Make sweet memories.

First of all, Happy New Year everyone! I did not write any blog posts over the holidays because my mom was visiting and we were very busy. One thing that has been a part of the Christmas season for me my entire life is my mom’s fudge, and this year was no exception. It is delicious, very rich, and sweet. I have shared it with various friends and coworkers over the years and it is always a big hit. People love it. Of course you can make it any time of the year. We just always make it for the holidays.

Here is the fudge we made last month. I sure would like a piece right
about now, but it is long gone. 

The Christmas I spent in Guatemala (I believe it was the day before I ate the raw radish salad that brought my stomach and me a week of hell. See this post.), I wanted to share something from home with my host family, so I decided I would make my mother’s famous fudge. The recipe is not all that complicated, so she emailed it to me and I went to the bigger supermarket in Xela to get the ingredients. I also purchased an appropriate pan to put the fudge in and a measuring cup, measuring spoons, etc. My host mother was a wonderful cook, but she did not bake evidently. And she didn’t need any measuring cups to cook. The woman knew what she was doing.

Things were a bit different in Guatemala in terms of the ingredients. They didn’t have marshmallow cream for instance. My mother informed me that my grandmother had used regular marshmallows before, so I was in luck! Marshmallows are a very popular treat during the holidays in Guatemala. Store shelves are piled with bags of marshmallows, affectionately known as angelitos (little angels). People eat them as they are. They will put them in candy dishes and set them on a coffee table when guests come. There are bowls of them included on the snack table at holiday get-togethers. So thank my guardian angelitos for that!

The only other two ingredients that presented a challenge were the butter (the butter wasn’t divided into the measurements we have in the U.S., so I had to eyeball it and put in what I thought was the right amount) and we had a hard time finding vanilla (a regional mystery similar to the coffee one. See this post.). I think the mother in my house finally got some from a neighbor. But as I mentioned, it’s a pretty easy recipe, so luckily there weren’t many ingredients to find. 

After having everything I needed, the middle daughter Luci-- the one who loved to cook and bake, the one who made my birthday cake (see that photo here)-- and I started to work. I told her how my grandmother used to make this fudge. And that it was one of the Christmas candies my mom makes every year. Luci and her family had never had fudge before. I don’t think they knew what to expect. But Luci helped me with the process and we got it done, laughing pretty much the entire time. It turned out a little different than at home. The sugar granules were a little bigger, so the fudge was ever-so-slightly gritty. I didn’t mind, and the family sure didn’t mind. It was a big hit. The father even took some to work to share with his coworkers. A coworker even asked for the recipe.

Luci and I, ready to put the fudge in the cake pan for cooling.
We almost just ate it right there out of the pot.

One evening after that, Luci and I attempted to effectively translate the recipe. We didn’t really know how to translate “fudge,” so we went with “dulce de chocolate,” which is basically "chocolate candy." She knew a little English, but her knowledge of cooking was really helpful. I wanted the family to have the recipe in case they wanted to include fudge in their future holiday festivities. I’m not sure they did ... I always forget to ask when we exchange emails. But it was fun to share that experience with Luci, and to show the family something that is a part of my own Christmas tradition.

If you ever get a chance to stay with a family in another country for an extended period of time, it is great to prepare a food from your own country for them. I am not much into cooking, and I don’t know how to cook anything all that exciting (goal for 2012: master lasagna!). But dessert I can do! If you can share a food from your personal menu, they get a taste of your culture. And if you teach someone how to prepare a dish, or anything else (do you know how to dance country swing, or paint, or tune up a motorcycle?), you are helping to create a memory, both for your host family and yourself. And memories like that are pretty sweet.