If you give the same recipe to five different people, you will get five dishes as subtly varied and nuanced as the differences among five performances of a piece of classical music. It is the technique of the creator that makes the taste come alive and gives us the wonderful variation and textures that we find in life.
There are few pleasures in life more intense than someone we love or admire complimenting us on a sensational dish. The truest testimonial is for that person to ask for the recipe. Beware of anyone who doesn’t like dogs or who will not freely share any recipe. Always give away your recipes and ask the recipient how it turned out. At the end of our lives, all we truly have is what we have given away.
—E. PHILIP CANNON
Think about it … when you’re in your twenties, thirties, and forties, and in a group, you like to be referred to as “ladies.” Head down the road past 50 and we all smile when we hear “the girls.” This particular little group of girls started meeting after about seven of us took an Alaskan cruise together about four years ago. It was a glorious trip where all we did was laugh and eat and shop and eat some more! We all ordered different things, especially at dessert time, when it was always a surprise what we would get. Yet again, fellowship, friends, and food!
I’ve told everybody I want to die with fudge in my teeth! That way I’ll know I died smiling. Fudge and Heaven … now that’s a combo!
—CATHERINE WATSON
True foodies get joy and passion from the food they discover and create. It becomes a part of who they are. Because of that, they become people who understand the importance of keeping family recipes that have been handed down alive and honored and moving forward into the future.
—KATHY GROCOTT
One reflects the kitchen of his or her childhood. I love to cook, have studied various cuisines, greatly enjoy approaching a new complex recipe from an interesting cookbook, and consider myself at least a gourmand. It’s my second-favorite activity, after the guitar, but that’s another story. But still, I make the savories at my house and, perhaps because of the division of expertise in my childhood home, have rarely adventured into desserts. Luckily my wife and both daughters love to make them with a passion. And now one of them has even compiled this sweets cookbook (with the other assisting in the test kitchen).
—JAY DOUGHERTY
Hard to believe it has been almost 10 years since Mema lovingly assembled her favorite recipes and gave us the original edition of this [family] cookbook. Since that time, the Hudgins family has done a lot of growing, both in terms of size and age. We’ve added spouses and grandchildren, and spread ourselves out across the country, and some of us have even become adults. We’ve got our own kids now, and we understand. We no longer just eat—we cook.
And that’s what makes this Third Edition special. In addition to Mema’s classics, this updated collection contains submissions from each of us and our husbands and wives, recipes that hopefully will become family favorites like those that went before.
Cooking, they say, is a lot like love; it should either be entered into with abandon or not at all.
Here’s to abandon!
—DAVID HUDGINS
Submitted by Kimberly “Momma” Reiner
It’s never too late to start new rituals and create special family memories. Momma Reiner’s Fudge started with an old family recipe, but it was the fudge-dipped marshmallows that garnered the attention of Oprah and Martha Stewart. This delicacy was developed on a whim while stirring fudge one day. I noticed a bag of marshmallows and thought, “I’d bet those would taste good dipped in my fudge.” And they did. I then sought to create my own marshmallows suited exactly to my tastes. To inspire you to get creative and courageous in your kitchen, Momma Jenna and I leave you with this final recipe.
It’s never too late to start new rituals and create special family memories.