So this week my goal is to get the Christmas cards out, and treats to the neighbors and friends delivered. Enter carmels. I found a recipe that looked delicious. Sea Salt Carmels. Yum. I have never made carmels by myself, but i have helped my Mom when I was young.
(This is the key point. The recipie was in the costco cookbook they gave out the weekend after Thanksgiving. I didn't think that the recipe would make costco size portions. Four cups of cream and four cups of sugar should have been a tip off ... and its said, "make in stock pot") So I start mixing everything my favorite pot, The LeCruset dutch oven, thinking "This will be plenty big." OOHHHHH NNNNOOOTTTT SSSOOOOO!!! Once the carmel starting boiling it was clearly not big enough. Not even close.
Here is the visual. Carmel is boiling over. I am shrieking "I NEED ANOTHER PAN!!! WHERE IS ANOTHER PAN!!!" I find another pan, all the while I am trying to clean up the spills, not let the paper towels ketch fire, and stir the carmel, and not trip over the dog, and then I finally dump half of the carmel in pot number two. Then I really look stupid. I am whisking 2 pots of carmel at the same time, for 10 MINUTES. My forearms were killing me. This is the exchange between me and Zoey that made me realize how stupid I must have looked.
Zoey: "Mom, what are you doing?"
Me: "Stirring Candy."
Zoey: "No, you're dancing!" (she said this with jazz hands)
In the end, I missed the "hard ball stage" and ended up with an entire cookie sheet of carmel that was supposed to be chewy. Its more like Werthers hard candy, but way better. Now I am stuck with dilemma, What do I do? The carmel is good. I mean, really good. Do I give it away anyways, and say its hard candy? Or do I attempt it again, and hope for the best? Hmmm. dilemma...
