Skip to main content

Candy is made, it's almost Christmas

Many years ago, there was a candy shop in Duluth, which was owned by my maternal great-grandfather. Though it has been closed for decades, the candy tradition has been passed down through the family. Every Christmas, we start churning out sweet treats by the pound, which is what I was busy doing this weekend.


My sister and I happened to have the same weekend free — anyone else have totally insane December schedule this year?! — and we enjoyed spending the time with our mom. We all use the same core recipes: English toffee, caramel, and chocolate covered cherries, but over time we've each developed our own twist. Mine is sea salt toffee with dark chocolate. My sister likes to add turtles to her selection, and my brother's family has ventured into the white chocolate territory. Last year, my mom found the old family recipe for butterscotch, which was pretty good. I would not be sad if those became a regular feature!

You're probably wondering if I'm going to share some candy recipes in this post. Nope! They're a family secret, but if I see you over Christmas, you're welcome to some toffee… as long as it holds out.



Making candy didn't leave much time for anything else, but I did get my nasty knitting project done. It only cost me another interchangeable cable and carpal tunnel. Just kidding. I hope. While the needle did break, I'm thinking any damage to me is temporary. The project turned out well, though, and I'm looking forward to showing you after Christmas. The pattern was one I've been wanting to make for a while, so it feels good to get it out of my system.

Just a few for things to finish up, and I will be ready for Christmas!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Evergreen asymmetry

This is a chart I've been meaning to get to for a while. The Christmas before last, I was making a whole bunch of Christmas ornament gift toppers . I wanted each to be unique, so some of the miniature sweaters were adorned with duplicate stitch in traditional knit motifs. I hit a snag with the tree. A row of perfect triangle trees is cute. A single triangle tree is not so cute. A chart for a small tree is not hard to find. One which is not symmetrical is. Enter the sketch pad. My goal was a scraggly tree, which was small, but was still recognizable as a tree. This is the result. As a matter of personal preference, I think this looks best when the chart is turned upside down and is used on a piece being worked from the top. That way, the top of the tree comes to a nice point.

Little bits of cozy

As snow settles in, I find joy in the small things that make life a little bit more cozy and sweet, two of which I'd like to share. The first is a recipe for an almost instant brownie. Spoiler alert: I knit these stocking ornaments as gift toppers this year. But even if you weren't on my gift list, you won't be left out. The pattern is now available for all, free on ravelry. I used to keep my cupboard stocked with microwavable, mini brownie bowls, for emergencies, but lately they've been hard to find. There was a packet of instant hot chocolate on the counter which gave me an idea. What if I could just make a brownie with that? A quick google search revealed several recipes for almost-instant, single serving brownies. All were basically the same: flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, oil, water and vanilla; all with similar proportions of each. I figured instant hot chocolate was basically the sugar and cocoa pre-mixed. Another quick google search proved my hypothesis p...

Exciting developments

At deer camp, Uncle Mark observed I really need to get back to blogging. He's right! It's been far too long, and there is so much to share. The delay can be partly attributed to my desire to have a video with each blog, which ended up taking much more time than initially anticipated, time I just don't have — but more on that later. Also, my phone storage is full again. In the past, that was solved by using google to back up my photos so they could be deleted, but now my google storage is full, too. I take a lot of photos! Why don't we get to the goodies right away? I have a pattern to share with you! This little fox is incredibly simple to make, and the results are just too cute. It's a basic chevron stitch and whips up in no time. The full pattern is available for free as a ravelry download . The fox design and my lack of time are actually very much related. The story started a couple years ago when my Auntie Becky met a lady named, Lois. Lois had alpacas, a...