saffronhare (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
saffronhare) wrote2013-12-12 09:49 am
saffronhare) wrote2013-12-12 09:49 am
toffee may be brittle, but it's not so hard
Last night, I was pretty darn successful in my campaign to do Mostly Nothing with my shoulder. I had other people do all the chopping for the chicken soup we assembled for tonight's dinner. Because I had more than one person helping, I got to admire the assembly of the ingredients next to the stove -- all in lovely little bowls -- over a couple of hours. Putting it together was surprisingly easy. A few months ago, I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me I'd be putting together homemade chicken soup (with homemade stock) without glancing once at a recipe. Later today, we'll reheat it with some rice, check the seasonings (because homemade stock is much lower in salt than the store-bought stuff), and call it good.
Emboldened by this victory, I decided to engage the troops in making a first batch of toffee. KiraDeara was very excited about using the candy thermometer; I was impressed by what happens when you heat up four sticks of butter, two cups of sugar, and some vanilla. One of the college kids got home last night and asked if we were making caramel. I think the difference is that caramel uses brown sugar instead? Might look that up later. Anyway. The toffee chilled overnight and taste testers inform me this morning that it's AWESOME. Yay! When I bust up this batch into pieces later tonight, I'll have a better idea of how many batches we'll need to make for gifting and how many metric tons of butter that will take. (We try to include 6-8 servings of each item in the baskets.) I also need to figure out today *how many* gift assortments we're giving out this year. Because math.
I think I'm going to delay making cranberry bread until my shoulder is doing better, because I don't know if I can delegate that baking to anybody else. The cranberry bread is MINE, you know? We'll see.
Emboldened by this victory, I decided to engage the troops in making a first batch of toffee. KiraDeara was very excited about using the candy thermometer; I was impressed by what happens when you heat up four sticks of butter, two cups of sugar, and some vanilla. One of the college kids got home last night and asked if we were making caramel. I think the difference is that caramel uses brown sugar instead? Might look that up later. Anyway. The toffee chilled overnight and taste testers inform me this morning that it's AWESOME. Yay! When I bust up this batch into pieces later tonight, I'll have a better idea of how many batches we'll need to make for gifting and how many metric tons of butter that will take. (We try to include 6-8 servings of each item in the baskets.) I also need to figure out today *how many* gift assortments we're giving out this year. Because math.
I think I'm going to delay making cranberry bread until my shoulder is doing better, because I don't know if I can delegate that baking to anybody else. The cranberry bread is MINE, you know? We'll see.