Caramel Traditions

Grandma Alice would be so proud....here she is in her kitchen circa 1970...

The holidays are almost upon us....and within my family that means it's almost caramel time. Gma Alice was famous around these parts for her homemade caramels. She gave me her recipe and my own candy thermometer a few years ago but I hadn't yet gotten around to trying to make them on my own. 

So last Friday night Mom, Gma Jean, Aunt Nancy, and I set out to make caramels. My cousin Lisa now lives out in Montana so she skyped in with us as we made our caramel batches together. Lisa has made quite a few batches on her own...and is now the family expert! 

So we started out with butter, sugar, salt, and corn syrup...

you start to heat the mixture until you bring it to a boil...

Lisa's batch seemed to take longer to bring to a boil and we had a long discussion about her altitude and if that would affect her caramels. Both our Home Ec major mothers couldn't answer the question and mom even pulled out her Joy of Cooking cookbook to find the answer...but all she could find was info on baking at higher altitudes...so Lisa just pressed on and made her batch just like she always has....

Making caramels takes patience and a lot of stirring...after adding some cream and vanilla you just keeping stirring and stirring and stirring....

Then you add your candy thermometer and heat the mixture until it reaches 245 degrees....

Keep stirring!!

Checking out the thermometers to ensure we know where to stop. 

Once you hit 245 degrees you pour into pans and let cool overnight. 

The next morning you dump the block of caramel out...grease up a knife and cut into bit sized squares. Gpa Wayne was always in charge of cutting and wrapping all of Gma Alice's caramels. They always wrapped each individual caramel like a Christmas present....talk about time consuming! My caramels were a little soft to do that so we opted to just twisting the ends. But they are still really yummy and practically melt in your mouth! Gma Alice also used this recipe to make caramel apples. 

My batch turned out a little soft, Nancy's was a little more firm and too tough to chew. Lisa's was rock hard in the morning and turns out she needed a hammer to break her block apart. Her comment was...'I made my own Werther's candies'....they still had good flavor, you just have to suck on them for awhile. She found somewhere she should have adjusted 2 degrees for every 1000 feet she is above sea level. You live and you learn. 

I think I'll make another batch before Christmas arrives and we still need to make Gma Alice's Christmas tree cookies. Gotta love family traditions! 

Ft. Collins

Last weekend we flew out to Colorado to visit Nathan's cousin Katy and her husband Kendall. They live in Ft. Collins and we had a great time. They had a lot of activities planned for us...and poor Kendall is recovering from ankle surgery and is still on crutches. 

We started out touring the New Belgium Brewery...they are responsible for producing Fat Tire beer as well as many others...it was a really fun tour. 

Making beer.....

Ft. Collins is a very bike friendly town...bike rim 'chandeliers' are used to decorate....

drinking beer.....

Saturday we decided to hike Arthur's Rock....it's a relatively short hike...took us about 2.5 hours....the 'summit' is roughly 7000 feet. 

Libby (Nathan's other cousin) also goes to school out at CSU so she joined us....along with the two pups...

The three cousins....

Ft. Collins had just gotten an early snowstorm right before we arrived...the snow made the hike a bit more sloppy....but less likely we'd see rattlesnakes!

I wish I shared Penny's excitement for snow....

Layla....cutest pic ever!

Finally made it to the top....my 'Greek God'...

So there's this new trend...you've heard of 'planking' or 'owling'...well people have started 'Tebowing' in honor of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and his pray pose before/after? he plays a game....we saw it on the news Friday night...so the weekend was full of 'Tebowing'.....

I call this one....Three Cousins Tebowing....

More Tebowing....

Saturday night we headed to a local establishment to watch the ISU game where Nathan and Katy developed a new ISU hand gesture they are hoping will take off with Cyclone fans...

It's a Cyclone.....(moving hand/finger to form a cyclone)

First Down!....

They were very proud...and surprisingly we won the game against Texas Tech! 

My college friend Jenn and her husband came out to watch the game as well. 

We had a great time! Thanks to Katy and Kendall!

Death Escapes Us

The Escape died last week. 

Nathan was on his way to the clinic Sunday morning to pick up his drill so we could hang curtains and an elderly woman ran a stop sign.....and the Escape was totaled. 

Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. We made a visit to the ER since Nathan has now suffered from his 6th concussion. A witness to the crash found him unconscious and tapped on his window to bring him to and ask if he was ok. He's being treated for whiplash by a chiropractor but he's doing pretty well. 

Buschy called me at home to tell me to go and check on him (first after calling Loan to ask his advice if he should call me)... he thought Nathan may have been in an accident. I arrived on the scene in my pajamas and slippers...classy. 

The curtains are still waiting....

ISU Homecoming

The Mangold fam-damily travelled to Ames a few weeks ago to cheer on the Cyclones for ISU Homecoming. We went and toured the new vet school teaching hospital addition before heading over to the stadium to tailgate. We played Texas A&M....we lost but at least we played half way decent...we didn't just hand the game over like we have been....

Mom and I cheering on our #1 team.....

but wait...we are pretty horrible this year....so maybe we're #0?

Adam and Teresa aren't impressed either....

The six of us after the game...

One bright point of the day was that I was able to reconnect with two of my college friends. Emily and Angie were down from Minneapolis for the weekend....here we were back in the day...the 'Fab Four'....

11 years and little Colin later.....

And I was able to get together with Jenn last weekend while were in Ft. Collins...it was so nice to reconnect with everyone!

Go Cyclones!