caramel delight

Halloween Party tonight! Or, should I say...Harvest Celebration! My personal opinion it doesn't really matter either way. I am no closer to worshipping Satan than I am to harvesting anything. But to each his own. Either way, October 31 is a great excuse to hang out with people!

I bought some apple juice and will use last year's Trader Joe's mulling spices to kick things up a notch. But the real excitement is the caramel sauce! I know, my life has become so, so small... :)

Okay, so I've never made candy before. Always looked like a real pain. But today is Charlie sick and asleep in bed, unfortunately unable to entertain me, so it seemed like a good chance to try something new and potentially messy.

Here's how my first attempt turned out. I won't tell you the source of the recipe because I'm sure it's not her fault. I only had a meat thermometer that went up to 220 degrees. I just had to guess when to pull it off the heat. And apparently you're not supposed to scrape the sugar into the pan that got stuck on the sides? But I did. It was bothering me. Okay, anyway... here's what not to do:

Looks like barf. Might still taste good though... hmm...

And then I thought of my newest favorite blog, and she did not fail me! Pioneer Woman, thank you for a caramel sauce recipe that is truly easy, delicious, and seems like cheating but who cares.

The result:

Well, the picture's not very good, but I will tell you I have literally been back to the kitchen three separate times now to try to lick a little more out of the pan. So, so tasty. It will be perfect on top of cider and whipped cream!

Happy October 31!