Diet Soup and Mybest Hot Fudge

Diet Soup and Mybest (a brand of vanilla) Hot Fudge…..? I am sure there is a contradiction in there somewhere. Diet soup totally cancels out ice cream and hot fudge though… right? That’s what I am telling myself. The diet soup comes from Mom and Mybest Hot Fudge comes from my Aunt Gwen. I missed cooking last Sunday; I know you were all sitting at you computer in tears when you realized I wasn’t going to post. So I decided to make a Wednesday out of it. I stopped at home after work and picked up Jeff to go with me, we had to also get kitty litter and that container will rip my arm off it is so heavy. Our first stop, before we even got a cart, was the cheese sample area. I had four samples of the Gruyere or maybe it was Gouda…some ‘g’ cheese, and got some dirty looks from the staff and other patrons. Apparently there is an unstated one cheese per customer rule. Oh well! I start at the veggies and watch a poor man carefully pick out the best carrots and proceed to drop one on the floor….too bad, it really was the best carrot.
Jeff was following me with the cart as I dashed in and out of people. I picked out a container of beef bouillon and set it in the cart. Then an older gentleman says to me, ‘I think you put that in the wrong cart’. I snap out of my shopping fervor and look up to see I had just put the beef bouillon in the older gentlemen’s cart, thinking it was Jeff with our cart. Did I really just do that? Then I see Jeff trying to get through the aisle looking at me like, ‘I am not with that crazy woman.’ I apologize and take out my bouillon, laughing and turning bright red, muttering something about how they were both wearing gray. Jeff and I just stand there for a few minutes laughing and deciding if I had incurred some sort of brain damage today. We also grab some eggs; we are switching to Certified Humane instead of Cage-free. I read in an article that Certified Humane is the best that they have so far, which is still probably a far cry from how conditions should be. We finish our shopping and drive home. I am starving and cranky, so I wolf down an English muffin with butter on it…I had to!
I start cooking our dinner, which doesn’t involve the soup, but instead some chicken breast we needed to use up. Jeff usually cuts the chicken, because I have a horrible fear that if the chicken touches me I will die a horrible, painful death…but perhaps it would just be slimy. But Jeff is on a phone call and I am starving…so I start cutting. I use a fork to poke the chicken instead of having to touch it. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s only a chicken…oh sick, there is a vein. I take a few breaths, hold my lunch down and keep cutting. Jeff is off the phone just as I finish and he congratulates me on the chicken like I have just won the women’s downhill skiing in the Olympics. It’s pitiful I need that much praise for cutting a chicken…
So, for dinner I make rosemary chicken with whole wheat pasta and marinara. I ‘beef’ up the marinara with pieces of cucumber, orange pepper and onion. While I cook, Jeff helps me by chopping up the carrots for the soup. After dinner, I chop celery, onions and green beans; throw them in a pot with beef bouillon, water and tomato juice…and voilá, simmer for an hour. Yummy healthy soup.
While I wait for the soup to cook, I sit at the dining room table and do my hospice volunteer work. I am going to put together scrapbooks for the patients. I brought all the materials home in a big box that Max decided was the perfect place to sit and plot how to attack me. I finished my project for the night and once the soup was done I started the fudge. OH MY GOSH! This stuff is good! Poor Jeff was laying on the couch with a blanket over his head and a migraine. Fudge cures anything, so I thought it would help. This recipe is really easy! You just melt a stick of butter (yea butter!), add some sugar and cocoa powder, boil for a minute and then add vanilla. I did numerous ‘taste tests’ to ensure the best quality. I woke Jeff up with fudge on my finger and said ‘medicine!’ and put it in his mouth. He was so out of it, he mumbled yum and rolled back over. I poured the hot fudge over some ice cream (are you drooling yet?) and enjoyed my bowl while watching the Olympics. I have a bunch left over, so if you bring me wine I will share.