherit, regardless of social status. A few fortunate folks endow collections of silver or fine china along long lineages and those wares sometimes even have historical value. The rest of us, meanwhile, usually bequest pieces of ceramic and hope that descendants and daughters-in-law don’t discard them too quickly after we’re gone. Recipes offer an unintimidating legacy. Recipes don’t clutter and they can be duplicated over and over and over so that every child, every grandchild, every cousin and every niece get a piece.
My husband and I spent Sunday afternoon making fudge to give colleagues for holiday happies. The recipe we used was handed down from my sweet mother-in-law, the late Minnie Ellen Maples. Unfortunately, I don’t know where she originally obtained it. However, it was always a conversation piece because one of the ingredients is Velveeta Cheese. This fudge is a family favorite, not because of its storyline, but because it tastes divine.
Another family fudge recipe comes from my own mother, the late Janelle Buntyn. My sisters and I loved helping her make it as we were growing up. And we especially loved licking the bowl! I haven’t made her recipe this year. Yet, I’m sharing both my mothers’ recipe and my mother-in-law’s recipe in hopes that you’ll try one or both.
Here ya go!
Velveeta Cheese Fudge
From Minnie Ellen Maples to Nancy Jo Maples
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. Velveeta cheese
- 1 lb. stick margarine or butter
- 1 lb. powdered (confectioners) sugar, sifted
- ½ c. cocoa powder, sifted
- 2 tsp. vanilla flavoring
- 3 c. chopped pecans
Directions:
Sift powdered sugar. Sift the cocoa powder and fold into the sifted sugar using a large container. Cut butter and cheese into small blocks to make melting easier. Use a double boiler to melt cheese and butter. Add vanilla to cheese and butter mixture. Using another large container, gradually add the sugar and cocoa combination to the cheese and butter. Mix well. Add chopped pecans. Press into 2 greased 9×13 in. pans. Refrigerate for at least one hour preferably 8 hours. Cut into small squares.
Yields 6 & ½ lbs.
Mama’s Fudge Oatmeal Drops
From Janelle Buntyn to Nancy Jo Maples
Ingredients:
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 stick butter or margarine, melted
- 3 Tbsp. cocoa
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 3 cups of 1-minute oatmeal
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
Mix together sugar, melted butter, cocoa and milk. Bring to a boil and boil rapidly for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add peanut butter, oats, chopped nuts, and vanilla. Mix and drop in spoonful increments onto waxed paper. Cool and serve.
