English Toffee -- tradition!

Every year at this time I make up a batch of English Toffee -- American style ... So yesterday I pulled out the recipe to make sure I had everything.  The recipe is printed out from an email message dated December 24th, 2000 ... from my lovely friend Steph Winn.  She said it was all right for me to share with you all so here it is.  I gotta tell you, family and friends and co-workers of all of the above look forward to seeing the tins come their way!


Hope you enjoy it as much as we all do!!

1 pound of butter
2 cups of sugar
5 tablespoons of water

Put this all in a good sized pot and bring to a boil.  Now, you can be precise and use a candy thermometer to the "hard crack" stage, or you can do what we do and just keep stirring until it's the color of a brown paper bag.  I like to make it to a medium brown paper bag ... the darker it is the crackier it is ... is that a word? lol!!

Pour this boiling mix onto a buttered sheet -- I use a jelly-roll pan which is about 13 x 15 inches ... I don't like it too thick ... or too thin!  Spread the toffee out so it's about even in the pan, but you might get some thicker pieces or thinner pieces ... but it is all good!!

Be careful ... nothing hotter than boiling sugar!!

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top, and spread them as they melt on the toffee.  And before the chocolate sets, sprinkle with some sliced almonds. (I did find some dark chocolate chips this year that I want to try!)

When everything has set and cooled, start breaking the toffee into pieces.  Don't bother trying to cut it ... won't happen!

Thanks, Steph for 12 years o toffee!!

Linda

End of the year??

Good grief, Charlie Brown!!  Only a couple of weeks til we sing Auld Lang Syne ... but before that there is some bustling going on in this Florida house!!  Having family come for Christmas got us all inspired to decorate ... but first we have had to move lots of stuff around :)  BUT it feels like we are finally moving into this house lol!!!

Lots of doings over the next two weeks ... and I want to share our fun!

Did I Sleep Through June?

Came over to play a bit with my blogs and realized that the month of June was almost over!  And here I was trying to be better about updating my blog!  Well, part of the month was spent preparing for a trip, then the trip, and now recovering from jet lag!

It's been pouring rain today in my sunny little corner of the world ... better find out how to let water out of the pool in case it gets too high!  It was a good day to kick back, read a book, and take a nap.  So I did all three!

Going to do a little updating and will be back to tell you all about the trip Sophie and I had!

Just Fussing!

Do you ever feel so overwhelmed you want to tuck yourself in bed covered up with a cozy quilt and wish for little elves?  Okay then, could you send over those little elves for a while?

I think our whirlwind tour will be more relaxing than this week! lol!  I'm pretty tired of hurting in someplace or in several places -- it sure zaps the energy!  Still working on trip planning ... packed a "test" suitcase yesterday and it was light enough (yeah) but not everything fit! lol!!  So it's off to buy just a little larger bag -- really!! just a bit bigger!!

Walking around with a notebook because my mind sure isn't holding on to what I need/want to do!  Discovered that I put the wrong phone number on our business cards so have to reorder those :(  Fortunately I only gave out one lol!!

I think I'll just go take a bubble bath and deliver Midge to Play School and take one hour at a time today -- or even a half hour!!

Wishing you all a serene day!!

Traveling Clothes!

Sophie and I headed off to Macy's this evening for "a few incidentals" ... oh wow!  Can we shop or what? lol!!  Two of her new Europe outfits!  She is planning to wear the lovely dress to our Wizard of Oz theater engagement in London :)  Her capris willl probably go on the Harry Potter walking tour!

Big Adventure for Me and Sophie!

Didn't realize that making travel plans could be so tiring! lol!! Spent most of the past eight hours planning and booking our trip to Europe which starts in just three weeks!!!

We're off to London on June 5, arriving about noon on the 6th.  We'll be going to the theater that evening to see The Wizard of Oz!!  The next two days we'll be great London tourists and hopefully meet up for tea with our quilting friends.  The last time they saw Sophie she was only 4!!

Then we're off to Paris Saturday morning on Eurostar, of course!  We have the weekend to explore the hot things on our wish lists before we catch a train to Stuttgart, Germany, to visit Darby and family.  Unfortunately we will be there just a few days before nephew Joe arrives from Washington, DC, so we'll have to plan another trip!  Another quilting friend is in Stuttgart and I hope we can meet up for lunch or coffee or something!

Whew! are you tired yet? hehe Well we gotta keep going!!

On Thursday we head off by train to Venice, Italy, which is the beginning of our week-long whirlwind tour of Italian delights -- oh bliss, all the real cappuccino I can drink!  Then it's an overnight train back to Paris, a quick hop back to London and on our way home.

Can't wait!!

So ... watz de udder guy look like??

I must admit that the past 10 days or so have taken a toll on this ole body of mine!  Back in February I took a tumble down a flight of stairs, and though the docs did some exrays, they neglected the left hand ... turns out (after finally realizing it wasn't going to get better) that I had pretty well destroyed the ligament for the thumb so last week they reinforced it and rebuilt it using a tendon from my wrist. 

Not too bad, but prickly at best.  Yesterday they had to reset the thumb :(  and I'm now sporting a lovely purple cast for another week or two.  All in all they tell me I thumb will be imprisoned for about six weeks :(

Then the dermatologist got involved with my nose where I suspected a new cancer had emerged.  He biopsied it and verified it we another surgery was scheduled.  Interesting procedure!  Unfortunately they had to remove enough layers of my nose that some reconstruction was needed and they did that on Thursday.  In addition to the black eyes, these bandages are just not fashionable!  And after hitting my nose with my new cast Friday night, nothing feels very good right now :)

And in the midst of trying to do some pain management and get some sleep, Midge needed to make a 4:30 a.m. potty run.  She ran so fast she fell in the pool lol!!  And here I am one-armed, half blind, drugged, middle of the night, trying to get her out lol!!  She did her thing but when I tried to get her in a towel to dry off she really thought this was a great play time!!  Only one of us was amused .