I have been recycling in one manner or another for as far back as I can remember — making scrapbooks out of found items in Camp Fire Girls, collecting aluminum cans, dutifully sorting my trash and composting. Depending on what else was happening in our lives, my housemates were more or less accepting of my “green” attempts.
For awhile I had gotten quite rabid about sorting the trash and taking all of our glass and aluminum to the recycling center. Glass was hard, though, because it took up so much room and you had to have a lot to make the trip worthwhile. My glass pile was soon relegated to the garage and then abandoned.
When I first met my husband, his mother introduced me to the world’s most delicious fudge — Kraft Fantasy Fudge. The recipe was on the bag of Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows, and involved a lot of stirring and stirring and stirring, but it was worth it. Then one happy day I discovered the same recipe updated for microwave cooking on the back of the Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme. Gone was the stirring and stirring and stirring…now the microwave oven did most of the work. Fantasy Fudge became my go-to Christmas gift. I never wrote the recipe down, because it was always right there on the marshmallow creme jar.
Until one fateful evening when I started to make fudge for a Christmas gift. I had all my ingredients assembled (I thought), but when I double-checked the marshmallow creme jar, the recipe was missing! Disaster! And even though I had made the recipe hundreds of times, there was just a smidgen of doubt on the timing, and candy needs to be precise. What to do?
I tore through the pantry and pulled out my entire seasonal stash of marshmallow creme, but none held the precious recipe. On the verge of panic, I suddenly remembered my glass recycling box in the garage. Holding my breath, I ran to the garage and started digging through the box. And there, at the bottom where it had been since last Christmas, sat a glass marshmallow creme container, label (and recipe) intact!
The evening was saved, the fudge was perfectly made and gratefully received. And that wonderful empty jar was saved forever from the recycling box, and now stays in a place of honor on my pantry shelf. And yes, I have written the recipe down, but I still prefer to bring out that special jar each fudge-making time.
I’m still recycling it.