My grandfather's chocolate fudge - and peanut butter fudge

This is a family recipe. I don't know if my Granddaddy Taylor made it up or found it in a newspaper or elsewhere, but it's definitely the best chocolate fudge ever. My mother worked nights and I made it for my sisters and brothers. I didn't have a candy thermometer and it was usually didn't harden and was eaten with spoons. My mother didn't like us making fudge while she was working because we were wasting her ingredients, so she locked up them up in a cabinet with a combination lock. Didn't take us long to figure out the combination. Then she got a regular lock that worked with a key. Didn't take us long to find a key that fit. Then she got a commercial lock that we couldn't figure out, so we unscrewed the hinges on the door. If not for this, I probably would have completely forgotten about my grandfather's fudge and the recipe would have been lost. Thank you, Mom.
The recipe:

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk (believe it or not, nonfat milk works best)
1/2 cup light Karo syrup (light in color, not calories)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ounces Baker unsweetened chocolate
1/2 stick of cold butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup toasted pecan pieces

Butter a small 8" x 8" pan or equivalent. Put the sugar, milk, Karo, and salt in a pot. Mix until all ingredients are combined. Add the unsweetened chocolate. Put in a candy thermometer and be careful that it doesn't touch the bottom. Put it on the stove and turn the burner to medium. Do not do anything else. Do not stir. Do not turn the heat up or down. Do not play games on the computer or answer your phone. Do not do any housework. Instead, stare at the thermometer. The second it gets at the soft ball stage, remove it from the heat. Add the vanilla. After it's finished sizzling (about ten seconds), add the butter. Stare at it until the butter is completely melted. Stir with a wooden spoon until all the butter is combined with the chocolate mixture. This usually takes about 5-10 minutes. Do not stop stirring. When fully combined, add the pecan pieces and stir them in. Then pour the mixture into your pan. When it is starting to harden, which should be within about ten minutes, use a knife to "draw" the pieces vertically and horizontally. Then, when it completely hardens,  use a dough scraper to cut it.

Note: Candy thermometers differ. Get a good one. With mine, I have to remove the fudge just slightly before it gets to the soft ball stage or it will get too hard. A friend has to go a little past the soft ball stage for best results. So if your first batch isn't perfect, let it go below or above the soft ball stage next time.

For peanut butter fudge - follow all directions exactly, but leave out the unsweetened chocolate and pecans. Add 3/4 cup extra chunky peanut butter at the end when you would add the pecans to the chocolate fudge.

Best chuck roast ever

The original NOPSI recipe calls for covering the roast with aluminum foil, which was before the days of baking bags or crock pots. So if you want, you can put it in a 9" x 13" baking pan and envelope it with aluminum foil (make sure it's folded high above the roast and sealed very tightly), or put it in a baking bag, but in my opinion, the best way to do it is in a crock pot.

Here's the recipe:

One 3-4 pound chuck roast
One can of Campbell's mushroom soup
One pack of Lipton's dry onion soup

Whichever means you use, the recipe remains the same. Spread the cream of mushroom soup over the chuck roast, then sprinkle the onion soup on top of the cream of mushroom soup. Once I tried mixing the two up and spreading the mixture over the roast, and it didn't work, so don't do this.

That's it. Don't do anything else. Don't add milk or water or salt or pepper or ANYTHING! If cooking in the oven, either with aluminum foil or a baking bag, cook at about 275° for about five or six hours. If in a crock pot, cook on high for about an hour, then low for six or seven more hours.

The result is melt-in-your-mouth roast beef with a delicious gravy. You can serve it as pot roast with potatoes or whatever else, or you can tear it apart easily with a fork and serve as subs (aka po-boys). I do this and divide it up and freeze the portions in small freezer bags, enough for a couple of subs.