Oh fudge.

I make a lot of cookies- probably 2 or 3 batches in a normal week (just for my own consumption), and dozens upon dozens for Christmas. With the new baby this year and all the work we've been doing on the house, I'm a little behind schedule with my baking. While my cookies always (ahem) come out perfectly, I'm willing to admit that my attempts at candy making are a little hit-or-miss. Up above is my first batch of fudge from last week. Among other mistakes, I over-cooked it and over-cooled it before stirring, so it set up rock hard before I could pour it into the pan. This lack of perfection did not deter the children, who kept sneaking by to snatch chunks of burnt fudge until I got around to dumping it out.
My next batch of fudge came out just fine, as did the double batch of peanut butter fudge. I think my success caused me to become over-confident, because the next batch didn't come out so well. I made another double batch of regular fudge, at the same time I was trying to do several other things, and got distracted and made a rookie mistake that made it set up all grainy and icky. Another batch for the trash! In spite of having help from my girls here, the last (and final) batch of fudge came out great. Tomorrow, I'm going back to making cookies.