Failed Attempt at Candy *Updated*

I tried to make honey candy the other day. Let me just say it was a complete disaster. I'm only glad the only harm done was loosing a piece of wax paper. I felt like we may loose a pan or two from the incident also, but they cleaned up nicely. I guess we learn from our mistakes and I may attempt at making some again today, wish me luck! The recipe I followed was not the greatest but I'll include it below so you do not make the mistake I did!

2 C sugar
1/2 C water
1/2 C honey
1/4 C butter

The directions for this recipe are very vague. They state that you should cook in a heavy pan over heat till it reaches a "hard crack" stage. First, the recipe does not tell you what the "hard crack" stage is. I was still fairly confident on what this meant though, because growing up around my mother meant lots f different recipes and cooking techniques. Secondly, they do not tell you wether or not to add the butter to the pan, or just to the baking pan you add the mixture to later. So I decided to just add the butter to the baking pan and not to the honey mixture. I'm still not sure if that was my downfall or not. The problem I ran into was with it sticking to the baking pan and still being too hot to handle. I found this recipe on cooks.com if anyone is interested.

As I have a surplus of honey at my home (due to my parents owning bees) I may try this again with a few changes. I'm going to try to dump the honey into the buttered baking pan and letting it sit till cool and just breaking it into chunks. The other option would be to get candy molds which I don't have the finances or the location to buy them at. Perhaps at a later time.

My ultimate goal is to make this with rosemary into a Honey Rosemary candy to sell. Don't steal my idea, it's not nice! Wish me luck!



* I made this recipe again and it turned out pretty good! With some tweaking it will make a great candy!

Baby Proof Baking

I found the easiest recipe that I could make in about 2 minutes the other day. While Shaley was content in the swing, I made Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. It's simply:

2 C baking mix
3 medium bananas
1/3 C sugar
1 egg
3 T vegetable oil
1/3 C chocolate chips

I might add in a teaspoon of vanilla just to be special, and always more chocolate chips than it calls for! Basically, you smash the bananas and add all the other ingrediants and bake at 400 degrees till they're just golden on top (about 15 min).

Everyone loved them, and I even had time to make a second batch for the husband to take to work. I love baking! I'm so glad I'm starting to have more time to do it again.

To give credit where it's due, I found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website if you want to check it out.

Breakfast

My dear husband made me breakfast the other day. He didn't even warn me (his cooking is interesting to say the least!). He called his item a Breakfast Muffin, which consisted of bread, eggs, cheese, and ham. He proceeded to smash pieces of bread into each spot of the muffin pan. Then, after mixing together the eggs, milk, cheese, and ham, he poured it into the breaded muffin pan. He then baked it for a while (he'd be lost if I didn't help him with this part!) and had me come check to see if it was done. He is so sweet sometimes! It turned out pretty good, I was almost impressed with his cooking ability. The best part of breakfast that morning was eating the eggs that didn't fit into the muffin pan, which he added rosemary to and scrambled. So, although his Breakfast Muffin was edible, his leftovers were even better. I love you dear!