Christmas Cracker Jacks

I am not a sweet freak.  Don't get me wrong...I appreciate a good cake, pie, candy or other confection when I taste it, but I don't seek it out.  I'm more of a savory, cheesy, hearty kinda girl.  That being said, there is definitely a time and place for sweets.  Christmas is one of those times.

Come to think of it, about the only times of the year when sweets really enter my consciousness are Halloween and Christmas.  Halloween because everyone needs one chocolate chapter in his/her year.  And at Christmas, there's just something traditional, comforting, and welcoming about sugary little goodies.  We give them as gifts.  We enjoy receiving them as gifts.  We appreciate the fact that someone took some time (in many cases, a LOT of time) to create these little delights just to show us that they care about us.  However, my biggest dilemma is this:  I hate with a capital 'H' even attempting/wasting my time with rolled-out Christmas sugar cookies.  If you really wanna know why, ask my friend Eugenie about our Christmas-cookie-from-Hell experience back in the mid-90's.  I just can't even speak about it.  I also have a problem with pie crust.  It is my nemesis.  It kicks my a$% every time and just laughs in my face.  And, I learned last year that gingerbread men really aren't that sweet.  In fact, they are incredibly difficult little sons-o-gingerbreadmen.

So, this year, I wanted to make something sweet, easy and that could be made in large batches.  After much contemplation, I decided on caramel corn.  It's perfect!  I can bag it in pretty little bags for the teachers, I can give batches to friends, the mailman, my Publix bakery man, you get the idea.  And, I confess, I love popcorn of all descriptions, even sweet, buttery, caramel corn!

 I used this recipe that I found on www.AllRecipes.com.  I followed it as written except I added peanuts to mine. It couldn't have been easier and it's super economical too!  You can make just a few batches and have plenty to share with everyone you know.  Maybe I should go on www.OrientalTrading.com to get little prizes to put inside...then it really would be just like the Cracker Jacks we all loved as kids!

Merry Christmas my friends!

The Week in Review

Despite the fact that I had BOOKOOS (that's a perversion of the francais beaucoups) of time off in the last week, I've been up to my ears in things to do, and thus, have neglected my beloved blog.  Thank you, my loyal supporters for hanging on and eagerly awaiting what I might have to say next.

Being in busy-mom-Christmas mode, I haven't had any major revelations this week, but a couple of interesting stories.  First, I got a steal on cashew pieces and decided, "hey, I'll make cashew brittle to give as gifts."  Found a pretty straight forward recipe but of course, I had one little wrinkle.  Well, turns out it was a pretty huge wrinkle.  I was instructed to cook the sugar and corn syrup until 350 degrees or amber color.  I searched and searched all over and couldn't find my candy thermometer anywhere.  (Neil told me later, "oh yeah, that thing broke a long time ago."  Hmmm, really?  I've never even used the damn thing.  Why wasn't I notified?  Who broke it?  So, anyway, I thought to myself, "I know a good amber beer when I see one, I can recognize amber."  Well, here's what I learned.  When sugar starts boiling, first it's really scary.  Visions of that spilling over on my arm and hardening like a rock and then totally consuming my skin and bones.  Second, when it gets all frothy and boily, you can't tell if it's amber, golden, purple, NOTHIN'.  So, when I thought I'd gotten to amber, I mixed in the rest of the stuff and poured it out on the sheet.  Well...have you even seen that weird white spitty looking stuff on a caterpillar's nest?  It looked a lot like that.  And, it never completely hardened; it was more like white, frothy looking nougat...but PACKED with cashews.  Yeah, epic fail.  Dumped it into an empty pizza box and right into the trash.  Oh well.


So, clearly we ordered pizza one night this week.  Dano's Pizza is about a stone's throw from our house, they throw their own dough and the pizza's pretty darn good.  So, it was the meat lover's with black olives added.  I recommend it.

Then, I actually cooked one night too.  When mom and I were a team at RE/MAX, we sent monthly recipe postcards to our clients.  I always saved them, but never cooked any of them.  We have several clients who do make the recipes faithfully and call to report their results.  So, I came across a 'Dottie & Elizabeth' card for Tarragon Chicken.  Sauteed chicken breasts then made a sauce from the pan drippings  and shallots, deglazed with chicken stock, then added cream, tarragon.  Very tasty and a hit.  Served with yellow rice and steamed green beans. Looked like a respectable square meal from June Cleaver.

And, lastly, we were too tired and disgusted last night to cook.  (Long story short:  house on concrete slab, leak under bathtub, leak man with jackhammer, $900).  So, it was Rockaway burgers for all.  Maybe after the holidays I can get back to cooking on a regular basis!

Dark Chocolate Takes over the World

I'm fascinated by the impressive marketing turnaround the chocolate industry has pulled on dark chocolate.  I'm 42 years old and for my entire life, the "special dark" Hershey's miniatures have always remained in the bag.  And getting stuck with those in your trick of treat bag?  What a rip-off!  Who ever thought kids wanted to eat dark chocolate?  Call it "special" all day long, it doesn't change things.  Those rejects tasted about as special as when you managed to get your sister to (once again) let her guard down and fall for the classic and timeless trick of all time.  You know, it goes like this...

"Hey Katherine, would you like a 'Chunky'?  I bought some with my allowance."  She eagerly accepts and pops that big ol' hunk of unsweetened baking chocolate into her mouth.  Ahhh, the rest is history!  That pays her back for all the times she's gotten me to chug an ice cold glass of hunky milk.  Yes, she's gotten me to fall for that one mulitple times over the years, I'm sorry to say.  

Anyway, I digress.  So, here we are in the 2000's.  That little French woman declares that all you have to do is eat dark chocolate and you'll be thin, and America fell hook, line and sinker.  Dark chocolate exploded on our chocolate scene.  And, it pretty much still sucked.  But, I'll be the first to admit if I'm wrong or if I've learned something new.  So, here goes.


I noticed before Halloween that Reese's peanut butter cups had introduced a dark one. Once again, I thought,  "Who are these people who think candy lovers like this crap?"  And especially at Halloween, I thought of all those kids who'd end up with those at the bottom of the trick or treat bag.  What a rip-off!  But, I've tried one and lo and behold, they're actually good!  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I believe I actually like the dark one better than the original.  (Blasphemy!)  It's not as sweet, which is what I like I think.  


Peut-etre, si je mange du chocolats noir avec du vin rouge, je serai petits comme les femmes francaises!