it's caramel apple time!

I've been trying to figure out how to make caramel apples

for several years now -- not the Kraft Caramel kind,

although those are great. I wanted to learn how to

whip up my own caramel from scratch!

So I found a recipe (can't locate it at the moment,

but it had condensed milk, brown sugar, and corn syrup,

for starters) and cooked up the ingredients to the

"hard ball" candy stage as instructed.

Well, the caramel tasted great!

But it set up so hard that we could barely cut through it

with a knife -- think Sugar Daddy chewy.

It was delicious, though, so I might give it another go.

This time, I'll only heat it to the "soft ball" stage

and see what happens.

Do you have a favorite way to make caramel apples?

How 'bout favorite bits to roll them in

while the caramel's still gooey?

 

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yum

Okay, so this is a horrible photo. I get that.

But the marshmallows were homemade and

pretty darn tasty with chocolate fondue.

Recipe here.

 

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massaged kale

I didn't think to take a picture of the salad I made for dinner tonight,

so here's what's left of it. Can you believe it?! And it was KALE!!

I've been learning the wonders of kale and other dark, leafy greens

over the past year. But how to incorporate them into my household's

diet and actually get people to eat them? Also, some recipes for kale

require long cooking times. I need something speedy most nights.

I decided to go with a fresh kale salad tonight, but when I pulled it 

out of the bag (thank you, Trader Joe's), the leaves were all dry and

leathery. Enter The Kale Massage. Here's how it works:

1. Cut or tear Kale leaves from the spine (discard spine). Chop to bite size.
2. Add a dash of oil, a splash of lemon juice, and a couple croinks of salt.
3. Squeeze, rub, and otherwise massage the kale leaves for about 2 minutes.
4. The kale will wilt down a bit and turn shiny and tender. Who knew?!?
5. Now, you could leave it like that or add some salad dressing and the like.  

 I did the following (and people loved it... even some of the kids): 

Warm Bacon Dressing --

1. Cook up 5 pieces of bacon. Crumble.
2. In a bowl, mix up 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 1/2 tsp corn starch.
3. Add 1/8 cup water and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. Whisk.
4. Heat the bacon bits in a pan. Gradually add the liquid mixture.
5. Heat to a boil, stirring until thickened (but not too thick!).

Kale Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing --

1. Spoon the bacon bits onto massaged kale and add dressing to taste.
2. Chop half of a granny smith apple into the salad.
3. Sprinkle feta on top. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix.

Okay... so it's not fat free. But it is yummy and vitamin packed! I'll let you know if

future experiments in massaged kale turn up something tasty that's less gratuitous.

170 cupcakes

...is what I've cooked up these past couple of days.

My mom, God bless her, came over and helped me

frost them all this morning. It took three hours! 

What if I had done it by myself?! I really enjoyed 

talking with her as we worked. The time flew by.

The reason for the amount of cupcakes, besides

the fact that we don't know how many people will

come to Elliott's birthday party (he's six already --

can you believe it?!) is that the theme is Mario, and

I was inspired by this pixel mosaic idea. Well,this

particular Mario is made up of 168 pixels (1 cupcake

= 1 pixel). Which is better than the 1-up mushroom 

that requires 238. Anyway, besides loving pixel art,

I liked this idea because it creates an overall image

without complicating the design of each individual

cupcake. I'll post a photo once we get him set up.

Oh... also, my mom suggested freezing the cupcakes

before frosting, and it definitely made things go 

faster. They did much less crumbling into the frosting.

birthday cookies: the final product

Here's what came of all the cookie testing.

I decided to use a modified royal icing once I realized

that it wasn't the food poisoning that scared me -- I

just hate the idea of eating raw egg whites in any form!

I could, of course, get over this whole aversion if the

icing tasted amazing. But it didn't. So I moved on.

Here's the icing recipe I ended up using:

• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 tsp corn syrup
• 1 squeeze fresh lime
• 1 tsp vanilla (leave out for white icing... or use brandy)
• half & half  [added gradually to correct consistency]
• gel paste food coloring*

[Note: My favorite sugar cookie recipe thus far is Martha Stewart's Ideal Sugar Cookies
using brandy rather than milk, rolled out to 1/4" instead of 1/8" and baked 12 minutes, just
until any edge turns golden.]

This piped on well, flooded great, and tasted fine.

Also didn't get as crunchy as the real royal icing,

which was nice. Yesterday's reviews were lots of

thumbs-up. Now to face the hardcore critics --

the kindergarteners! Anyway, Happy Birthday,

my little buddy. I love you!

*As I mentioned last year, icing can be colored

naturally, with turmeric (yellow) or berry juice

(pink or purple). There's also a natural line of

food coloring that's available. Haven't found it

locally, though, and it's pricey online.