Snow flakes from Dec 2013

May your Christmas be

Merry and Bright!  

From One to Many

 

 

"And she will bring forth a Son,

and you shall call His name Jesus,

for He will save His people from their sins.”

 Matthew 1:21 (NKJV)

 

 

Manger front and center this Christmas season...with red ribbons

 

This year at VWC, our dramatic presentation was entitled, "From One to Many." The presentation began with a spot-lit manger filled with red ribbons. The narrator began by calling people, one by one, to share their testimony of how they came to know Jesus Christ. As they came forward, they simply grabbed a red ribbon as they spoke. When they sat down, they took the red ribbon to their seat. Conveniently sitting next to them was the person they had spoke about in their testimony!

When the six people had given their testimonies, there were six red ribbons strung from the manger to the six people sitting with the person responsible for them being in the church.

At the conclusion, a man portraying Jesus came forward and took hold of the ribbons to signify that Jesus came in the manger as a babe only to later, die on the cross for our sins--

From One to Many.

It was a powerful way to portray the Christmas season!

May you find MANY to introduce to Jesus in 2014!


Remember the ONE who made all of our lives possible!

                


Drink a LATTE coffee and stay warm!

Caramel SUCCESS

 'Caramels are only a fad.

Chocolate is a permanent thing.'

 

                                                  ~Milton Snavely Hershey

 

Let the record reflect that I have FINALLY managed the fine art of making caramel! For the past few years, I have tried and tried with absolutely ZERO success! On Pinterest, I noticed a recipe that was called "Homemade Soft Caramels." I was intrigued and gave it a try only to experience failure for the umpteenth (not really sure how many that is!!) time!

I have had candy thermometer failure many times over the last few years with caramels. My thermometers and I purposely said thermometers because you see I have purchased several over the last few years. At one time, I think I owned three or four thermometers. The reason? Not a single one works correctly!! As a matter of fact, mom and I RUINED a batch of penuche this season in large part to a faulty thermometer. But I digress...

Creamy soft caramels

In the photo, you'll notice waxed-paper wrapped caramels. YES! That is because I did NOT rely on a candy thermometer and learned how to do it the old-school way--with the cold water test in a cup. My caramels turned out beautifully!!!

Yes, I even went a step further and created a Homemade TWIX bar with buttery shortbread, soft caramel, dark chocolate with a sprinkling of sea salt on top! I started with this recipe TWIX bars and tweaked it to my personal liking. For example, I used demetara sugar with some powered sugar in the shortbread and added an egg. For the caramel, I used my recipe which I'd perfected that I'd saved on my Evernote:

Homemade Soft Caramels Recipe 

 

1 c light corn syrup 

2 c packed light brown sugar 

1 can(s) sweetened condensed milk 

1/2 lb butter 

Boil for 20 between 9-11 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Test with cold water for soft ball stage.

Lay out on cookie sheet 10x13x1 pan with sides (chocolate sheet pan size) and cut when cooled.

You will notice that the recipe said to BOIL for 20 minutes. Well, the first time I made this recipe, I was a good lil Girl Scout and followed the directions to a 'T'.

Well, can you say--ceramic tile?

Seriously, I could've sold that caramel to Lowe's for someone's "custom home" edition because it would have worked wonderfully as kitchen backsplash tile--

I mean the color was wondrously rich and well, caramelly!

The second time I tried, since I have been on this caramel run for several years now and have experienced failure at every buttery juncture, I knew that any good caramel recipe should probably NOT boil for 20 minutes.

So, I carefully got myself all set-up with my trusty glass measuring cup filled about half way with icy cold water. After the caramel boiled for about 9 minutes, (yes, I said, 9 minutes....!!!!) I carefully scooped some of the boiling mixture onto my wooden spoon and plopped it into my icy cold water.

I immediately noticed that the caramel was not quite finished but that it was close! How did I know that? Well you see, when the boiling candy plops into the icy cold water, it "sets-up" and makes either a strand of candy or a soft or firm ball of candy. My caramel was between a gloopy strand and a very unstable soft ball. I knew enough about making candy to know this--WATCH THIS VERY CLOSE! So, I stirred and stirred. Sure enough, in about 4-5 minutes, I scooped out a bit of candy into the icy cold water and

WAHOO....

we had caramel touchdown! I did a little happy candy dance in my kitchen because I'd just won the candy super bowl....or so I thought! I carefully spread it into my shiny (sprayed with Pam just in case) sheet cake pan.

As I stood over it like a proud caramel momma, I wondered, "Wonder if it tastes as creamy and good as it looks?" I should of waited but I cut a small corner and blew on it and popped it right into my mouth! I have to say....yum yum delicious!

I am positively sure that your life has been brightened all because I have finally figured out how to make "creamy soft caramels!"

The Twix bars I mentioned have been a huge hit this season! For a Christmas present, I made a huge batch and took the bars to the teachers at the school where I am the curriculum specialist. For the last PLC (Professional Learning Community) of the year, I had the TWIX bars in the middle of the table. I had melted dark chocolate bars from Aldi's to pour over the top and had grated some coarse sea salt over the dark chocolate. The bars were a hit! I have also taken the bars as gifts to family members, friends of the family and families of VWC. For my sister in law, I made some with white chocolate and she said they were even better than the dark chocolate. How is that possible? I am not sure....

But, as I say...how can a person go wrong with a delicious combination of buttery shortbread, creamy soft caramel and dark chocolate with a sprinkling of sea salt???

My only failure this time was the absence of proof by a photo! Next time, I will do a better job at providing a photo to prove my caramel-worthiness!

Eat a LATTE of caramel with a LATTE of coffee this week!

Be blessed a LATTE

Christmas Happenings...2013

Hand-carved nativity scene that was purchased in Israel in 2005 by my hubby

Many interesting happenings this Christmas season...Nativity VBS, Ice, and many re-scheduled events! The first weekend of December had the snow in southern and eastern OK and severely cold temps here in central OK. The third weekend found central OK under a thick blanket of glistening, sparkly ice! It came in the form of noisy, ping-ping rain, pelting on our porch, power lines and windows.




Frozen tree in my backyard...hanging heavy with a load of ice






My son's truck covered with several layers of ice.

 

The ice had a way of stopping the Christmas season here in north central Oklahoma! All sorts of events, including the Christmas program at VWC found themselves rescheduled. A lesson I have learned through this weather is that everything will be okay; scheduled life can and will stop until God wills another above-freezing day!

The 2013 candy give-a-way boxes. They came with a cute red lid!

I spent quite a bit of time making candy this season! Candy-making is something my mom and I have traditionally done each Christmas as long as I can remember. I started the season by cooking for the Christmas Market and just continued cooking more and more candy. I enjoyed giving the majority of it away (in boxes purchased from the Hobbly place) and even managed to sell a portion of the fudge which was a continuation from the Market!







To finish this, I am trusting that you had a BLESSED Christmas season!




In the next few posts, I will be sharing news of my caramel success as well as this year's dramatic presentation at VWC! Stay tuned!





Be blessed...

             

Drink a LATTE of coffee....

                          


Try to bless a LATTE of people in 2014.