Foolish nonsense
Soft creamy candy
My sister would send me a basket of baked christmas goodies, one of the treats was fudge that our mother used to make. My diet precludes me from the gluten treats but sugar is real bad, it is not forbidden. This year she respected my diet and didn’t send me anything, including the fudge. I have a kitchen, I have internet. I found a desirable fudge recipe on line that seemed like it might be the same. I needed a candy thermometer, a bag of marshmallows and chocolate chips to mate up with the sugar I had. This morning I made a batch, 1/2 the recipe. Required many minutes of stirring that neither shoulder enjoyed. I smeared the melted mass on my buttered griddle then let it firm up. Dang, Sugar and chocolate, what can go wrong? Tasty. Self restraint prevents me from scarfing the entire batch today.
I spent the Thurs night at the corral area. Forecast wants higher temp than what was outside: 21 and 47 inside this morning. Plan for the day was to drive out to Quail lake where I have been staying then going on a big ride. I made it happen, not a fudge. I rode right from my van on Twist and Shout out to connect to Lakeside to its end dropping down onto hard road riding a mile to the start of Prospector riding out to Church Rocks loop then return. On the way out the single track from the van to the hard road took 42 mins. On my return as I neared the end of Prospector sucking water out of hydration bladder sent signal of emptiness. A KOA XG is right at the hard road. I pedaled in seeking a vending machine 12oz bottle of water. Place was shut down, not even an outside vending machine. I had that 42 mins to pedal yet possibly w/o liquid. Bonking in cold temps. I didn’t drink as much as I should have, the bladder was sucked dry at ride’s end. Big ride 26 miles pedaling for 3 hrs 28 mins climbing 2080′. Beautiful day.
Big ride. The l-9 Hydra hub is still making a big improvement to my technical riding.
I shared the trails with maybe 12 riders. One couple was OTE regulars which caused a lengthy visit stop. Others no conversation. Being’s how it was Christmas day I wondered if riders out would either be enjoying a gift or escaping in laws. The local couple were just out for the relationship ride.
Thursday was laundry day and shopping to be done before holiday closure. Clean clothes, larder stocked and propane filled I drove up to Sheep bridge road for a ride. I parked right off the highway. Another beautiful chilly day. quite a few riders out and spread out. Climb Dead Ringer, descend JEM, traverse on Goosebumps, descend some more on Crypto then start to pay the piper climbing back out. Desert riding where I ma the tallest thing around until a taller rider stops. Open sky but trail layout creates many short sight lines. I came upon a rider off his bike fiddling with a large pocketknife on his bike. I offered help, he accepted the allen wrench on my tool thing. He accepted the fact that he needed to equip himself. Drove out to corral area for the night.
Merry Christmas, Craig.
When I was a kid, me and my older sisters would make fudge from scratch. The key thing is to use a candy thermometer to get all the sugar crystals melted but not too hot and burn it. It always was really good to eat when it was cooking. Amazingly good. Only about 1 time in 4 would we get the temperature hot enough. The rest of the time we would pour the hot fudge into pans to cool and it would be so good. 2 hours later when it cooled it would recrystalize into a hard sugary mess. We would eat it anyway.
Happy new year
Thanks Les. Recipe did not explain reason for temperature control. My $4.00 purchase and stirring resulted in cured fudge. Too much sugar to have available. And I have a big bag of marshmallows which I will drop off at bike shop where maybe they will add to their coffee.