The Candy Man Can

By Chef Diane

Who can take a sunrise

Sprinkle it with dew

Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two

The Candy Man

The Candy Man can

'cause he mixes it with love

and makes the world taste good

First of all I want to apologize to you.  June is National Candy Month, but I picked a terrible time to tell you since it's the next to the last day of the month.  That doesn't give you much time to indulge, so I guess you can say I was looking out for your health.

June is a great month for candy.  In recent years a popular item at wedding receptions is a candy bar, a table is set with all kinds of different candy, sometimes in the bride's wedding colors, and in various types of containers.  This is a big hit for children who are attending, and is also fun for grown ups too.  Normally a bag is provided for the guests to fill with their choice of candy and this serves as their "wedding favor" or gift for attending the wedding.   Since June is the most popular month for weddings, celebrating candy in June makes good sense too.

When my son was small we had pizza and movie night every Friday night.  Every Friday night he would always get the same movies, Peter Pan and Willie Wonka.  My favorite part of Willie Wonka was when all the kids were on the boat and they are floating down the chocolate river and they arrive in "Paradise".  The room where everything is edible and the kids are running around tasting everything.  It all looked so delicious.

I have dabbled a bit in making candy.  Mostly at Christmas time I will make fudge, divinity and pralines.  Pralines are a southern specialty, and I have a wonderful recipe for them that will simply melt in your mouth.  Since I was so late in telling you about Candy month, I thought I would share my secret Praline recipe with you.

So for the last days of Candy month, treat yourself to your favorite candy, or try your hand in making your own.

Pralines

Ingredients:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

5 Cups sugar

1 stick butter

2 tsp vanilla

1 pound pecan halves

Directions

Mix first 4 ingredients and cook on low in large pot.  I use my biggest soup pot.  Stir side to side until you can see the bottom of the pot when the spoon scrapes across.  This takes about 2 hours.  Add vanilla and pecans.  Cool pot in water and stir until thickens.  Drop on wax paper in large spoonfuls.  Let Cool.  Enjoy.

 (Photos from Google)