The Friday Five - Inner Betty

Every once in a while, I get the urge to get creative in the kitchen and get in touch with my inner Betty. I had half a can of evaporated milk left over because Himself bought a giant can of Libby's Pumpkin Pie Mix instead of a can of pumpkin. The can of mix requires evaporated milk. So here I am a cup left over, so I decide to make carmels.

1. The ingredients are pretty simple. White sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract.

2. The recipe directions, found here, are pretty simple. Dissolve everything and boil until the mixture reaches 250o F. Oh, yeah, you need a candy thermometer.

3. The recipe doesn't tell you, it will take days for the mixture to reach this temperature. You will be standing in front of the stove stirring and stirring until your arm falls off. If you do this while preparing your holiday meal, stir until you are one hour past the time you would put your turkey in the oven. Fortunately, we were not hosting company, and my family doesn't care when they eat.

4. I didn't have the size pan noted in the recipe so I used a 9 in. x 13 in. pan. The yield is a million carmels which must be cut and wrapped in small pieces of wax paper. The carmels are sinfully delicious. Bet they would be good melted in a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

5. Would I make them again? Not for a very long time.