candy candy candy!!!

Traditional sugar intake continued at the Harper household with sugar being cooked, boiled, baked, and best of all consumed in the sweetest manner.  This is our (count 'em) 9th year in our great tradition.  We have tried many candy recipes, but the ones that are tried and true and loved best of all are and how long we've been making them:

• peanut brittle (9Years)
• crock pot candy (3 years)
• mexican wedding cakes/russian tea cakes (9 years)
• butter toffee (3 years)
• fudge (9 years, 4 years successfully)
• caramels (6 years hit and miss success)
• divinity (9 years, unsuccessfully for the last 4 years but we still try even though it has burned out 2 electric mixers!!)

Grandma working the sugar for butter toffee

Gaga working the cake cookies

Gaga and Marissa powdering the cake cookies

Me and Tara working the fudge

Tanya and Grandma doing microwave caramels

Papa doing kiddo duty

Tanya with the final fudge trays and caramels

All of us with the finished divided candy to take home

Yummmmy!

Now there is a confession I have about divinity.  It taunts me every year.  I research it every year, trying to improve my odds of success.  Tips they give are you need low humidity or powdered sugar to get it to set, or pour so slowly your arm wants to break off!  I have tried all of this, and short of standing on my head, to no avail.  Even yesterday, the after my miserable failure (and final attempt at divinity, I'm at peace with that) we tried a "no-fail" recipe that even failed!! Bless her heart, Grandma somehow got it to work.  So I am bowing out of this challenge until later in my cooking life.  After spending too many hours and pounds of sugar on something that is consistently unsuccessful for me, I give up.  And it is okay.  I'll spend the time on Peppermint bark next time!