Caramel Cures
Day two of feeling like crap. Boo.
I drank two cups of "Nighty Night" tea with honey and lemon before bed and you know what? I laid awake tossing and turning for 90 minutes. False advertising!! My sinuses were so drain-y that I felt like I was drowning and I was so tired that I think I actually crested the hill of exhaustion and plowed right into that manic state of overtired. Suck city.
Unfortunately life doesn't stop because I get sick, so this morning I was back at it; driving Larissa to school, running errands with Kellan, serving lunch and running for the bus all before 12:30. One of the stops this morning was Kohls, the department store that I have a long-running love/hate relationship with. They have "sales" every 35 seconds and drop coupons in the mailbox with the frequency of an eyeblink. Seriously? Why not just do away with this nonsense and just call yourself "The Dollar Store"? Last week I had a 30% off coupon so Rob used it to buy a couple pairs of shoes. In return, we got "Kohl's Cash" in the amount of $20 that was good starting today. (Someone please tell me - how does this store make money??) Since I loathe their women's clothing, I decided I would spend the money on something necessary and something totally frivolous. I purchased a couple of cute tops for Larissa (needed), a pair of clearance earrings I would have never bought at full price (frivolous) and this baby (essential)....
A Caramel Apple scented candle? Yes!
I lit it right after I put Kellan on the bus with the intention of laying my tired self on the couch, but of course a certain little person wanted to watercolor and then wanted to play Barbies and....and....and.... In the meantime the candle started filling the entire house with the most delicious caramel apple smell and of course, it made me want to bake something. That, and my blood pressure hit hyperdrive from the stupid cold tablets I took.
I'd wanted to try this recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, and as luck would have it, I had all the ingredients!
I may have sampled a few of these before baking actually got underway.
The one thing I hate about baking with Kraft caramels is the tedious unwrapping. This is as far as I got before I got bored/annoyed:
Now, now...don't be hatin' on me because I have top of the line cookware! Get a load of that pan! Might be time for a new one, eh? If I lose my mind because of early-onset Alzheimers due to the ingestion of teflon residue, blame Emeril. This is his crappy saucepan. It is hands down one of the worst pieces of cookware I've ever owned. The coating started coming off immediately and the handles heat up to surface-of-the-sun temperatures even at a simmer, making it nearly impossible to touch this pot unless you have smelting gloves on. So dumb that I still own this thing. Anyway....back to the recipe. Obviously I pushed through the pain and finished with the unwrapping.
It's a good thing that cooked caramel is the same temperature as molten lava...it's the only thing that prevents me from eating this by the spoonful.
When I bake, I like to listen to Pandora. This guy isn't half bad....
**Swoon**
Eventually, I ended up with a pan full of this:
The cure for the common everything.
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Side note: Today is my friend Kristi's birthday. I still really, really, really miss her. If she were here I would have called her to come over and help me out with this caramel masterpiece.