Down where the road turns left there is a little house and farm on the right.  This is where my Mama Mart and Papa lived.  My sister and I loved spending time there. 

I could tell you lots of fun things we did there.  Like I thought Papa didn’t let the grass grow along one side of the house so I could have a place to play with my toys.  It was like one big sand box.  Or how my sister and I always got into trouble for eating the blackberry’s right off the vine.  Papa liked to set up the hand cranked ice cream maker on the porch.  Then there was sleeping all night on a cot set up on the front porch.  Hard to beat that.  Stars were always clearest out there.  You should see the cow pasture at night full of lightning bugs.

That all sounds neat.  Yet Mama Mart could beat that.  She was a great cook.  She made her own jam and cooked a great blackberry cobbler.   Yet still that was not IT.

Whenever we made a trip to Mama Mart and Papa’s it was always exciting.  When we lived in Wolfe City, TX the trip wasn’t long.  But after moving to Arkadelphia, AR it was like all day to make the trip.  We were too anxious to sleep and too antsy for our parents.  That was why daddy came up with games.  With all that there was to do there, we only had one thing in mind.  That was Mama Mart’s Fudge Squares.  It never failed that she had lots cooked up fresh for us when we arrived.  Then we we asked, she would act like she forgot what she cooked or she would say something like I didn’t know you wanted them or I would have cooked some.  Then it was a race.  Who would get to them first?  You see Mama Mart’s stove didn’t sit level and that caused one end of the pan to cook thinner.  Those were the ones that we went for first. 

They actually weren’t fudge.  They were a coffee brownie with fudge icing on top.  I know better now.  But when I was a kid, that could have been a fight over what we called them.

Here is Mama Mart’s recipe:

Fudge Squares Ingredients

• ½ cup shorting or butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup nuts
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 squares bitter chocolate (melted) or 2 tbsp cocoa

Icing Ingredients

• ½ box powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa or 2 squares bitter chocolate
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp hot coffee (strong)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. bake at 350 degrees in cookie sheet with sides until sides separate
   (about 35 min)
2. Put icing on while hot