Anne McAlpine: June 29, 2023

I have shared both my peanut butter and chocolate fudge recipes with you in the past. Trudy Cooper, one of the assistants at Grand River Vet, suggested that I combine the two recipes so before I started cooking the chocolate fudge I measured out all of the ingredients for the peanut butter fudge. As soon as I poured the chocolate fudge into the pan I immediately made the peanut butter fudge so I could pour it in over top of the chocolate fudge while it was still warm as I was afraid that they wouldn’t stick together. It worked! When it was cooled and cut it did stick together. I sent some to the clinic so that Trudy could see how it had turned out. Her comments to her co-worker, my granddaughter, were as follows: “I have in my hand your Grammie’s fudge. OMG! She nailed it! The creaminess of the peanut butter layer takes the density of the chocolate over the top”. 

Marie Stott of Hamilton gave me her recipe for mandarin orange cake. She got it 50 years ago from her papa’s aunt in Michigan and it is definitely a family favourite. I haven’t tried it yet, but it does sound delicious. Maria reminded me to be sure to put all of the ingredients – including the mandarin oranges – together in a bowl to blend them all together. 

I saw this recipe in an old magazine and as I really enjoy carrot cake, I thought I would try them. I am glad I did as they are really moist and delicious. They can be stored at room temperature for 3 or 4 days or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Reheat in the microwave for about 15 seconds for a nice warm breakfast treat. I mixed half a package of softened cream cheese with a third cup of sour cream and a Tbsp. of icing sugar together well and put a spoonful on the centre top of each muffin. My daughter taste tested for me and really liked them and said that she would have completely covered the top with the cream cheese mixture so there was some in every bite. 

In continuing our Random Acts of Kindness I received a really nice phone call from long time reader Odeyne Wodskou, who told me how much she enjoys reading this column. She said that she always likes the Food For Thought that we include. Odeyne recently won first prize with poetry that she wrote about kindness. Thanks Odeyne for sharing this.