Listics

More tales of Christmas chocolate…  my prior post left the story half told.  Not only do we spread Claude’s good work far and wide, we also are the transfer point for several pounds of See’s chocolates each year.  We love See’s dark chocolates, and our families enjoy them too.  We have had a tradition of dropping in on my uncle Marc and his family each christmas eve and leaving him a pound of See’s, then moving on to Henry’s house and sharing a couple pounds with him.  Marc died this last year, but Henry is still on our christmas eve route.   See’’s had a store on Montgomery Street when I worked at the bank, and there was another right around the corner on Market near Kearney in case there was a line at Montgomery Street.  Dark chocolate raspberry filled are my favorites.  I’m not much on celebrity spotting, but I did see Tom Hanks in the See’s store on Wilshire in Santa Moinica a few years ago.

Traditionally in the Paynter family, my dad has made fudge every christmas for as long as I can remember.  I think we’re talking about fifty-five years here.  Dad prides himself on producing the creamiest fudge in the clan, none of your crystalline sugar laced stuff from dad.  We get a pound or so of "the creamy" from him every year.  One year I was changing planes in O’Hare on my way back to San Francisco, so I rented a car and drove up to Madison to see the family.  Dad gave me a pound of creamy to take home, and - glutton that I was - there was very very little of it left by the time I turned in the rental car.

In the old days dad was precise in his use of a candy thermometer and beating and stirring the huge batch by hand.  These were the glory days of creamy production.  Maybe ten or fifteen years ago he switched processes.  He brought in a new recipe and began to use the microwave.  There were a few years when I thought he might have lost the touch, but the last few years he has been back on track with a gourmet product.