Making Christmas Gifts

So a few weeks before Christmas, I got together with two of my dear girl friends, Mandy and Deedee, to make homemade gifts and stocking stuffers. It was GREAT fun. I was so proud of our homemaker-ness. We each picked 1-2 recipes and brought the makings to make 15 of each. At the end, we each took 5 of each. We made homemade salsa (Mandy and my recipe), pepper jelly (Mandy's recipe)...

Granola (My Recipe)
Russian Tea Mix (this was Dee Dee's recipe)

And last but not least, my Aunt Elizabeth's homemade fudge sauce. Look at that beauty...
We could NOT stop eating it.

The canning process...

Luckily, I had my big canning pot! And look at this unintentional shot of my awesome new cowgirl boots! Am I southern or what?
And here we are at the end. Deedee even wore her apron that I brought her from Zambia! That may be the cleanest a shirt of mine has ever been post cooking!

And I am sorry, but under no circumstances will I share that recipe with you. It's too sacred. Aw, just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you! Life is too short to buy canned hot fudge sauce. Seriously, it's everything I would think crack could be and more. :) Except crack makes you skinny and dumb and this makes you strong and powerful. Life lessons from Aunt Caroline. Another life lesson, if you are trying to go light, just eat less of it. Don't try to skimp down the sugar or butter. Just make the real deal and eat it less often. That evens it out, right??

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups white sugar
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Combine butter, cocoa, sugar and evaporated milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and boil for 7 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. If it is not smooth, you can blend it for 2 to 4 minutes. Ours didn't need this. It tastes like a liquid version of my mom's chocolate cake. Mmmmmm.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!