Caramels

I tried my hand at making caramels (Thanks Martha Stewart for the info!).  It went alright.  I learned some things about what not to do after the caramels were made, but the making and eating all went off without a hitch. 

Ingredients and my Nook with recipe

Starting off.  It takes a while to get it up to the right temperature.  The recipe said about 15 minutes.  I didn't have my heat up for that, as it took about 35 for mine to reach the necessary 248 degrees.

Still cookin.

It was great to watch the bubbles as the consistency changed.

Getting more carmel-y

Almost there! 

As soon as it gets to temp, the recipe says to hall ass though the last steps (ie: add vanilla and salt, then pour into cookie sheet with greased paper)

Yummmm...Caramel.  Well, soon.  You let it sit for 8 HOURS, then you can cut it. 

Inspired by my sister's love of salted caramels, I thought to try it.  It was a win.

And then they got wrapped. 

It doesn't look like 120 caramels, does it?

One of the boxes for a friend

The ingredients list on the inside.

The boxes for Dan's workish party.

The got all dolled up for the holidays! 

Dan's 29th Birthday

Dan is 29 today!

I don't have lots of pictures of Dan, so I'll share what one that I think he wouldn't be mad at me for posting. :) No, we did not have lobster for dinner. This is from August in Maine, when his friends got married.


It's a low-key day. Rain coming down all day, cats sleeping on their various perches, music in the back ground somewhere.

Dan has finals this week, with his first being tomorrow at 8:30a, so staying in and having home-cooked things would be perfect. I was happy to oblige the request.

Breakfast was a spicy frittata with biscuits and bacon. Big yum here. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was making mom's tarts and an apple pie, as substitute for a birthday cake.

The tarts turned out to be a wreck, but I learned just how under-temperature our oven bakes at. I had a hunch with the pecan pies earlier, but I know for sure now. All the little pecan tartlets were raw on the bottom. No good.

Dan's pie ended up taking twice the recommended time to bake fully. It was nice having the house smelling like apples and cinnamon. Dad, I used the recipe out of the cookbook you gave Ciara and myself, The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen.


The cookbook is great! I altered the recipe slightly, as we had limes on hand instead of lemons, but the rest is:


2 1/2 punds mixed apples (I used 3 machintosh, 3 golden delicious, 1 granny smith)
2 TB flour
3/4 C sugar, plus 1TB on top for garnish
1 Ts ground cinnamon
1/4 ts ground nutmeg
1/2 ts salt
1 TB fresh lemon juice

Oven at 375, 50 to 55 minutes or until insides are bubbling and crust is golden brown.

I used two different crust recipes for this one. I had left over crust from the Thanksgiving pie marathon (super flaky and delish!) and I made a small quick top out of shorting, flour, water and salt. I didn't expect the color to vary so much between the two.

We'll eat it later after dinner digests and I'll let you know how it turned out.

Other fun shots from today are of my ever present audience throughout my baking and cooking adventures, Kodak and Baxter.
Our dining/craft/mail/catch all table is set right next to the island I mix things on, and the boys have learned to sit patiently there, instead of in my ingredients. A happy compromise I think.

And after my run in with Copper this weekend, my mittens smelled like dog, and it was gross, so I washed them and hung them over one of the heaters to dry.

It's not quite like having all of our winter gear steaming dry next to the fire place, like when I was a youngin', but it brought back nice memories nonetheless. Dan teased that he never knew his binder clips would find so many uses in the house.

Dan is still sitting in his chair studying, making outlines, and slowly memorizing. There is a cat on the arm next to him, computer in lab, and he looks to be balancing his constitutional law book on the other side. Last year finals were on his birthday. It will probably happen next year too. He says he isn't one to get super excited about all of it, so he isn't bothered by the overlap. He did mention last night, just as the clock hit midnight, that it isn't so much the getting older that bothers him, but the end of being his former age, 28 or any previous.

I've been thinking quite about about that comment today. I'm still thinking about it, actually.

Cranberry Pecan Bread

Last weekend I got to eat some of Linda's super yummy cranberry bread for breakfast. After finding a recipe in my American Classics cookbook, I decided to try my hand at it.

I made the mistake of using dried cranberries instead of fresh/frozen, but it isn't a mistake that ruined the loaf.

I had a slice this morning for breakfast, one side dipped in egg and then fried, french toast style. Very good.

If you want to compare recipes, here is what went in mine:

1 T grated orange zest
1/3 C fresh orange juice
2/3 C buttermilk
6 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
2 C flour
1 C sugar
1 ts salt
1 ts baking powder
1/4 ts baking soda
1 1/2 C cranberries
1/2 C pecans, coarse chop

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, then reduce temp to 350 for another 45. Makes one 5x9 loaf pan.

Pecan Pie

For some reason Dan is afraid I won't be able to keep myself busy in the interim between Nanny time and the start of what ever new job I end up getting. "I'll be fine! I have lots of things I can do! Have I ever been bored when I've been here?" That is a big, fat, no.

Today was fun for me. I continued to unpack the things I brought down. My clothes are thankful to be on hangers again, after a year of being boxed up. My dad bought both my sister and I a copy of the cookbook The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen. The title is a bit frightening, but the book is actually quite good even for non-farm girls. Lots of great recipes, of course, but also craft projects, like aprons, utensil holding jars, cookbook sleeves, and other things that add a bit of cute to a kitchen. (I am not planning on adding said cute to our kitchen.)

There wasn't much food in the house when I showed up, so today was the great shopping adventure, which ended in a lunch of tortellini and sausage soup (which came out of the cookbook). Dinner also. As Dan was worrying about how I would stay busy (silly boy), we started talking about pie, and he said he would sponsor a pie adventure. And thus, because of the truck loads of pecans my father gave me last spring, I made my first pecan pie.

I made note of some things I'd change, but Dan assured me it would get eaten. I said I would start thinking about adding pie to my future coffee shop menu. That idea was well received as well. I'm not a big fan of fruit pies, so those of you who know good ones will have to help me there, but I'm excited to try my hand at coconut cream, key lime, and maybe a meringue. Strawberry rhubarb perhaps? Blackberry? This could get out of control pretty quick, I can see that now. I've just added a new position to my payroll and I haven't even found the spot I want it yet.

Get me started thinking about my shop and that in itself will keep me occupied for days!