100 Grand Truffles

As promised the recipe for the 100 Grand Truffles complete with pictures.

Don't they look delicious? Believe me, they are. I'm the one who took the bite, snapped the picture, and then quickly devoured the rest of the square.

Caramel

• 1 ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 2/3 cup white sugar
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 ¼ cup heavy cream
• ¾ cup whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat; stirring occasionally until candy thermometer reads “soft ball” or when you drip a glob of candy in cold water and it doesn't dissolve in the water
2. Line container (size dependent on desired thickness) with parchment paper and cooking spray
3. Pour into tray and let cool completely
4. Spray knife with cooking spray and cut caramels
5. Dip in chocolate, sprinkle with coarse salt (optional), and serve.

OR

1. Pour prepared caramel (as above) over a layer of Rice Crispies on the parchment paper (2 cups Rice Crispies)
2. Let cool, cut with a prepared knife, and dip in chocolate.

An update from yesterday:

The Grumpybutt didn't throw the hysterics at being dressed up like I thought he would. He wasn't happy but he was easily distracted and then completely forgot he was wearing something he didn't like. After the pictures, however, when I asked him if he wanted to change his clothes, he didn't dignify me with a response and started stripping right there in the lobby of Picture People. So Day 3 of Spring Break wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

As to what we're up to on Day 4: We're all still in our jammies (yes, it's 12:15. what's your point?) and I'm getting ready to make lunch. I've been busy though you wouldn't know it by my slothful appearance. So far I've dipped all 46 squares of caramel into chocolate, hard boiled 24 eggs so we can dye them for the Easter Bunny, did some webdesign coding for my day job, and 3 loads of laundry. Yes, I lead a glamorous life. I know you're all green with envy. Who wouldn't be?

At some point I'll get in the shower...

Maybe.

Day 3 of Spring Break

I'm a glutton for punishment.

Yesterday I took the kids to get haircuts. Now you wouldn't think this is a big deal and for 4ft it isn't -- he loves LOVES to get his hair cut. The Grumpybutt does not and to say he hates it isn't a strong enough word to describe the loathing he has for the whole process. I even pay more to take them to a kid specialty salon and still he acts like every strand of hair that is cut is a painful and personal affront to his person.

He goes limp. He screams. He cries. He whimpers. And the whole time he tries to burrow into me as I try to keep the hair from getting in his mouth while murmuring words of encouragement and trying not to show how embarrassed I am that he's acting like the hair stylist is cutting him.

I swore the last time I'd never do it again without the Husband there to stand with him while I pretended he was someone else's child. (Does that make me a bad person? Oh well.) It's exhausting to get his hair done. But there I found myself, alone, with three kids, walking into the hair salon.

Fun times. Never again. I know I've said it before but I mean it this time.

Now today against my better judgement I'm taking all three kids, by myself (I'm hoping my mom descends upon me like an avenging angel and goes with me) to get an Easter picture done. Again, 4ft I'm not worried about. He canNOT wait to get on his little Easter suit (that he insisted on getting, don't look at me like that) and cheese for the camera. The Snugglebear will look adorable in her Easter finest and say nary a word (since she can't talk) and will easily get her picture taken (I hope). However, in a fit of madness I got the Grumpybutt a matching Easter suit which I shall be wrestling onto his protesting person and pray to the gods of photography that I get at least ONE picture where his demon nature isn't showing.

What was I thinking?

Fell On Dark Days

Could we have a moment of silence please... *sob*

I'm in mourning. I've heard terrible tragedies happen in threes and to this I can attest. What did I do to have such horrors visited upon me? I'm nice, okay not so much. I'm a good person, well good enough anyway. I've a kind word for everyone, well maybe that's a downright lie. But still I didn't deserve this. No one does!

Tragedy #1

I was melting chocolate last night to dip my caramel rice krispy balls in. I have two, yes two, Wilton chocolate melters but did I use them last night? No. For big jobs I use the double boiler method. So I had my saucepan gently boiling with one of my favorite heavy glass mixing bolls set on it and I was stirring my nearly perfectly melted satiny chocolate when...

CRACK!!!

My bowl broke. *sob* One of my favorite mixing bowls has gone to the great bowl home in the sky. And to add insult to injury the steam from the pan seeped through the cracks and completely ruined my chocolate. Seized it and turned it from silk to paste in seconds.

Tragedy #2

IT WAS MY LAST BAG OF CHOCOLATE! So I don't have any finished 100 Grand Truffles to show you because they're NOT DONE! Oh the heartbreak.

Tragedy #3

Last night was Horrible Movie Night Monday. Well my friends, I'm also mourning the hour and a half of my life I will never get back. We watched John Carpenter's "They Live". Three words: Rowdy. Roddy. Piper. Can I get an amen from the 80's wrestling fans out there?

With a tagline of: "A drifter discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to wake up to the fact that aliens have taken over the Earth." and that the same guy did "The Thing" how could we go wrong? Oh man, I think last weeks gem "Double Dragon" was BETTER if you can believe that.

Let me share some of my pain:

Nada (yes Rowdy Roddy Piper's name in the movie was Nada): Life's a bitch...and she's back in heat.

Nada: You see, I take these glasses off, she looks like a regular person, doesn't she? Put 'em back on... (puts them on) Formaldehyde-face!

Nada: (after disarming a human cop) Beat yer feet.

Nada: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.

The first half of the movie Rowdy Roddy barely talks and when he starts talking you understand why. The man cannot deliver a line to save his life and his acting isn't much better. The first 1/2 hour of the movie is him wandering around a city. The best part of the movie was when Meg Foster (a woman he kidnaps and she drives him to her HOME) hits Rowdy in the back of the head with a wine bottle breaking it on his dome and then pushing him through a closed sliding glass door window with enough force for him to break through it. Then watching him careen down the side of a mountain and get up with barely a scratch and stumble (unconvincingly, I might add) away.

This movie could've been condensed into a half an hour and not lost any of it's cheese, horridness, or story. But it did it's job and kept the horrible streak going for our Monday night entertainment. So I guess I should be thankful.

I'm buying more chocolate today. Hopefully barring any other disasters I will have pictures to post with the recipe tomorrow.

Spring Cleaning

Wow, it's dusty on here. *cough sputter hack* Welcome to the Grand Re-Opening. Yeah I know there are no balloons, face painting, or even coupons. I'm cheap. What can I say?

Welcome back.

Today is the first day of Spring Break and to kick off the vacation 4ft requested a pajama day. To which I responded with an exuberant resounding hells to the yeah.

4ft watching Wolverine and the X-Men on his 3DS and The Grumpybutt watching Yo Gabba Gabba on "the big TV".

I also took advantage of a relaxing day and made my own version of a 100 Grand candy bar. I got the idea from The Restless Chipotle and then tweaked it to make it my own. Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures along with the recipe.

Well I have to bounce and start dinner for my ultra-picky family. Tonight's meal is: Spaghetti and Meatballs. 4ft won't eat meat sauce anymore since he horked up an overindulgence of spaghetti a couple of years ago and the Grumpybutt won't eat spaghetti without meat. So 4ft gives his meatballs to the Grumpybutt and everyone's happy... Well except for the Husband who likes the old way better. Can you tell where he rates on the totem pole?

Huzzah! Finally!

Can you believe it? In a fit of clarity or exhausted delirium I FINALLY remembered my password to this dang thing.

Yes, that's right. I've been silent all this time because I couldn't get into it and I didn't want to fess up to forgetting the login/password combination. I've tried so many different combinations of so many things I'm pretty sure Blogger thinks I'm a bot. When I pull up the sign in screen I automatically get the word verification thingy. However I have Queen's "We Are the Champions" playing in my head and Blogger can suck it: I REMEMBERED!

That's it for now. I'll be back with something witty and life altering later. Okay so only one out of three of those is accurate. In the immortal words of the Terminator, "I'll be back."

(yeah I wrote the password down -- I've got no faith in my memory these days)