Caramel Corn

Make a bunch of popcorn.. air popped.. microwave wont work for this. I do three Big bowls.. it will all depend on how coated you want your popcorn.

Bring to a soft boil. (6 minutes)

2 sticks of butter... I use salted so I do not add salt later
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
2 cups brown sugar

after soft boil stage is reached
mix in 1 tsp of baking soda (will get fluffy. Kids used to think I was tricky)

Pour it over the popcorn and mix.( I like to mix small batches at a time ) Be sure to mix it a lot..get all of it coated.... if you want to add peanuts or walnuts or any nuts.. or pretzels or anything else.. I have found that adding it while mixing is the best time. (did learn that adding chocolate chunks needs to wait until after the oven stage... otherwise there are no chunks left) Spread it out on a cookie sheet and bake for an hour in a 200 degree oven.. mixing a couple of times.

I love this recipe.. it is so easy and quick (minus the hour baking time) and clean up is easy.... and everyone loves it!!

Mom Revenge

Today was my daughters one month check up since she had mono... she has been feeling pretty good.. still gets a little tired if she does too much but other than that I thought she was doing good. Turns out her tummy (spleen) is still a bit tender and swollen.. so doctor ordered blood work and ultra sound. Appointment is tomorrow early in the morning.. had hoped to do it today while we were out but she had already eaten and that is a no no. Turns out daughter has not been as up front with me as I would have liked.. and that her spleen has been hurting sometimes when she does too much... When she got abit upset that the doctor kept poking her in the places that she said hurt... as all doctors do... that the reason was because she had not been honest with me... she nodded and said with a sigh... ohhh mom revenge.


**update 11-10-09**

Today we went in and Missy got her ultra sound on her tummy.. they do the whole area.. all of her "guts" it was cool watching but it was a little painful for to have them pushing on her when she was sore and she hated the goo they squirt on there... now tonight she is really hurting.. I am hoping it is because they poked and pushed on it today and the doctor did yesterday... we are watching her close.. no fever and the area is not hot... I may end up taking her into the er to get it checked.. but then that means they will be poking on it some more and if it is only tender due to the poking then we will end up with it even more sore... the mommy in me is not very happy with doctors right now.. poking on what they know already hurts.. I understand it but it is not fair.

walking on the beach

walking on the beach
Originally uploaded by glass_identities

Today the neighbor called me up and said.. "put your shoes on lets go for a walk" so off we went with her cute little dog for a walk on the beach. We found lots of shells and cool rocks and some sea glass too. Clicking on the photo will take you to my flickr where there are more photos of our walk :)

Happy Halloween

Today was wonderful... lazy... restful.. peaceful.. and just great. I did not make anything spooky for dinner... in fact we did not even have dinner yet ( 9 pm ) and I think we will be skipping it since we had a late lunch. We slept in late and then spent the day cleaning... turned on some good tunes and got to work....... all of the stuff that we brought home from my MIL's has now been sorted and put away. All the floors were cleaned and the kitchen got a good going through.. the kind where everything comes off the counter and gets cleaned good. Daughter and I were just going to clean up a little and one thing led to another and things that had been piling up or getting pushed aside have now been put away or thrown out. While we were out working in the kitchen and living room it turns out Dave was back in the bedroom getting the master bath all cleaned up and the bedroom cleaned up. He also got my new computer all loaded up with windows 7 and some other things... tomorrow I need to get the new office for it and a couple of other things and then hopefully by tomorrow night I will be working on the new system. We did end up putting up a few decorations in the yard for halloween... some pumpkin lights and strobe lights that make a witchy scream... we went through a 4 lb bag of candy... most of it was even given to trick or treaters. I have to say... I really want to start to decorating for christmas... but am going to try so hard to wait until after thanksgiving...am going to try to stick to the fall theme until then. lol I already know I am not going to make it. When do you decorate for christmas? Start listening to christmas music? Have all your shopping done?

Gross Halloween Dinner Idea

*photo from www.notmarth.org* click there for more of the ideas on that site. Click here for the recipe and how to for the hand.

I was stumbling around today online and came across this great idea for dinner on Halloween night. I am going to let my daughter invite her boyfriend over to hang out on Saturday and watch scary movies and pass out candy to the neighborhood kids...was thinking we would just get a couple of pizzas but am now thinking I might make a scary gross dinner for them... think I am going to try making them individual size so that I can dish up a plate for each of them and then serve them up.

pictures of mine to follow in an update after I have tried this.

*update 10/13/10* I did not end up making this last year... but... I am once again going to try to plan to make it this year :)