A Sweet Evening

When Catherine picked me up at the bus station we had chores to do, none more important than picking up cream, butter and white corn syrup. The mystery of how to make caramels has been on her mind and she was ready to unravel the secrets of getting a pan of sweet caramels onto her counter. She assured me she had a heavy Teflon coat pan that would work, so late in the evening the magic ingredients listed above were added to two cups of sugar and we began to boil caramels.

“Is that all there is to it?”, she said. “No special technique.”?

“That’s all,” I answered. “The real trouble is having to wait until they cool before we can eat them. I wasn’t the only one who kept touch the pan to figure out when they were cool, but we didn’t get a chance to eat them until morning.

Now we have to practise making a pan every day to see what is the exact temperature at which they should come off of the stove. In Montreal we tried for just a breath above 250 degrees and we have a very soft caramel. I think we should find the exact temperature for medium and hard as well.

There is lots of cream and butter here. I am always in for I am in for science experiments.

To give some colour interest to the photo of the candy, I added the title of one of Catherine's parenting books.

She says it is the best parenting book she has ever read. It is not about fixing your kids, she says, it is about fixing yourself.

As well, she is having her paper published: "Retrospective Review of Prenatal Care and Perinatal Outcomes in a Group of Uninsured Pregnant Women". This will definitely not be the best article laymen have ever read.

But her mother loved it.

Catherine told me that when it is Thomas’s turn for family prayers in the morning, he usually prays that everyone will have a good time.

This morning he prayed that we will be able to make lots of candy while I am in Montreal with them.

I like it when prayers are specific.

I am going to bring the candy paddle to Montreal when I return in March.

Arta