Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Escape

How many people out there enjoy reading? 
I sure do. 
I love to escape into another world, 
that is much different 
from the one that I am living in. 

A little while ago I read a book, 
that I absolutely loved. 
It is called "The Book Thief"by Markus Zusak.





It is set at the time right before, and during WWII
in Nazi Germany. 
It is about a little girl who is sent to live 
with foster parents,
who manages to escape death
three times. 
The foster family is German, but is the
type of German family that 
only does what they have 
to do to follow the Nazi ways. 
They don't believe in the 
Germans being the 
"one true, and pure race."
They help the Jews, and those who are 
hiding from the police. 

One thing that I found extremely interesting was
that it was told from the point of view of Death 
(ya know, the Grim Reaper)
Some of the passages in this book 
were amazingly beautiful and 
extremely disturbing at the same time. 
The way the author described 
the sky during 
different parts of the story was
simply amazing. 

Read this book! 
You won't regret it!
I know you won't


Have you read a book that you are 
sure to remember for a long time to come? 
What is it? 
Please share! 
I'm in need of another amazing story!


Monday, January 14, 2013

Caramels

This year, i got a recipe for  the most delicious caramels
from a lady in my neighborhood. 
They were super easy to make, especially for 
someone who has never had candy making experience before. 
A lot of people have asked for 
the recipe. 

So I decided to share!

Caramels

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup Dark Karo Syrup
  • 2 Squares Butter
  • 2 cups Heavy whipping cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
Combine sugar, karo, butter and 1 cup cream. Stir and bring to a fast boil for about 5 minutes. Add another cup of cream, slowly, one tbs at a time stirring in between. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until it reached *soft ball stage. Add Vanilla. Pour in buttered 8x8 inch metal pan. Cool in refrigerator. When cold, go around edges of candy with a sharp knife. Turn upside down (hard) until candy falls out. Cut into strips and then into pieces. Wrap in wax paper and enjoy!


*Soft ball stage- after the caramel has been boiling for awhile and you can feel it start to thicken, but it in a bowl of cold water (to cool it down) and you can roll it into a ball and it will kind of hold the form. 
You don't want to cook it too long, or it won't be soft chewy caramel!



If you have any questions feel free to email me! 
If you liked it, let me know by commenting and leaving some love!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

sugar cinnamon almonds

so i'm finally getting around to doing a 
pinterest review. 

the first item up come from detrimental beauty and is a recipe for 

crock pot sugar cinnamon almonds. 
the original link came from 

here.


here is the recipe:
1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1 1/2 C Sugar
3 Tbsp. Cinnamon
1/8 tsp. Salt
1 Egg White
2 tsp. vanilla
3 Cups Almonds
1/4 C water
In a medium sized bowl, mix together sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. In another medium sized bowl, whisk the egg white and vanilla until it’s a little frothy. Add almonds. Make sure the almonds are thoroughly coated in the egg white mixture. Add cinnamon mixture to the almonds and toss until coated.
Thoroughly spray with Pam, or whatever, the stoneware of your large crock pot. Add the divine mixture of almonds and sugars to the crock pot and turn it to low.
Cook ( with the lid on) 3-4 hours stirring every 20 minutes (I only did 3 hours). In the last hour, add the 1/4 C. of water and stir well. This ensures a crunchy yummy coating. (*make sure after you’ve added the water that you continue to cook the nuts for another 45min to an hour.)
You have to stir really well, especially as it gets later in the cooking process.
Line a baking sheet with parchment and spread the almonds flat to cool. The almonds will be sticky at this point, so make sure you separate them a little and have no large mounds.


here is a picture of my finished product. 


i am giving it an A+ rating. 
these are so incredibly delicious!

i made them to give out as neighbor christmas gifts.
i did make one little change to the recipe, i just added a few more 
almonds to the mixture, because there seemed to be a whole lot
of leftover sugar, and i was giving quite a bit out so it worked out better 
that way for me. 

thanks again to detrimental beauty for the absolutely delicious almonds!


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2013

at the beginning of every year, it is customary to write "resolutions"
things you want to change about yourself. most of these consist of 
"go to the gym" "quit drinking soda," you know the usual. i don't love
all the cliche resolutions because, at least for me, it is not doable. 

so these are my goals for the beginning of a new year.  
not really things that i want to change about myself, but things i hope
to expound on to make myself a better wife, mother, friend, and person. 


2013

i hope to become a more
patient person. 
to teach love and 
understanding to my 
children. 

read to my children 
each night. 
spend more time
as a family, 
and less time with 
electronics. 


become more spiritual.
be more
genuine and
 loving to all 
those around me. 


what do you hope to do with the new year?