Tuesday, December 22, 2009

antepenultimate

On the antepenultimate (had to look it up, but what a nice mouthful of a word!) day before Christmas, the gifts required for joy:

Eight eighth grade teachers*;
Five paper/delivery/mailmen;
Four fifth grade teachers;
Three schoolbus drivers;
Two afterschool teachers;
And one secret santa gift for a boy.

In case you’re wondering about all those teacher gifts, we my LSH made several batches of cashew brittle. Here’s the recipe in case you need a few last minute gifts of your own!

2 C sugar
1 C light (but not Lite! there is a difference) Karo syrup
1/4 C water
3 T butter
1 lb peanuts or raw cashews
1/4 t salt if using raw unsalted cashews
2 t baking soda
1 t vanilla

Mix sugar, syrup and water; cook to 285 degrees over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in nuts and butter (and salt). Cook until 295 degrees stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and baking soda. Mix well; mixture will foam. Spread quickly on well-buttered marble slab to cool. (The last step is best accomplished with one person holding the hot pan and the other one scraping out the candy and spreading it.)

DSCN1917

Pre- and post-breakup

* Yeah, yeah, I know. There's no need to drive myself crazy with gifts for teachers in eighth grade. Except I have two more coming up behind him, and each one is more ornery than the last. Never too early for the teacher bribing goodwill toward younger brothers to begin!

2 comments:

  1. Way to go, Kris! Teacher "kindness" never hurt! And thanks for the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MMMMMMM! Thanks and Merry Christmas to you all.
    Hope to come up next Wednesday with a couple of friends to WoolBearers and lunch at Robins Nest.
    Any chance of you sneaking out?
    Hugs.
    sjwool37@yahoo.com if you want to contact me
    Hugs

    ReplyDelete