Like many other good culinary inventions, fudge way an accident. While stories tend to be inconsistent, the basic tale claims that fudge was created from a failed batch of caramels. Thank goodness someone wasn’t making the caramels correctly or else we may still have no fudge today!

In the old days, fudge was called “Divinity” because it tasted “simply divine”. It wasn’t until the 1900’s that Divinity took on a new look—the look of white chocolate fudge… my favorite!

Now-a-days we can enjoy many different flavors of fudge, from chocolate, to mint, to fruit-filled—you’re only limited by your imagination! Enjoy this tasty (and easy) peanut butter fudge recipe for a new twist on an old favorite.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 stick margarine
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1) Mix sugar, milk, margarine and salt in a saucepan. Boil, stirring frequently, until it forms a soft ball in cold water.

2) Remove from stove and add peanut butter and vanilla. Beat until creamy and pour into buttered 9×9 pan. Let cool before cutting.

*If you want chocolate peanut butter fudge, add 1 heaping teaspoons of cocoa to the top four ingredient before cooking.

Yum-o. I love peanut butter and this delicious fudge recipe is a great way to enjoy one of my favorite flavors. Although I do love peanut butter I also love chocolate (as I’m sure you know!) To turn this fudge recipe into chocolate peanut butter fudge, add one teaspoon of cocoa to the other ingredients. It’s a great way to sweeten up any day… peanut butter fudge!

On any other occasion, this really wouldn’t be taken as a compliment, but with this tasty dirt cake… it’s just the opposite.

This recipe for Oreo dirt cake is so easy and perfect for the kids. In fact, they can even help out because this cake is completely no bake!

This cake is easy to make so it’s great for parties or large gatherings.

Decorating the cake, as if it were really a dirty, worm-infested mess makes eating this cake even more fun!

Ingredients:

• Kid’s sand pail & shovel set (or) a new 8″ flower pot
• 1 1/2-2 lb. Oreo cookies
• 1 8 oz. package cream cheese
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 2 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding
• 12 oz. cool whip

Directions:

1) Cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar and softened butter. Set aside.

2) In a separate bowl, mix 3 1/2 cups milk and instant pudding for 2 minutes and add 12 oz. Cool Whip.

3) Add liquid mixture to creamed mixture.

4) Place Oreo cookies in large Ziploc bag and crush to desired “dirt” texture with a rolling pin.

5) Put 1 1/2 inches of cookie crumbs on the bottom of the sand pail or flower pot (lined with aluminum foil). Layer the pudding mixture and crumbs, being sure to end with pudding mixture. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

6) Just before serving, add 1 more inch of cookie crumbs and decorate with gummi worms.

7) If you’re using a flower pot, poke a few silk flowers – or real flowers with stems covered in foil – into the cake. Brightly colored work well here.

8) Serve with a colorful plastic shovel. Enjoy!

Are you drooling on the keyboard yet? If your not, then your kids might be; this recipe is just such a crowd pleaser. It’s not very often that kids get to play in dirt and eat it too! I guess this dirt cake recipe is a little exception to the rule!

You can really experiment a lot with chocolate covered strawberries.

Try changing up the type of chocolate, maybe rolling it in nuts or drawing things like little tuxedos on the berries.

Let’s go ahead and get started because these chocolate covered strawberries are going to be delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 pt. strawberries
• 1 lg. bag semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 1/4 c. Crisco (lard not oil)

Directions:

1) Wash and dry strawberries. Melt chocolate and Crisco in double boiler. Dip strawberries in hot chocolate and put on tray covered with wax paper or Saran Wrap. Refrigerate until chocolate is hard.
Assuming all parties are of age, try adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup of brandy, cognac or other liquor. This gives a little zest to your classic chocolate covered strawberries.

For help with dipping try my 3-step method.

1. Pick
After washing the berry, gather the stem and leaves in a three-finger grasp.

2. Dip
Dip the strawberry straight into the chocolate and then roll it around, still holding the stem.

3. Twist
Remove the strawberry from the chocolate and give it a whip-twist. This is what I call the move where as your lifting the strawberry out, flick your wrist a little bit as your twist the strawberry so that the stem is on the bottom and you’re holding it upwards. The twist cuts off any chance of a chocolate drop and gives your strawberry a little flair.

Of course this is just my method. Trying different dipping methods will give different looks. Some people like the strawberry tuxedo too. This is done simple by dipping the berry in white chocolate (for a dark chocolate suit) first.

Let this harden and then angle the berry to about a 30 degree angle when you dip the dark chocolate on both sides, depending on how wide you want the lapels to be. Pipe some dark chocolate on later, after the chocolate has hardened to add the bowtie. It’s such a cute way to dress up an everyday food. Enjoy a batch of chocolate covered strawberries for yourself!