This recipe for fudge is a classic one from my childhood. I like it because it requires no special equipment or ingredients — just sugar, cocoa powder, milk, salt, butter and vanilla. Even a candy thermometer is optional if you are gutsy enough to use the soft-ball test. I like this recipe for its practicality and deliciousness, but I love it because it's my father's recipe and every time I make it, it's like I'm spending time with him again. More

Let's talk caramels. The candy kind. The chewy, melt-in-your-mouth, deeply sweet, and insanely addictive kind. These make some of the best gifts ever, whether the event is Christmas, a birthday, or a thank you for a favor. Or no reason at all. You probably already have the ingredients in your pantry, and if you haven't made caramels recently, you probably don't know how easy they can be. Grab a bag of sugar and your candy thermometer, folks! We're making caramels today. More

In a bid to consumers from hot-weather countries like India and Brazil, Cadbury recently announced its newest invention: chocolate that stays solid, even after three hours in 104-degree heat. More

As kids, my brother and I knew the holidays had truly arrived when our mom broke out the sanding sugars. A coating of these crunchy, brightly colored sugars made even her simplest sugar cookies take on a sparkly magic. Even now, I can't resist taking one of these from the cookie platter. Add some sparkle! Pick up a jar of sanding sugar for your holiday cookies. More

I love pecans. Love them. But somehow I forget about that fact for roughly 90% of the year, remembering only when a family member requests that I bring my favorite pecan pie for Thanksgiving. But then it's all pecans all the time...until I run out of my Thanksgiving pecan bulk buy. What do you do with your leftover pecans? More

I grew up with a health nut mom who served raisins to trick-or-treaters and insisted carob tasted as good as chocolate, so when she raved about an alternative sweetener called sucanat, I was a bit wary. Then I tasted her molasses spice cookies – one version made with refined white sugar and the other with sucanat. Sucanat won me over, and I've kept some in my own pantry ever since. More

I'm not sure if it's the family obligations or the frenzied pace that starts to settle in this time of the year, but I find myself reacting by grabbing onto any little thing I have control over. One such example is eating whatever I please for breakfast, occasionally chocolate. More

They call this "A Very Good Chocolate Cake." Well, they have lied (they being Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, the quintessential Southern chefs). A more appropriate title would be, "The Very Best Chocolate Cake." A bold statement, yes, but once you try this moist, rich slice of heaven I think you might agree.

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Port is a sweet fortified wine made by adding a little brandy or other spirit to the wine during production. A good bottle of port still tastes like the original grape but is richer, rounder and sweeter. While it's most popular as an after dinner drink or a mellow aperitif, port can actually be wonderful to cook and bake with, too. More