Well, you might not realize that if you don’t live near an east coast beach town. For those of us who are in the know about boardwalk treats, we get the joy of candy shops with thick slabs of fudge for sale everywhere. It can’t be beat!

I’m not due to hit the beach for another month or so, and I could just throw up my hands in despair and decide to wait. Or I could make this rocky road fudge, which takes about five minutes to put together and tastes oh so beachy!

For her birthday a few weeks ago, we gave my daughter a doll and a tricked-out stroller. She really wanted an American Girl doll, but I mean, come on. They’re a hundred bucks a pop, and that’s before clothes and accessories. Plus, she’s a child. Can she really take care of a hundred dollars’ worth of anything? We had doubts.

I’m glad we got her the cheaper doll, since she’s been dragging it around by its hair or swinging it by its arms. I feel really badly for the poor doll. She’s probably wondering why she had the rotten luck of being adopted by this crazy family.

The other day, my mother brought over the doll cradle that I used when I was growing up, and I was actually surprised to see that it was in pretty good condition. But then I got to thinking about it, and I took pretty good care of my toys. I was never neat, and I was certainly no angel of a child. But somehow, the toys stayed nice.

With my kids, it’s a totally different story. They’re not precisely destructive, but they’re not good at understanding how caring for something lengthens shelf life. So in yet another episode of Mir’s Mom Guilt, I ask you: how to create learning opportunities for them? Short of confiscating all their toys, that is?

I’d like to see somebody try and confiscate anything of mine. I’d be pretty fierce. Especially if they were trying to take away dessert. Not happening!

Whenever I’m in a hurry, I make fudge. Seriously. The whole thing takes less than five minutes, thanks to our good friend, Mr. Microwave. And after the requisite chill time, it’s time to dig in!

This fudge is loaded with mini-marshmallows, walnuts and lots of chocolatey goodness. Your inner rocky road fanatic will be quite pleased!

If you can’t get to a beach town this summer, here’s the next best thing. Give it a shot!

Not me, unfortunately. My beloved Indianapolis Colts exited the season before the playoffs, so I selfishly stopped caring too much about the outcome of any games, except to hope that the Patriots don’t once again take it all. Tom Brady must’ve made a deal with Satan a long time ago to be both talented and good looking. I have issues with that man.

But no matter what happens with the actual game, I never pass up a chance to make amazing football food. And what better than a giant hunk of fudge shaped like a football? Nothing, I tell you. It’s the best!

This past weekend we had Monday off, so we bundled everyone up and drove out to the Baltimore Inner Harbor to their world-famous aquarium. It’s an amazing place set right over the water, and the building is ingenious. The whole building basically mimics the levels of the ocean with visitors descending via ramps as they fish-watch (or shark-watch) into darker depths.

And of course, there’s the dolphin show. Kids love a good dolphin show, and actually, so do I, as long as we stay out of the splash zone. Do you ever wonder why people like sitting in the splash zone and getting purposely doused with dirty, fishy water? And the day we went, it was about 10 degrees outside. Why would you do that to yourself? Then you could turn to a fishy water popsicle if you venture back outside.

The only bone anyone has to pick with the Baltimore Aquarium is its price tag. It’s $40 a ticket for adults and $25 for kids. We’re a family of five, so do the math. Let’s just say that we had to make sure we saw every inch of that aquarium, or we would feel that our money was not well spent. And we also were mean parents and refused to buy anyone a stuffed dolphin. The little angelic children were really mad about that.

When we got home, I wanted two things: a blanket and some fudge. Luckily, both were readily available. As you know by now, fudge is not hard to make. Watch!

My only caution to you would be to be much smarter than I was. For the football molds, I used a plastic candy mold. MISTAKE. I should have used something bendy, like silicone. Live and learn. Getting that fudge out of the mold was sheer hell. That’s why it’s not featured in my video.

We can survive any number of freezing cold aquarium trips if there’s fudge at the other end of the rainbow, so bear that in mind. And if you care about the Super Bowl outcome, good luck to your team! Unless it’s the Patriots. They don’t need no more help.