Candy Apples!!!!

Yesterday I really don't know what came over me but I decided that we needed to lighten up the mood a bit at our house. We have had a rough few weeks and I just needed to reconnect with what is important to me - my kids! While I couldn't talk the boys into participating (or should I say that I could not compete with a movie that they had just checked out of the library), the girls were ready!!! Boy were they ready!!! Last week Em's eagle eye spotted a candy apple making kit. The same candy apple making kit that my Mom used to buy when I was little!



Now while I used to cook for (barely) a living, I was never a candy maker so when I saw that you actually had to make the candy syrup with a candy thermometer and everything, I panicked!! I don't know what I was thinking? Maybe just put the convenient candy pouch in the microwave, push a few buttons and viola, instant candy syrup! I wish!! I could handle putting the sticks in the apples and dipping them in the candy syrup, but boiling the concoction to the perfect stage of brittleness was just too much!!! Well, after seeing the anticipation (drool) in my girls' faces, I decided to bravely forge ahead! The girls and I got out all of our ingredients and discovered that we didn't have enough sugar - ugh!! After a short detour to the convenience store we had sugar!! As we were assembling our masterpiece, I discovered that I didn't have a candy thermometer!! OK, is someone trying to tell me something??? Hehe!! Then all of a sudden I remembered! Water!! I remember my Mom testing the syrup by dropping some into a class of water and if it was brittle, it was ready!! Whoo Hoo!! I can't even remember my kids' names most days so this was a major feat!! So on we go armed with a class of water, now! We mixed and boiled and prepared our apples and waited - impatiently.





We wait!!


Very impatiently!




After a VERY long 10 minutes, we tested and sure enough, we got brittle!!! Wow!!



Then the fun part, we dipped our apples into the red, sugery, ooey, gooey, sticky goodness and then we waited - again!!




I don't think I have ever seen Lizzie eat dinner so fast. She could not wait to sink her teeth into those candy apples. As it turned out the only brave souls were the girls and their "Bubba" but boy did they enjoy those apples.





I felt good because I had spent some quality time with my girls, Lizzie was actually eating an apple and her mouth muscles were getting a great work out with that hard, sticky candy coating (an OT dream) and for a little while the sadness of the past few weeks were forgotten!! It was a good day!