laughing

My baby is hilarious! This is the first time I've heard her really, really laughing. Enjoy!

Busy Christmas Season!

So remember my last Christmas post where I was convinced I needed to do EVERYTHING Christmas-y? Yeah, we've been busy. We haven't done all of it, but we have done quite a bit, but managed to keep the majority of our sanity in the process. Here's our goings-on:

-We decorated cookies with Kaitlyn! We were supposed to decorate them with my aunt Renee and her kids, but they got sick. SAD! Anywho, I'd already made the cookie dough (thanks Aunt Jana! It was GREAT!) and we made a bunch of buttercream frosting with lots of colors and got to work! It was great fun watching Kaitlyn try to make a purple color, and coming up with a sad grey color, or Jordan writing me messages on the cookies. We listened to Christmas music and really enjoyed ourselves.

-Decorated gingerbread houses with the Forkners. And I finally realized you really CAN put sugar on a burner and it'll just melt... so weird to me. We bought too much candy, and were too ambitious trying to decorate a lot with two 2 month old babies, but it was fun!

-And then the craziness got started! Tyler got married, and Mandy and Casey with their 4 kids stayed at our apartment on Saturday night. Tyler was there as well. Monday everyone moved into Salt Lake to the hotel rooms, while Jordan and I had airport pick-up duties and went back and forth to Provo. The night before Tyler's wedding we crashed at the hotel with everyone, and then spent Wednesday at the temple and in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the reception. It was SO beautiful! I am so excited for Tyler and Audra (who made a beautiful bride)!

-Oh yeah, before the wedding we went and saw the lights at temple square. I was distracted with a crying baby most of the time, though, so I don't remember much.

Tonight, we're doing Christmas dinner with our friends, and I'm so excited. It really has been a fun holiday season. We've been able to do fun things, see family, spend time with friends, and listen to wonderful, Christmasy music. Merry Christmas everyone!

Caramel Recipe

Well, I love caramels. I like light caramels that have a more vanilla-y flavor. I like caramels that don't stick to your teeth, but that are really soft. Well, I'd never made caramels before, but I found this recipe and it worked out great! The first time I tried them I cooked them too long and they came out in one big long sheet of caramel hard candy. Tasted good, but we had to throw it away because we had no way to break it up into smaller candy pieces.

I tried it again, with alterations to the temperature with the elevation (apparently, for ever 500 feet above sea level, you're supposed to kick down the temperature 1 degree. That means here in Provo, everything is down a whole 9 degrees! Freaky!), and it turned out much better. I love the flavor and texture. So, without further ado, here's the recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tbs vanilla
  
• 2 cups light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar (I like to use baker's sugar, which is a lot finer and makes sure that it has a great texture, but you don't have to).
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter, cut into small cubes

Preparation:

1. Prepare a 9x9 pan for big caramels, or for more smaller ones use a 9X13 pan, lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a medium-large saucepan combine the corn syrup, water, and granulated sugar over medium-high heat. Stir the candy until the sugar dissolves, then use a wet pastry brush to wash down the sides of the pan to prevent sugar crystals from forming and making the candy grainy.

3. When the temperature of the corn syrup, water and sugar hit about 230, combine the cream, condensed milk, and vanilla in a small saucepan, and place the saucepan on a burner set to the lowest heat setting. You want the milk and cream to be warm, but do not allow it to boil. (I don't like it when a skin forms on top of this, so put off warming the milk and cream as long as possible. If I need it warmer faster because I misjudged the time, I just turn it to a higher heat and stir continuously. It needs to just be warm, so I dip a clean pinky in to make sure it's warmer than room temperature, that works pretty well. It certainly doesn't have to be scalding or anything).

4. Insert a candy thermometer and reduce the heat to medium. Allow the mixture to come to a boil and cook until the thermometer reads 250 degrees (for Utah, go to 245 - I know that's not 9 degrees under, but it's safe because it has worked for me! If you live in a different location, look up your elevation and adjust accordingly).

5. Add the softened butter chunks and the warm milk-cream mixture. The temperature should go down.

6. Continue to cook the caramel, stirring constantly so that the bottom does not scorch. Cook it until the thermometer reads 244 (in Utah, go to 235-236), and the caramel is a beautiful dark golden brown. (I like to check mine using the hard ball test: take some really, really cold water and drop a little bit of caramel in. Wait 10-15 seconds, and then feel it. It should hold it's form, but squish in your fingers under pressure. You can taste it, and it shouldn't be too stringy and shouldn't stick to your teeth. I found if I test it and it seems just under, go ahead and pour it in the pan because it will continue to go up a few degrees after pouring).

7. Remove the caramel from the heat and immediately pour it into the prepared pan. Do not scrape candy from the bottom of the saucepan. Allow the candy to sit overnight to set up and develop a smooth, silky texture. (I have to wait at least 24 hours, possibly because my caramels are a little softer).

8. When you are ready to cut the caramel, place a piece of waxed paper on the counter and lift the caramel from the pan using the foil as handles. Flip the top of the caramel onto the waxed paper and peel the foil layer from the bottom of the caramel.

9. Spray a large knife (or kitchen knife) with nonstick cooking spray. Firmly cut into the caramels, creating 1” squares. Wipe the blade and re-spray as necessary. I wrap them in clear plastic squares. There's fancy things you can do with wax paper too... I'm just lazy.

Our first Christmas alone...

So, I've been anxious about our first Christmas by ourselves. It does help that we have a baby now, but she's a little immobile and basically only gets excited about eating, not too much for presents and Christmas. However, during my long drive back from Missouri, I thought of lots of ways to make this Christmas special for Jordan and I! Here's a couple of my ideas:

-Listening to LOTS of Christmas music. One of our favorite methods is to live stream in 103.9 in Fairbanks, which plays all Christmas music, plus we can hear commercials from Fairbanks, which makes us feel at home. (Weird, I know). Also, on Pandora I can listen to all Jim Brickman-like piano Christmas music. AWESOME! Music, check

-Putting up our tree! I'm so happy I got one last year! It's nothing grand, but it is taller than Jordan and I, which is probably a weird request, but because it's taller than us it feels like a real Christmas tree.

-Lots of baking, warm stews, and egg nog. Yum. Just warm, yummy seasonal food to get us feeling Christmas-y.

-Decorating sugar cookies! We did this when I was a kid, and I LOVED it.

-Gingerbread houses! Last year discovered how useful melted sugar was to create cement hard houses...

-Some sort of service project...? Certainly delivering goodies to friends, but maybe going to an old folks home to sing Christmas songs? A 12-days of Christmas project to a friend? Ideas are welcome...

-Going to the BYU choirs Christmas concert. THis might be tricky, because we can't bring the baby, but we'll see what I can pull off... :)

-Watch It's a Wonderful Life and Elf. Maybe Harry Potter. We recently bought all the Lord of the Rings DVDs for a total of $6, so we plan on watching a marathon of those on Christmas Day.

-We already started, but listening to Chronicles of Narnia on CD. Particularily the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe felt nice and Christmas-y.

-Caroling! Or at least getting together to sing Christmas songs...

-Going to the temple. Also tricky with the baby, but I'm very committed to going sometime this Christmas season.

-Going to see the lights at temple square!

Anyone have any fun Christmas traditions they do at Christmastime to help Jordan and I get through our first season alone? I'm thinking about trying to bundle the activies in a "12-days before Christmas" thing. So, one night we'd decorate sugar cookies, another we'd watch It's a Wonderful Life, etc. Please comment if you have any cool ideas!

Missouri for Thanksgiving... again!

Things we did in Missouri:

-watch probably around 20 hours of football. Cried a little when Boise State lost. Cried even more when BYU barely lost the Utah game.

-Play tons of rounds of this awesome game of Time's up. It's like taboo and charades wrapped into one. My favorite moment:
(trying to guess who's on the card)
Ben: Um... oh, I don't know who this is... is he in Pretty Woman? No, I don't think he's in Pretty Woman...
Dad: Alec Baldwin!
Ben: Yes!

-Enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving feast! And Pie. Lots of pie.

-Showed off my beautiful baby girl.

-Talked and talked and talked. My sister-in-law Kelly, who has a baby girl three weeks younger than Clara, was in the basement with me, and even though we both knew we should sleep when our babies sleep, we couldn't help staying up way too late talking.

-Went Black Friday shopping with Jordan's mom! I wasn't going to go, but then as I was sitting around the house I realized I was a missing a great time, so I decided to go catch up with them!

-Played Dominion a ton.

-More talking.

-Eating DELICIOUS food.

But more important, we were able to spend quality time with our family. I enjoyed spending time with everyone, and I so hate it when I go. *sob*