Much of my life has focused on goodie-making. I opened my first cake decorating and candy making store sixty years ago, at age 23. I sold that business when my husband’s employer relocated to another state, and subsequently opened another store and resumed teaching. During those years cake decorating was my main thing. I loved the art and won many competitions. And I especially enjoyed teaching the art. The thrills brought to some of my students warmed my heart. Fudge making has also always intrigued me. During my life I’ve made, literally, a few thousand pounds of fudges, mostly for gifts. Needless to say, I have a ton of fond memories of smiles brought to the recipients of those gifts - because everybody loves fudge! According to my mother, I became a “fudge junkie” at about age six when she made a batch of fudge using a recipe given to her by her sister-in-law. Her sister-in-law claimed it was the original “See’s Fudge Recipe.” I knew nothing about See’s, but I told mom the new fudge was way better than her old fudge. (She'd previously made cocoa fudge in a skillet, which was a poor man’s fudge in those days.) Mom said I loved the "See’s fudge" because “it was just so creamy.” That recipe appears on page 85 in this book. I use it the most. I started collecting fudge recipes in my teen years, and continued for decades. Being a “fudge junkie”, it genuinely excited me when someone offered to share a recipe that had been passed down for generations, or a recipe that was just “special” to a person for some reason. Consequently, I’ve experimented with more fudge recipes than I can remember, and pretty much exhausted all the preparation and cooking methods. Over the years I obtained recipes from people of all walks of life, including some eccentric characters. At the outset of this book project I hoped to credit each recipe doner, and I started by creating caricatures for some of the eccentric doners. Unfortunately, most of my hand-scribbled recipes didn’t include doner information, and now I can’t remember who gave which recipe. But, since I enjoyed creating caricatures early on, I decided to make that a theme for the book, and feedback tells me you'll find this theme to be unique and fun. Each page is alive with art and witty narrative, and each page will make you want to see another. I packed these recipes around for years, in shoe boxes tied closed with string. And, despite the fact I relocated several times and lost a lot of things important to me, somehow my fudge recipe collection remained intact. Many times I fantasized that I'd sharie it someday; and, finally that dream has come true. It is fortunate that a close friend is available to help me in this project. You’ll find 254 fudge recipes in this book, which is about half of my collection. I chose this assortment because it will appeal to a wide range of tastes, and because each recipe is special, and was proudly shared with me because it was a winner – to someone, or to some family. That doesn’t mean each recipe will please everyone, because each of us has unique tastes and texture preferences. And some of these recipes came from eccentric characters, which you'll see reflected in some ingredient lists. It's interesting that it's trendy nowadays to combine unexpected ingredients with chocolate. You'll discover that some of my doners were doing that many decades ago. Be adventurous when using this book and you’ll find abundant fudges that will please you and your family. I hope my efforts are helpful to you, and bring a smile each time you open my book. Dee Dee Russell