Growing up, my mom made lots of good things in the kitchen, but it wasn't her favorite thing to do. So it was surprising that one year when I (Michelle) was about 12 or 13, my mom found a recipe for caramels and decided to make it for Christmas. If you have tried making candy, you know it can be tricky. Armed with a new candy thermometer, she set out making caramels.
In the early days, the caramels sometimes turned out so hard, we had to just suck on them to enjoy them. (There is no such thing as inedible caramels.) I have to say this was not my mom's fault - the recipe called for the candy to be cooked to hard ball stage! We tinkered with the recipe a bit over the years, with more consistent results. From that time on, it was a tradition to make caramels at Christmas.
My mom has been gone for 15 Christmases now, but I continue the tradition of making caramels each year. We even made some to send to Brandt, our nephew, on his mission in Brazil.
We have expanded the tradition to include date roll - which is sort of like caramels with dates and lots of nuts. This year so far we have made three double batches of caramels, and two batches of date roll - and we're not done yet!
After all these years, I still think of my mom each time I pull out the recipe and the candy thermometer.
Merry Christmas, Mother!
1 comment:
I love carmals! They look delicious!
JoLynn
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