Greetings! Seasons Greetings, actually! It has been awhile. Alas, this holiday season has gotten me by the jugular. It has to! My son turns 18 a week from Saturday and then there’s wrapping and baking and decorating and all the rest. But I am having fun and I hope you are having fun as well.
For this time of year, I like follow the Way Of The Elf. This is how I approach and survive the holidays. Elves are plucky creatures. Busy, yet easily distracted so they never spend too much time on one chore. This eliminates quite a bit of boredom. Really. You get through a few cards. Then you wrap a couple of gifts. Make a few lists. Check them twice. Look for the merriment in the moment. Sometimes you have to look hard, but the Way of the Elf gets you there. And if you don’t get everything done by your deadlines, then the late presents become New Year surprises; the cards spread cheer further into the New Year. As the Ginch found out….all you need for Christmas are warm hands to clasp and voices that sing and somebody to carve the roast beast.
Currently, I am making the most amazing chocolate sauce ever! Truly. I am going to gift you with the recipe so you can see for yourselves.
In Columbus, Ohio there once was a 5 star restaurant called The Maramor. It was the perfect place to meet your friends for luncheon after a morning of shopping. You’d get all dressed up with your little white gloves and your little hat with veil and your purse that matched your shoes….did I mention this was in the late 1950s and early 60s? Mind you, I was too little for the hat and shoes and all. I’m not THAT old. But my patent leather Mary Janes were quite clean, and the little white socks I wore matched my little white cotton gloves. I felt like a Mini-Mom. I also had to behave like one….sitting quietly, napkin in my lap and elbows off the table….not speaking until spoken to….actually, my Mom could speak before she was spoken to. I just could not. I was a child.
Anyway, the Maramor was known for its fabulous desserts, particularly it’s rich, dark, gooey, chocolate sauce that flowed like chocolate lava over a scoop of homemade ice cream. The inner elf is drooling right now. In fact, it made me pause and stir my chocolate sauce so that I could sample its deeper, rich chocolate wonderfulness. Ahhhhhhhh, my lucky friends who will soon be receiving this gift. Ahhhhhhhh, lucky me who always makes extra. (Medifast is momentarily forgotten…an elf would never put themselves on a diet!)
I am copying this recipe from my Mom’s recipe card. I am copying it exactly because the way it’s written is so my Mom and it makes me happy thinking about my generous, generous Mom who died a while back. I love my Mom. I’ve always loved her even though she made me madder than a bear whose honey was taken away. Madder than a cat in a bath. Madder than a Hatter. That’s right……Crazy Mad.
But I digress….
Chocolate Sauce
1 Quart Jar
MELT in top double boiler:
1/8 lb butter
1/2 lb bitter chocolate
THEN add:
3 Cups sugar
1tsp. Corn starch
Less than 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Karo Syrup (lite)
1 large can Pet Milk
Add 1 tsp vanilla at end.
Stir until thoroughly mixed. Cook over hot water for 30 or 45 minutes until thoroughly dissolved. Gets thick. Just leave it over hot water–Fool.Proof.–keeps well in quart jar in refrigerator. To serve hot, reheat in double boiler amount you need. To make it thick like Maramor (and it gets chewier and chewier as you reheat it) add another teaspoon of cornstarch. 3 teaspoons makes it terribly thick!
And there you have it!
One thing…. Pet Milk. It’s a brand of evaporated milk that I can’t find here in California. Don’t make the mistake I made thinking it was condensed milk. It is not. Use evaporated milk. Last year I had a disaster on my hands. I did not use evaporated milk and nobody got chocolate sauce for Christmas gifts.
As we speak, I’ve got a vat of it on the stove. No kidding. I doubled the recipe. I don’t have a double boiler that size, but I went to Google and learned what to do if you don’t have a double boiler. Very interesting reading.
My chocolate sauce is complete. All the sugar has cooked and melted. Its smooth and rich and is begging for a scoop of homemade ice cream…or fondue..or just a spoon. I now need to jar it up and make a fun elf – like label.
Please enjoy this gift from me this holiday season. May its wonderfulness lead you to the Way of the Elf.
And now I get to cross you off my list!
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Sent from the Faery Realm. Don’t believe a word.
Chronicles of Cammy, my Fool's Journey and Travelogue 
Oh my, I remember the Maramor! My mother took me there a few times to eat a vanilla ice cream scoop rolled in pecans with that sauce on top- yum! And yes, the white gloves, and I had little dress with red checks on it- I like your Way of the Elf. I bet your kitchen smells wonderful!
What a cool restaurant from a forgotten time.
Say…..Do you remember that cool old department store called Montaldos where your receipts came from pneumatic tubes and your purchases came all packaged in their silver-grey bags via a dumb waiter? I still have some of those boxes that my GRANDMOTHER had used to store table linens. I do appreciate presentation!