Plastered Hot Fudge Sauce

As I promised when I showed you a small (read: minuscule) portion of my recipe postcard collection, I tried the recipe for Plastered Hot Fudge Sauce. If you have never made hot fudge sauce before, this is the recipe to start with because it is easy and so good! I used the called for Jack Daniels, but my guess is that you could use the spirit of your choice, e.g. brandy, scotch, or bourbon, or a favorite liqueur like Kahlúa, Amaretto, or even Grand Marnier for a luscious orange and chocolate combination. This is delicious over ice cream, orange sherbet, or pound cake, and a tasty dip for fresh fruits like strawberries, raspberries, or bananas. Easy, delicious, and with a hint of booze, what’s not to like?

Plastered Hot Fudge Sauce
From page 179 of Jack Daniel’s The Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook

1 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa, sifted
1 t. instant coffee granules (I used espresso powder)
Dash of salt
2 T. Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter

Combine sugar, cocoa, coffee, and salt in a medium saucepan. Mix Jack Daniel’s Whiskey with cream; add to sauce and whisk until sauce is smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. When sugar has dissolved, add butter and cook until thickened, about five minutes. Serve warm. Makes 2 cups.

PRINT RECIPE

If patience is not one of your virtues, try this Microwave Fudge Sauce.

This post is linked to:

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things
Pink Saturday
Snickerdoodle Create Bake & Create

Best of the Weekend

Grace at Home

Friday at the Fire Station
Create, Bake, Grow and Gather

This post contains affiliate links.

Sending Deliciousness Through the Mail

I am in a whimsical, letter-writing mood, and am sending recipe postcards to a pot load of people today. These postcards feature recipes from the Jack Daniels The Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook. All of them look pretty tasty; I plan on trying the Plastered (does anyone use the term “plastered” anymore?) Hot Fudge Sauce, Premium Onion Soup, Uncle Jack’s Red Dogs, and Corn Chowder myself. I cannot imagine a recipe that wouldn’t be greatly improved by the addition of whiskey. I’ll report!

What offbeat culinary things do you collect?

This post is linked to:

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Reader Tip Tuesday

Wonderful Wednesday

Whimsical Wednesdays

O My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday
Happiness is Homemade Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Thursday Favorite Things
 Funtastic Friday
Pink Saturday
Snickerdoodle Create Bake & Create

Best of the Weekend

Grace at Home

Friday at the Fire Station
Create, Bake, Grow and Gather

This post contains affiliate links.

Sharing Greetings & Recipes

If you're looking for a unique way to share a recipe with a friend or family member, I thought this seasonal postcard might prove to be inspiring. I made it years ago to send to a number of people who'd requested the same recipe. We were traveling at the time, so I made up about a dozen of these cards and hand-colored them as we made our way to New Haven, Connecticut where we would be living for a month while working on a research grant at Yale. I'd mail each one as it was completed, so sent greetings all along our way. 

All I did was to buy six sheets of oatmeal-colored card stock, and then, using Microsoft Word, made two 4” x 6”"boxes on the document, filling the left portion of each box with my recipe, and the word “POSTCARD” across the top. After printing the document and cutting out the postcards along the lines, I rubber-stamped the bat and “ghost post” (when I mailed them I placed the postcard stamp to the left of this), and witch. I hand-colored the witch using colored pencils and markers, making each different and therefore unique. Then I addressed them and popped them into the mail. It was a fun way to share a recipe and served the dual purpose of also being a seasonal card.

For more recipe card making ideas, you might want to read this post. For a printable version of the recipe, click here.

This post is linked to:

Amaze Me Monday

Metamorphosis Monday 

Cooking & Crafting Monday

Busy Mondays

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays At Our Home

Wow Us Wednesday
Work It Wednesday

What’s It Wednesday

Great Idea Thursday

What To Do Weekend 
Weekend re-Treat

Weekend Blog Hop

Simple Saturdays

Saturday Sparks

Handmade Gift Challenge

Successes, Mistakes, and Salmon Cakes

People who read this blog, or come to the house for a nice lunch or dinner, ask if we eat like this all of the time. No. We probably do most of the time, and by most, I mean about 75%. The other 25% is made up of BLTs, scrambled eggs, fruit and cheese plates, or carryout from the local barbecue joint.

Another thing I'm asked is if I have any failures. Oh, yeah! I just don't tell you about those. (Here is one exception that eventually worked out favorably.) Last week, in fact, when I made a recipe for jambalaya, but mistakenly halved the first part of the recipe without halving the second part, it resulted in a sticky, gloppy, rice-filled disaster. Hello peanut butter and saltines!

I've also had successes that turned into failures, which brings to mind this article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that ran a few years back, and that I happened upon recently in my files. (It was actually in the file that holds the owner's manuals for small kitchen appliances; don't ask me how it got there.)

I have no idea how the food editor of the Post got my name, or learned of my blog, but when the offer came to be a featured cook in the Food Section of the paper, I reluctantly accepted. I say reluctantly because, largely, well, entirely, I am not a seeker of publicity; I am the queen of the low profile, and I like it that way.

Choosing a recipe for the feature was no easy task (and I still regret taking my own picture for this, which resulted in my looking like a stern science teacher). I wanted something simple, make ahead, that would plate attractively, and have a wide appeal, so chose my salmon cakes. I had made these so many times that absolutely nothing go possibly go wrong. Nothing! By the time the photographer arrived to photograph the food (and, really, I think I could have taken the picture myself), I had them ready, cooled, plated, and waiting for their photography session. I'd made the sauce ahead of time and, as I do, had poured it into an icing bottle for easy and even dispersal on top of the cakes. What I did not realize, in my rather jittery state, was that I had put the wrong top on the icing bottle. Instead of the top with the wide opening, used to accommodate thicker sauces, I used the pointed top that is used for icings and glazes.

As the photographer stood by, I pulled out the bottle to dress the salmon cakes. I squeezed gently, ready to drizzle the sauce back and forth with great aplomb. Nothing happened. So I squeezed again. Nothing. Once more, and kaPOW! The lid blew off, sprayed glops of sauce onto the salmon cakes, spattering both the photographer and me in the going. I can still see bits of it hanging from her hair. Needless to say, I was mortified. I had to rinse and dry the salmon cakes, re-plate them, and scrape up what remained of the sauce to then apply with a small spoon.

I don't think the photographer, a young woman half my age, was at all amused, but we thought it was screamingly funny, still laughing after her departure while removing bits of sauce from the walls.

The lesson here of course, is to not let little upsets deter you. Embrace your uniqueness and press on!

This post is linked to:

You're Gonna Love it Tuesday

Wow Us Wednesday
Work It Wednesday

What’s It Wednesday

Share Your Style

Keeping it Simple

Creative Ways

Show and Share

Share Your Style on Thursday