"The art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers while promoting the smallest amount of hissing."
A very timely quote by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French Economist and Minister of Finance under King Louis XIV of France 1619-1683.
Some things never change, do they? I appreciate the humor of this man in tights!
Image from one of my antiquarian prints.
Yesterday I made fudge and it turned out exactly like the stuff I used to make when I was 12. My car is in the shop and I needed a recipe using ingredients in my pantry. After a lot of internet hunting I located the original recipe that used to be printed on the Hershey's cocoa box. It is great because it uses 1/3 less sugar than any other fudge recipe on the web. Here goes:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey's)
2 cups white sugar (next time I will use even less)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon light corn syrup (I used Maple Syrup)
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, stir together the cocoa powder, sugar and salt.
Mix in corn syrup and milk until well blended.
Add butter, and heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (112 to 116 degrees C) on candy thermometer, or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from the water and placed on a flat surface. Stir occasionally.
Remove from heat and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thick and loses its gloss. Stir in vanilla, and pour into a buttered 9x9 inch baking dish. Let cool until set. Cut into small squares to serve.
I beat it too long and it ended up in a mound but it was still delicious. Next time I am going to decrease the sugar to 1-3/4 cups or maybe even 1-1/2 cups. I didn't have any light corn syrup so I used real Maple syrup. Worked fine. I didn't even have any milk so I used powdered milk to make 1 cup. Worked fine. Next time I will use condensed milk. Next time I might add a glob of peanut butter at the end too. Yum!
"Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday." Author Unknown
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If you missed the recent segment on 60 Minutes you can watch it here. Sorry about the advertisement at the beginning. Alice Waters has been preaching the virtues of cultivating fresh food for decades. As Lesley Stahl reports, this world-renowned chef and restaurateur hopes a slower approach to the food we eat will keep us healthier and greener.
Happy Birthday Webster!
Today is Webster's approximate birthday. He was 9 weeks old when I adopted him from the animal shelter seven years ago. I had to work backwards for his birth date. Today he's 49 in people years but he still acts like a pup.
I "baked" some homemade treats for him. Made up the recipe and cooked these little "silver dollar pancakes" on the panini press. He would flip over backwards if he could. They are really good...like miniature hoe cakes.
I used 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup dry powdered milk, one egg, about 1/4 cup olive oil and enough soy milk to make a stiff batter. I dumped in some Bacos for flavor. I would have used beef or chicken broth for the liquid but I didn't have any on hand. I dropped small spoonfuls on the panini press preheated to its hottest setting. They were done in an instant ... watch the steam ... you'll know.
I ate a couple myself. They're quite good and organic too.
Please help us fight hunger in the US by supporting either your local food bank, or Feeding America, a national food bank with 200 members across the United States.
Click on the April Food Day image above and you will be redirected to the page with a secure link for donating to the humanitarian organization FeedingAmerica.org
Every dollar you contribute provides 7 meals or 10 pounds of food. A $25 gift provides 175 meals. If each of us who has a blog writes something on April 1 and asks our readers to contribute, imagine the difference we could make in our communities.
If you would like to help, copy my post or write a similar article on your blog April lst, and ask your readers to donate to Feeding America.
Provide a link to the original blog, April Food Day, and they will link back to your blog and to your post.
Thank you on behalf of America's hungry.
