Fighting Lunacy with Fudge

Work has been driving me nuts lately. I love where I work, I enjoy my job, and I work with some awesome people. But every workplace has its lunatics.

In recent weeks, the lunatics have gotten more looney and it's really starting to wear on me.

My life is wonderful. This is the first December in many, many years that I haven't stressed about the Christmas season. I'm actually being very Zen about Christmas this year.

However, the stress from work has begun to follow me home and that's just not cool. My personal life isn't stressed at the moment and I'll be damned if I'm going to let work stress interfere.

My solution? I made fudge. Three variations to be exact... dark chocolate peppermint, maple walnut, and milk chocolate walnut.

No, I don't plan eating all of it. I'm taking it to the office tomorrow. I figure if making fudge puts a smile on my face, then eating fudge should make the lunatics smile and hopefully reduce the stress level in the building. Either that or things will be super quiet when everyone crashes from the sugar high.

The fudge recipe I use is fool-proof and changing up the flavors is a snap...

One and a half bags (18 oz) of chocolate chips
One can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Melt the chips in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and extract. Spread mixture in a 9x9 pan lined with waxed or parchment paper. Let cool in refrigerator.