Peanut Brittle ~ What a Joke!

Okay. I used two different peanut brittle recipes from two different books, and eras (one from the 90's and one from the 10's) and neither resulted in peanut brittle. How 'bout peanut blocks? I tried this three times (I am persistent), with the first two going belly up by thoroughly melting the sugar which immediately turned burnt orange and -- well, burned. Instantly. The last one, after careful tending and extremely low heat, finally resulted in the recipe's required "golden sugar", which I carefully poured into the buttered dish with the salted peanuts and . . . and . . . it practically hardened before it hit the pan! It has been pretty cold around here. But I didn't think it was so cold it would turn sugar syrup into a glacier within seconds. So I ended up piling the peanuts into the hot syrup in the pan and kneading them in, leaving a good cup to half cup of orphan peanuts that never made it into the mix. There wasn't even a moment where I could consider perfuming this stuff (as if). After that first attempt, I was just happy to get the sugar right and the peanuts in. By next holiday season, I will have this peanut brittle bit down. In the meantime, enjoy the nut clusters!

Today is baking day. Cookies and bread. I haven't made bread in ages. Well, that's not really true. I made a couple loaves the first day I got my new stove, which was about mid-October (I think). But first, it's morning errands that take me away from the house. On the Day Before the Day. I have stressed the fact that I am a bit of a crazy person before, right? Well, this just validates it.

Happy Holidays.