• Blogmas,  Cooking,  Food

    Heavenly..Fail

    Well, the best intentions of mice and men…. is that how the saying goes? The plan was to make my Aunt Eva’s Heavenly Hash Candy since the weather has finally decided to cooperate. And… well, see for yourself. I had a bare-bones recipe from my great-great aunt, but there wasn’t much direction about cooling time. I have made this before, and they turned out great, but this batch…not so much. It started out promising.

    See, chocolate chips, condensed milk, marshmallows, and pecans…what could go wrong?

    ….but in the end, it was a puddle of mess. You should be able to see the marshmallows, not a puddle.

    One thing that was left out of the instructions was to let the chocolate mixture cool before adding the marshmallows, which I did not do and they instantly melted. Almost immediately I knew what I had done wrong–added the marshmallows to hot, melted chocolate. They sure look awful, but they taste just fine. I’ll try again this weekend and see if they turn out.

  • Blogmas,  coffee,  Cooking,  Crafting,  Food

    Tis the season! It’s that time of year when both Blogmas and Vlogmas start popping up in feeds all over the internet. It’s been years since I’ve participated and frankly, the thought of 25 days of holiday blogging is daunting. One, because I’m not one to overdo Christmas anything and two, well, it’s a lot of content and since I have posted exactly once this year, the odds are NOT in my favor.

    So, why may you asked, changed my mind? Well, I’m not sure exactly. A combo of a lot of things I suppose. Life is too short to say ‘what if’ and “I should have.” I loved blogging. I really did. I’m trying to find my way back, so this is an attempt to do so. Not sure if I will succeed, but I won’t know until I give it a good try. So I do have a couple of things planned. I have a couple of candy recipes that were my favorites as a child and as soon as this humidity calms itself, I’ll make it. By the way, Florida is fighting December tooth and nail. It’s 80 something today with horrible humidity. We are anticipating a cold front tonight, so let’s see if that makes it feel more like Christmas.

    I need to haul out the tree and the Christmas pillows, and as soon as Amanda gets home we are going to hit up TJ Maxx from my decor. In the meantime, I’m binge-watching Hallmark Christmas movies, and if you want to watch too, I’ve added the schedule. My family laughs, but I love them. This is the schedule for Saturday and Sundays, but I think they’re pretty much running 24/7. I’m going to go and enjoy the last few hours of my Thanksgiving break by reading and maybe knitting. (while watching Hallmark movies, of course!)

    Tomorrow, stay tuned for Aunt Eva’s Heavenly Hash recipe. (Cross your fingers the humidity drops!)

  • Blogtober,  Cooking,  Daily Life,  Food

    If you want your hubby to cook dinner, buy him a flame thrower. (Blogtober Day 8)

    It has been a running joke in my house that when my husband doesn’t know what to get me for Christmas, he defaults to a kitchen gadget…usually one that he wants me to use to cook him something specific.  Case in point, the Anova Sous Vide machine. (This is not sponsored, btw, however, if they want to reach out, I probably wouldn’t say no) . Anyway, he had been talking about this sous vide thing for a while, and knowing what was coming, I specifically told him to not buy me any kitchen gadget that he really wanted for himself.  He didn’t listen.  What shows up under the tree three years ago…yep that sous vide machine. I got pissed, he got mad, and he had to do some super last minute Christmas shopping that included a trip to the Apple store and the jewelry store. (We had opened these presents early as Amanda had to work over Christmas and we were headed to Atlanta.) Anyway, after that apology, we began to use it and it really does make a great steak.  What we have been doing is using ziplock bags, the water displacement method and a stock pot. Last week, after our latest sous vide, he began to ‘wonder how a blow torch would work on the steaks.” I knew what was coming, but didn’t say anything because I really didn’t want to think about what might be showing up on my doorstep.

    Two days later (thanks Amazon Prime) a stack of packages show up.  Want to guess what was in those packages? A FoodSaver vacuum sealer, a specialized container for the water, a rack for the bags of meat, and…a flamethrower.  Overboard much?  I told him that I would pick up the steaks, but he was on his own.  After thirty minute, reading the instructions three times, and watching two YouTube videos, we finally figured out the vacuum sealer, popped the meat in the bags and then in the water, and we were off to the races.  Once they were done, Joel took great pleasure in playing with fire.  Dinner was delicious. The steaks were perfect and tender, Joel did a great job with the flamethrower, and the baked potatoes were a great side.  So ladies, and gentlemen, if you want your significant other to cook dinner, just buy a a flame thrower.