Still by my side... homemade caramel

I never understood growing  up how people could like those hard caramel candies that the grocery store sold or how they could ever eat an apple that had been dipped in it.  This was because I grew up spoiled by homemade treats and goodies.  Every Christmas my mom would pull down her big, heavy bottomed pot and I knew that it was caramel time.  Part of me would dread this because caramel time meant countless hours cutting wax paper into squares, cutting the sticky caramel, and individually wrapping each piece.  I would ask my mom, "Can't we just put them in a bag?" and she would patiently explain that it would turn into a blob and that if you were going to make something as special as caramels then you had to put the time into cutting and wrapping them.

Flash forward 20 years to the first Christmas we had with my parents after they moved back to California and in with us and I got to make those same caramels with my mom again.  The next fall I moved to the high school to teach and wanted to do something fun with my students, so I thought of caramel apples.  I asked my mom to help me make homemade caramel and of course she did.  6 batches later we were exhausted, but the smiles on my students faces were worth it.  There is something astounding about sharing a childhood memory/delight with others and being able to share it with my students was such a gift.  

Flash forward another 13 years and here I am again making caramel for my students.  However, today was bittersweet because I didn't have my mom there helping.  I felt her by my side all day and occasionally talked to her, especially after making a mistake or when I almost dropped my IPhone into the hot caramel trying to take a picture (she would say, "Oh Kateybug, we are making memories").  My heart is irrevocably changed by my mom's passing, but doing things like this brings me a little closer to her.  I may be sobbing as I type and had a cryfest when I started the first batch, but it was worth it. 

I am sharing this family recipe in hopes that you will make it with someone you love and pass it on.  

My Mommalove's Homemade Caramels

Tools

Heavy bottomed pot

Candy thermometer

Heavy wooden spoon with a relatively long handle

Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar 

2 cups heavy cream (separated into 1 1/2 cup and 1/2 cup portions)

1 cup butter
1 3/4 cups light corn syrup

2 tsp. vanilla 

1 tsp sea salt (Kate's touch)

Directions

1.  In a large, heavy bottomed pot put all of the ingredients, except 1/2 cup cream and vanilla.  Bring the mixture to boil over medium-high heat. 

 2.  Boil over medium-high heat, stirring often, for 20-30 minutes.  Until it turns from a very light liquid to a light brown thicker mixture.  The boil should not stop when you stir the caramel.

After 10 minutes

After 20 minutes, light brown and thick

3.  Pour in the reserved 1/2 cup of heavy cream.  Be careful!  As you stir, this will bubble up and may splatter.  Place the candy thermometer in the pot and continue to boil until the mixture reaches the temperature that you desire, depending on the chart below: 

240 degrees and ready for dipping!

220 degrees:  light, thin caramel sauce 

240 degrees: darker thick caramel sauce (ideal for caramel apples)

250 degrees:  Pan caramels that you will cut and wrap

280 degrees:  Toffee

If you will be apple dipping, it is a good idea to keep the caramel warm in a crockpot while you dip.

4.  Remove the caramel from the heat.  Add in the vanilla and stir.  Be careful, it will hiss and spit at you. 

I am hosting a good friend's baby shower soon.  I made extra caramel for the favors.  These are 4oz ball jars.  Click here to see the favors!

We're Jammin'

One of the cruel twists of mother nature is  making fresh fruit plentiful and cheap when the weather is the hottest and jam making must occur!  However, for the past few years summer jam and pickle making have become a part of my summer vacation.  We head up north to spend time with my BF and her family, the men go fishing for a few days while Al and I concoct jam recipes, process fruit, and bond.  We recruit her daughter Evalyn to help and we always learn something new about one another (this year it was a classic, but some things must be kept private).  It is my favorite part of summer and I wouldn't trade it for anything, not even a trip to somewhere tropical.

Besties since college!  

The jammin' crew!

Al and I tend to be a little free handed with our jam making.  We toss around ideas and just go for it.  Sometimes it turns out and sometimes we make sauce instead of jam :)  We try to organize ourselves and make plans, but we inevitably have to make 10 trips to the grocery store, 5 trips to the hardware store for jars, and occasionally end up  on a never ending search for flowering dill (we never did find any this year).  In the past we have made Bite Me Blueberry Plum Jam , which involves homegrown plums, jalapenos, and cherries. Twisted Blueberry Plum , a new take on blueberry, plum jam that has grapefruit in it.  Sadly this year her plum tree didn't produce much, so we hard to turn to another stone fruit, peaches!

We asked Al's husband to bring us home some peaches (he has connections) before he left on the annual fishing odyssey.  Alison and I came home to 1 large crate and 2 small crates of peaches.  A total of 168 pounds!  Al figured that he was trying to keep us out of busy and out of trouble with all of those peaches.  Twelve work hours later, we peeled, sliced, and packaged 84 lbs. of peaches.  We were sick of peaches!  Now we had to figure out what to do with them all.  First, we decided to replicate a chutney we had made a few years back, but with peaches instead of apricots.  Then we wanted to come up with something similar to our Bite Me jam, so we came up with Sassy Peach, which has jalapenos.  Finally, we made some plain old peach jam and blueberry peach sauce (stupid liquid pectin).

The bounty~

Some turned out, some didn't... we learned a LOT and were pretty frustrated at the end.  Here is the lesson I will share with you.  Use only low sugar pectin and recipes!  Liquid pectin sucks and regular jam recipes end up tasting like sugar and not fruit!

Can't wait until next summer, when we can do it again!

Kate, Al and Ev's Sassy Peach Jam

What do you do when you are given 168 pounds of peaches?  You make jam, of course!  This jam is full of fresh peach flavor and has the background notes of spicy jalapeno.  It can be served over cream cheese, pour over baked chicken or pork, and added to bbq sauce for a different twist. Make sure to use low sugar pectin, nothing else works as well!

Ingredients

6 cups peeled and diced peaches (slightly mush them  up with a potato masher)

3 jalapeños, diced (remove seeds if you don't want it as spicy)

4.5 cups granulated sugar 

1/4 cup lemon juice 

1/2 cup water 

1 box low-sugar pectin 

In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot, mix the peaches, 1/4 cup sugar, jalapeños, water and pectin. 

 Cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil.  

Add the rest of the sugar, bring back to a hard boil and boil for 1 minute.  

Hot pack the jam and either turn over to seal or hotwater process.  You can also make this a freezer jam. 

make sure to boil your lids

Use a jar funnel to fill the jars, wipe the rim and inside jar
with a sterilized rag

Use a lid lifter to help put the lid on the jar
and then lightly tighten a ring around it. 

Bite Me Blueberry Plum Jam

Alison and I came up with this recipe after making our Twisted Blueberry Plum and thinking, "Hmm.. Jalapeños would be great in this".  This jam has a kick, but it is not overpowering.  We serve it over cream cheese, in wonton cups filled first with cream cheese, or my dad likes it straight up on toast.

Ingredients 

3 limes, sliced as thinly as possible 

6 pounds washed and chopped plums

2 pounds pitted fresh cherries 

8 jalapenos, diced (include sees if  you like it spicier)

5 pounds granulated sugar 

2 cups filtered water

1 box low-sugar pectin

Directions

In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot, put the sliced limes and water, simmer for 30 minutes.  Do not allow it to boil dry.  Add in the plums, cherries, and jalapeños.  Cook until the fruit is soft and pulpy.  Add the sugar and boil for 30 minutes, constantly stirring.  After 30 minutes, add the pectin and boil for 1 minute.  Pack into warm sterilized jars.  We hot pack these by putting the lids and rings on the jars and flipping them over to seal.  You can hot water process or just put in the freezer. 

Twisted Blueberry Plum Jam

This is a tried and true jam recipe.  Make sure you slice the grapefruit as thin as you can!  We are fans of hot packing our jams.  It is just easier.  There is a slightly higher risk of spoilage, but after doing this for 3 years, it has only happened once when we were not careful with cleaning the edges of the jars.  You have to be careful to use sterilized jars (we use the dishwasher and keep them hot) and lids.

Ingredients

1 large ruby red grapefruit, sliced as thinly as possible

6 pounds of processes plums (washed and chopped)

2 pounds fresh or frozen blueberries

5 pounds of sugar 

1 box low sugar pectin 

2 cups filtered watered

Directions

In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot place the sliced grapefruit and water, simmer for 30 minutes.  Do not let it boil dry!  Add the fruit and berries and cook until it is soft and pulpy. Add the sugar and boil for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, add the low-sugar pectin and let boil for 1 minutes.  Pour into prepared jars and freeze, hot pack, or process pack it.  

Pesto Tilapia with Bruschetta Topping

The hubby's portion

I made a commitment in the summer the try more fish.  Tilapia is the 4th one I have tried and the mildest by far.  I am glad I went with a strong sauce otherwise the fish would have pretty bland.  If you want to make your own pesto, go for it.  I happened to have a fabulous mother with a gorgeous garden who makes outstanding pesto.  I keep it in baggies in the freezer.  My mom's tomatoes are also the star in the bruschetta topping.  I used Tastefully Simple's Dried Tomato Pesto Mix because I didn't have a fresh garlic on hand or feel like wrestling with an onion (lazy day, what can I say?).  If you happen to have all of the ingredients to make the bruschetta without it then rock on my friend.

This dish got a hubby rating of two servings and a fish hating wife rating of, "I was able to eat almost 3/4 of my piece (the most fish I have ever eaten)".  Our poochieroo also enjoyed my leftovers.

A lesson learned, Low Carb Pancakes

Earlier this week I decided I wanted breakfast for dinner, so I researched low carb pancake recipes.  I was looking for simple recipes that didn't use crazy ingredients and had good reviews.  I found a recipe using Pinterest (of course) at Skinny Momma's Blog.  All it required was almond flour, sweetener of your choice, eggs, and oil.  I bought the almond flour awhile ago, on a whim, and stored it in my freezer, so I was happy to find a recipe that used it.  I followed the recipe, tweaking it just a bit.  The recipe was incredibly simple and came out really good.  After dinner I decided to enter the recipe into a calorie calculator and that is where I was shocked, three small pancakes equaled almost 700 calories!  I still had to add in my scrambled eggs, bacon, and jam... this took my dinner to well over 1,000 calories.

I ended up feeling bamboozled, but then I realized that it was my fault.  Focusing on carb counts is great, but I need to make sure to see the WHOLE picture and consider the calorie count of the ingredients I use.   I guess I am bound to make mistakes on this journey, but I kept thinking, "I could have had a cheeseburger for less calories!" The lesson has been learned... for pancakes at least!  I am still sharing the recipe because it was quite good and if you are just doing a plain old low carb diet it could become part of your repertoire or if you are gluten free, this is a great recipe!