Marshmallow & Fudge

What do you do when you want to bake but have no oven? You make do with candy :o).
I have been wanting to make fudge for a long time, and the one time I tried it, the taste was nice but it was so crumbly that cutting it into blocks was simply impossible. So I looked for a foolproof recipe and found two, one on the Scharffenberger site, and the other was shared by Adele, who sais she found it on the can of the evaporated milk she used. So I got cooking! The first I tried was simply sweetened consensed milk and chocolate. It turned out beautifully, although I doubt I prefer it over plain chocolate.
The next one I tried was the evaporated milk recipe, that I mixed with milk chocolate and peanuts, having peanut clusters in mind. This one was more crumbly, and even sweeter, but prefered over the other by my test team. For good measure I made another batch of the first recipe and added kirsch-soaked dried cherries and cranberries. Very nice as well.

Now that I finally found a readily available substitute for corn syrup, it was time to start cracking on making marhmallows again as well. I fell in love with this candy the forst time I made it myself. There is something about that billowy, cloud-like slab of sweetness that just is irresistable to me. This time I made them with raspberry puree, and a little added straight cranberry juice to get the color a little more pronounced and just because I love cranberries :o). They turned out delicious, the fruit flavor definately shines through the sweetness. Now I really should cover some of these in bittersweet chocolate and they would be nothing short of perfect.

Other than this sweet explosion, I finally seem to have realized it might just be possible that the house will sell (final word on the 18th of this month) and that means I have to PACK! I have been in serious denial all this time, kidding myself that it would not make sense to start packing when the deal is not finalized. But now I realize that if all goes well, we'll have to pack up the entire house in EIGHT DAYS. And those eight days include Christmas. And we won't be packing on Christmas day. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I started organizing my pantry, removing things that are past their expiration date, making a plan to eat as much as we can to save us from moving it all (and that included making another 15 jars of jam in an attempt to clear out the freezer). We even looked at the rental house Saturday, and it is ehhh... awful. Truly awful. It is dark, old, small and not well kept, and that is just putting it mildly. And filthy, but that can be fixed. The good news is, it has an (old) oven that should work.
I guess we are in for a new adventure :o).
And just to make sure that the move won't be easy, we got word on the oven (needs a disgustingly expensive repair) and our fence in the yard broke down. Now all we need is for the roof to start leaking and the party will be complete. Who said selling a house was easy??