Sea Salt Caramels - Take One

I finally found time last night to get back to my candy making adventures and settled on some Sea Salt Caramels. My aunt Tia makes really great caramels and brings them to my grandparents house almost every Christmas-I knew it would be tough to top hers, but I gave it a shot.


Not that I'm making excuses for how these turned out...but I am. I don't have the nicest stovetop (it's settings are high and off), I don't have the nicest pans (thrift store purchase!), I only have two hands, and I apparantly forgot to go grocery shopping this month (it's like I was on a diet or something...) 


Okay, so maybe I just wasn't as prepared as I needed to be for this recipe... Whatever the reason, these didn't turn out perfectly on the first try.


Here's kind of how to process went:


1. Wednesday: Went to grocery store to get supplies. Got home, didn't have evaporated milk. Didn't want to go back to store, so I went to bed.


2. Thursday: Went to grocery store, got a can of evaporated milk, didn't have any cash so I used my credit card for a $1.05 purchase.

3. Got home, started mixing supplies together, put on stove. Realized I didn't have any vanilla extract. Found some rum instead. :) Problem averted.

4. Try to prep pan with wax paper. Find a 5 inch piece left in on the roll. :( Mixture starts boiling out of my largest pan.

5. Try to pour some mixture out onto cooling pan. Works for about 20 seconds, then starts boiling over again. Find another smaller saucepan and split the mixture into two pans. 

6. Realize that I can't monitor the temperature of each and stir each constantly with only two hands. Pot #2 starts scorching (which is why you need to constantly stir)


7. Realize that my cooling pan is now covered in watery, not-yet caramely liquid. Quick wash the pan and re-spray with pam while the caramel scorches some more.


8. Drop the candy thermometer into the caramel, making it impossible to read or fetch out without burning my fingers.


9. Give up. Pour out both saucepans into the cooling pan. Set scorched pans aside.

10. Try to find something to mix with my rum for a nightcap drink. All we have is milk and water. Find a bottle of wine. Pour a glass. 

Yummy "Pasque" wine made right here in
Vermillion at Valient Vineyards.

11. Notice the kitchen filling with smoke from the scorched, unwashed pans. Do the dishes. Enjoy more wine.


12. Realize I forgot to add the sea salt to my sea salt caramels. I grind some on the top while it's already in the cooling pan. Good enough.

11. Friday morning: Caramel still sitting in cooling pan in the kitchen. It's probably going to stay there for awhile...


All in all, the taste of the caramel didn't turn out too bad, just didn't quite get the texture or the color. I won't post the recipe on here until I get it right, but don't worry, I'm hoping to give this one another shot this weekend as I'm headed home to visit my parents. That way I can make a mess of my mom's kitchen and possibly enlist my aunt Tia's help. I'll keep ya posted on the results :)

Candy Diet - Day 7

It's finally Day 7 of eating only candy for a week!


Breakfast started with my chocolate covered fruits. These have been good to me during this diet--making me at least feel like I'm getting some fruit (when in all actuality it's nutritional value is about that of a gummy fruit snack). They are pretty tasty though, and it's neat how they color the chocolate according to the color of fruit for easy identification: blue:blueberries, orange: apricots, red: cherries, white: strawberries.

My lunch consisted of a GIANT roll of Smarties, and a TINY bottle of Dr. Pepper (jelly beans that is). Candy companies have been playing with the scale of foods for may years. There's just something about life-size things that are made into minis that makes me smile. Check out my Strawberry Gentleman post for more miniature-ized candies.

Interesting play on scale

This might give you a better idea of the
size of these GIANT Smartees

I was jiving with the mini-movement, so I continued it for supper. How appetizing does a hot dog, a hamburger, and some fish sound right now?? Pretty darn good to someone on a diet! So I ate it. It's okay though because it was candy ;)

Delicious 3-course meal 

Doesn't look as filling in full view!
I supplemented with about 20 more Swedish Fish to make up for it :)

Dessert was a Nik-L-Nip mini drink. These wax bottles are filled with sweet juice. I've never understood why people like these... Maybe it's a texture thing (I've never really been sure if I'm supposed to chew and eat the wax or spit it out) but I could only make it through one "bottle" of my five-pack. So if anyone DOES like these and would like to come over and claim the remaining four-you are more than welcome!!

I don't know who else sells bottles in 5 "paks" instead of 6...
maybe it's a new thing.

My leftovers...wax is NOT candy! Don't eat it!

Of course today, and throughout my whole diet I had little munching candies stashed everywhere in my house, car, purse, work, etc for when the hunger cravings hit me. Who am I kidding..I always have that! Overall though, this candy only diet ended up being a lot easier than I first expected, and the fact that I lost almost 7 lbs in one week makes this diet just as legit as any other gimmick out there. I'll admit that this is the first time in my life that I have actually stuck to a "diet" for more than one or two days. It sucks. I've always been in the mindset that in life you should never deprive yourself of things that make you happy--just make sure to enjoy in moderation. 


Tonight of course, I will forget that moderation rule and stuff my face with pasta!


Here are my final results for the Candy Only Diet


Weight Change: -2 lbs (Total: -6.6 lbs!!)
Hunger: 5
Candy Love: 9

Candy Diet - Day 6

I've been eating candy for almost a week straight now, and as you can imagine, I've been dreaming of meat. Protein. Bacon? 

Yesterday at the candy store, I found a chocolate bar with bacon in it. For real! A chocolate bar with bits of bacon in it. The back of the package said to enjoy it with all senses, and I can see/smell/taste/hear why. It looked like bacon, smelled like bacon, sounded crunchy like bacon, felt like bacon, and of course, it tasted like bacon. Was it good?? I'm still not sure... I've never been a huge bacon fan, but it seems to be all the craze lately so the candy industry just hopped right on that bandwagon huh?

Bacon+Chocolate=Candy?? Still not sure...

My candy eating days have all kind of run into each other, but if I recall correctly my lunch included some Raisinettes, Kit Kats, and Gummy Worms that I had in my candy drawer at work. Yes, I have a candy drawer at work, and yes I work in a dental clinic. It makes my teeth happy :)


And since I do work at a dental clinic, I had a good snack today: a sugar-free lollipop! We actually have these in the office to give out to kids, so dentist's DO approve of candy!!

Kelso-Tested, Dentist-Approved

Since I work late on Tuesdays, my supper was about the same as my my lunch, except when I got home, I took a quick smoke break.

Just kidding! It's candy cigarettes silly!! :) (I was trying to look "cool" like smokers do...I'd better just stick to candy)

"Just Like Dad" Candy Cigarettes
Although my dad is not a smoker....thanks Dad!!

Day 6 Candy Diet Results


Weight Change: -.4 lbs (Total: -4.6 lbs)
Hunger Level: 5
Candy Love: 9.9


At this point in the diet, I have my first meal all planned out for tomorrow night/Thursday morning at 12:01am. 
Appetizer: Bread and flavored dipping oil 
Entree: Penne & Shrimp in Alfredo sauce 
Dessert: Candy...what else!?!! ;)

Candy Diet - Day 5

Day 5 of my candy-only diet was pretty memorable because I got to make a much anticipated pit stop on the way home. More on that later...


My breakfast of a bag of Skittles was legit. Period. One bag of Original Fruits Skittles contains 50% of your daily recommended Vitamin C. No joke. Check out caloriecount.com to see for yourself! That's like eating an orange, a grape, a lemon, a strawberry, and a lime. Kinda.


My lunch started with a Twix bar, but then got exponentially better when we drove up to Minnesota's Largest Candy Store, aka Jim's Apple Farm, aka Awesome. 

Spotted!! On Highway 169 outside of Jordan, MN.

It was definitely an eye-catcher right off of the highway Here's a description of the place from their facebook page:

"So the story goes... 65 and some years ago Herbert 'Hippy' Wagner returned from serving overseas in World War II and planted the first apple orchard of the Minnesota River Valley of Scott County. After operating a peaceful roadside apple stand for a number of decades, hail and added bad weather hit the home farm hard, and a substitute was necessary to make up for the loss. And so began the candy... Candy Cigarettes! Caramel Apples! Strawberry Rhubarb Pies! 40 varieties of Root Beer! 57 types of Licorice! Pop Rocks! BBQ sauce! Bubble Up! HUGE Puzzle selection! Pickled Jalapeño Eggs! Bacon Band-Aids! Corn Dog Lip Balm! Mother-in-laws Tongue Pasta! Sweet Corn Salsa! Salt Water Taffy! Microwavable S’mores! Mallow Cups! Egg Cream Soda! Soup, Dip, and Baked good Mixes! Teaberry Gum! Giant Jam, Jelly, Preserve, and Fruit Spread Selection! Candy Necklaces! Chocolate Boyfriends! Chocolate Girlfriends! Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Chocolate Chocolate!"

That pretty much sums it up, oh except for this:

One of the World's Biggest Gumball Machines!

I scored some sweet treats that served as a good snacks for the rest of the day including a Fresh Divinity, a chocolate bar aka "The Ultimate Balanced Diet", some salt-water taffy,  Bon Bons, and about $20 worth of other little candies to get me through the rest of my "diet".

Divinity candy is made with egg whites & sugar with a pecan on top.
Maybe something to try to make on my own later!

I thought this chocolate bar was perfect for my meal plan.
Very cool packaging--this was all from one candy bar

Watermelon Saltwater Taffy

"Like a kid in a candy store" :)

So Matt has been looking for these candies called Eiffel Bon Bons that the Econ classes sold at his high school for years now. He's never been able to find them, but guess who got some today!? Me :) The reason they are hard to find is that they are exclusively distributed by The Foreign Candy Company in Hull, IA and are sold mainly to student groups for fundraisers. His description of Bon Bons was "a chewy candy with powder on them that are like Skittles in that once you have one in your mouth, you immediately want another one." Sounds pretty good huh?

He was pretty excited!! :)

Day 5 Results:


Weight Change: -.9 lbs (Total: -4.2 lbs )
Hunger Level: 3
Candy Love: 10


You may have noticed that my Candy Love score was a little lower yesterday, but this visit to the candy store boosted me right back up to full power. Two days left. Bring it on.

Candy Diet - Day 4

I'm actually writing this entry on Day 5 of my candy-only diet, but I have been out of town on a mini-vacation/bachelorette party weekend. Definitely a challenge to any diet! So here's my recollection of how Day 4 went down in the legendary candy diet:


Before our big road trip, I perused the gas station for a suitable breakfast. While the other ladies all got coffee and breakfast sandwiches, I snatched up some Gummy Lifesavers. They were pretty tasty, and the circle shapes were also fun to play with!

My skeletor hand with a candy "ring"

For lunch, we stopped at Culver's--it was tough not to get one of their tasty butter burgers, but I did give in and get a Nerds Concrete Mixer, which I understand could be debatable as candy...but hey I turned down a greasy hamburger!! I'm counting it :)

We finally made it to our destination: Valley Fair!! You can bet I had my eyes out for some tasty fair candy....this is what I found:

I ordered my cotton candy on a cone as opposed to a bag because it's just more fun to eat that way, so when the cotton candy lady loaded my cone up with fluffy pink cotton candy I was pretty stoked...until she then stepped over and doubled it up with another coating of blue cotton candy!! AWESOME!! This thing was ginormous, and yes I did share...a little...


Supper was the most challenging part of the day. Cheesecake Factory. They are known of course for their cheesecake, but also for their delicious pasta, which I have been craving all week, and everyone else in the party ordered. I think our waiter thought I was a little loopy when all I ordered was a slice of Snickers Bar Cheesecake for my meal (which also could be debatable as cheating this candy diet, I know, I'm still counting it anyways). The cheesecake was delicious and it came on a plate--it was awesome to eat with a fork for the first time in 4 days! With a few candy exceptions and some Red Vines licorice to keep my hunger at bay all day, I think I did pretty well for "dieting" on a vacation!

Snickers Bar Chunks and Cheesecake
Snickers baked right into Cheesecake Factory's
Creamy Cheesecake and topped with Fudge and Caramel

Since I was out of town, I didn't have a scale to weigh in, but here's the rest of my results:


Weight Change: NA (Total: -3.3 lbs)
Hunger Level: 3
Candy Love: 9.8


A post-note on temptations for today: the gals I traveled with were NOT helpful in the fact that they kept telling me just "Put some Skittles on a hamburger and eat it!" or "Order a steak from the menu and just dip it in chocolate" haha thanks for a great vaca girls, but no thank you for the candied value meal advice!

Candy Diet - Day 3

It's the weekend, the time when most diets start to go downhill. Indeed there are lots of temptations, but I assure you that my candy-only diet is still intact! I got to sleep in today, so I missed breakfast, but I did have a nice brunch of Dillettante Fruit Medley chocolates--delicious!! 

Trying to stick with the "healthy" breakfasts

Today was the season opener for the USD Coyotes football team. They played an away game at Air Force Academy so I watched the game at the bar while Matt, the fabulous bartender that he is, served me a few candy drinks. I made sure to bring my sweet garnishes for him to jazz up my cocktails.

Rainbow Mountain: Mountain Dew, Lemon Vodka, & SKITTLES

Zour Watermelon: Watermelon Pucker, Vodka, Sprite, ZOTZ

Zotz are hard candies filled with sour, fizzy, sugary center. They come in a strip of five individually wrapped candies. The pool always had these when I was growing up, and you can bet that part of my dollar for snacks always went to a pack! 

Grape Smooch: Grape Vodka, Sprite, Grape JOLLY RANCHER

It seemed almost un-American to not order some hot wings and a beer for the game, but I made it through with a bag of Sour Skittles and a Salted Nut Roll. Unfortunately USD lost, but it was an entertaining game nonetheless.

I've been trying to eat lots of nutty candies so I can get my protein.
Not sure if you can see it on the wrapper, but Pearson's is actually
adverting this on their wrapper!! "A Good Source of Protein"

Supper-time came around and I was getting pretty hungry so I had a "feast" of Laffy Taffy, Jordan Almonds, Peachie-O's, Peanut M&M's, & a mini 100 Grand bar. :)


Day 3 Results:
Weight Change: -1.8 lbs (Total: -3.3 lbs)
Hunger Level: 2
Candy Love: 10


Tomorrow will be a real challenge for me as I'm going to Valley Fair & out to eat at Cheesecake Factory with some friends for a bachelorette party....fair food and a full menu! Also, for this reason my post for Day 4 will probably be postponed a bit, but don't worry, I'll be back!

Candy Diet - Day 2

I've made it through another day of the candy diet, and I'm still in pretty good shape. I actually have a full belly as I'm writing this. A full belly of candy...does it get better?? Well, yes, I've been craving pasta today for some reason, but candy is a good 2nd place.


My breakfast today consisted of dark chocolate dipped pomegranate. Which, not sure if you are all up on the trend of pomegranate, but they are supposedly super healthy for you. There is even a store in Sioux Falls called Pomegranate Market, and they specialize in them. I personally haven't been there, but have heard lots of good things about the place... Anyhow, I got my daily dose of antioxidants (or enough for my candy diet anyways)

"Healthy" Candy

Lunch was a little more tricky since we did a road trip to Yankton and just had to stop at Quiznos for some sandwiches. It was hard to resist, but then I remembered my freshman year of college when I got "food poisoning" from Quiznos and ended up vomiting all of the fraternity floor. (It was definitely food poisoning, and not at all due to the fact that I drank an undisclosed amount of alcohol....that definitely wasn't it...) Whatever the reason, I've boycotted Quiznos since then and I stuck to my guns again today.

On the way out of town, I stopped at a gas station and got my lunch: a Snickers bar and some tropical Mike n' Ikes


My afternoon snack kind of melded into my supper and after dinner snack. My candy bag took a hefty hit today. Candies eaten include peanut M&M's, mini 100 Grands, mini Kit Kats, Red Vines, Gold Rocks Nugget Bubble Gum, & a Gummy Pizza.

It's even a supreme, got my veggies for the day! ;)

9 o'clock pm on Day 2 here's my status update:


Weight Change: -1.5 lbs
Hunger: 2
Candy Love: 10

Lovin' my candy bubble gum

That was take #24 of the bubble gum photo shoot...either I'm really bad at blowing bubbles, or really bad at taking pictures...or both...this is what most of them looked like..haha!

Goodnight!

Candy Diet - Day 1

So day one of my candy diet didn't start off too hot...this is to blame:

Lemon-Drop Lemon Squiggle Pop Martin

I started my strict candy-only diet at 12:01am this morning, so to follow the rules, my drink had to be candy garnished. A lemon-drop martini with a lemon squiggle pop sounded quite appropriate. Turns out it was quite strong! So needless to say, I wasn't feeling too hot this morning. 


Breakfast started with Rasinettes which according to the package have very good antioxidants and 1/4 cup equals a half a serving of fruit! Not bad for breakfast eh?


After my tummy stopped feeling queasy from my candy drink last night, I dived into some sour gummy caterpillars for lunch :) Dessert and my snack for the day was mini Kit Kats.

By the afternoon I was feeling a lot more chipper and was getting a lot of support from my followers on facebook, so I knew I could make it through the week just fine. 


Supper rolled around and I was craving something salty, so a Big Hunk it was. Big Hunks are essentially honey taffy with peanuts in it. They can be enjoyed a couple different ways: you can simply open the package and enjoy, you can microwave the whole bar for 5-10 seconds for a soft treat, or you can slam the bar onto a hard surface so it breaks into lots of bite-size pieces. My recommendation is to slam it, cuz it's way more fun! Just make sure to slam it before you open the packaging though, or it will look like this:

Messy Big Hunk...Bust It-Smack It, Break It To Pieces!!

Here's my results for Day One. (Number rate scale goes as normal. 1 being the least and 10 being the most)
Weight Change: none
Hunger Level: 1
Love of Candy: 10


So in summary, Day One started off a little rocky, but it's now about 9 o'clock and I'm feeling great! 6 more days!

Eating candy, representing Heartland Smiles. My dentist would be so proud :)