Fudge

The lure of a Michigan reunion enticed most of her family away for 2 weeks, including her dad and mom. Arrangements to hire a young lady to run their candy shoppe fell through, so my wife was called on to keep the enterprise running while her family is away.

Last week I took a day off in order to replenish the supply of fresh fudge. I was confident that the candy store experience I had, almost two decades ago, would be enough for me to produce some quality cream fudge. The only thing I lacked was the final temperature to cook each batch.

My first batch turned out with the consistency of dry clay. Wrong temperature.

Luckily, fudge can be re-cooked. I shoveled that batch off the table, back into the kettle, added a half-gallon of water and melted it down.

I dropped the temperature 10 degrees and the next two batches turned out pretty well. Not perfect, but saleable.

The next day I spoke with my brother-in-law and he gave me the real temperatures I should use.

July Fourth I returned to make a few more batches. Almost my entire family came up, too. My son, his wife and his son, my wife and my daughter all came to run the shop on the holiday.

I concentrated on making more fudge. The first batch of plain vanilla ended up a touch on the soft side. The penuche took forever to set up, but was okay. The final batch, peanut butter, set-up almost before I could add the peanut butter.

It was odd. I hadn't worked in a candy store with my family around me for over 17 years. The last time my kids were with me, they could almost help out at the counters, but couldn't quite see over the top of them, they were 4 and 5. I don't have any experience running a candy store with people to help me make the product. My old habits were set when I worked by myself.

Though I was confident in my experience, still I was worried about creating quality fudge. I worried more about that than those around me. Looking back, I see that my son wanted to make a batch on his own, having helped his grandfather a few years ago during the '02 Winter Olympics.

My concentration blinded me to the feelings of those around me. Hopefully, I didn't hurt my son's feelings.

But if I did, I am sorry.