Some days I don’t want to do the fancypants cooking. Some days I don’t even want to do the pared-down somewhat more simplistic cooking. Heck, some days I just want to make it as easy as possible on myself.

Yesterday I decided that the LSC and I would have a Kiddie Night (thanks for the coinage from Caitlin Kiernan!). I would cook something that was so stupidly basic and child-like that there would be no question of where my heart lay that day. For a main course, I made pizza burgers (using ground turkey, obviously); yummy messy things on toasted English muffins with melted cheese. I totally forgot to take pictures though.

For dessert, I made a homemade hot fudge sauce that I found in my Collection of Hobo Recipes. I can’t remember the last time I had a hot fudge sundae and I’m betting dollars to doughnuts you don’t either. Being an adult is no fun if we can’t indulge ourselves like children from time to time. Oh, and the recipe calls for two tablespoons of corn syrup but considering I had leftover semi-sweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened chocolate the recipe called for, I scaled back the corn syrup by a tablespoon to counter potential oversweetness.

Bowls of fudgy berry goodness in hand, my honey and I settled down to the second part of Kiddie Night, watching the last two episodes of The Middleman. Damn, we love that show.

Hot Fudge Sauce

adapted from “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts” by Maida Heatter (Alfred A. Knof, 1974)

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, in pieces

1 tbl. butter, preferably salted (I used unsalted and added a pinch of salt to balance it out)

2 tbl. light corn syrup

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Place chocolate, butter and 1/3 cup of boiling water in a heavy 2-quart saucepan over very low heat. Stir until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Stir in corn syrup and sugar.

Increase heat to medium and stir occasionally until mixture comes to a full boil. Stop stirring and allow mixture to boil exactly 8 minutes. Meanwhile, half-fill a bowl that is larger than the saucepan with ice and water. After 8 minutes remove pan from heat and place in ice water to stop cooking. Stir in vanilla.

Serve while still warm, or allow to cool, then reheat over hot water or for about 30 seconds in a microwave oven. Sauce must be served warm.