The Making of the Treats

Cheryl does not like making 
"candy."

Treats Boxed up!

 A relatively easy day today.. Only 5 stockings.  But with so few, we were finally able to catch up on a bit of the Holiday Cheer we normally send out.. ( Locally)  There are numerous delivery drivers we have to square away this year.  Not only the UPS guy, but also a bunch of Amazon and Fed Ex people.  Then there is the Mail Dude...  Who crams our mail in our box.. Even when it does not fit.   There us a New Postmaster who has been very cool with us this year. ( Better than the last Post Master, anyway....) Glen at Caseys, Don, across the yard; Ray and Brenda... the owners of the dogs I give treats to. 

Seafoam!

Waiting for 300 degrees. 

So what do we give these folks this year?  Well, every year, Cheryl finds something new and exotic to try to tackle...  depending on the year.   Sometimes it is simple chocolate chip cookies.  ( Though it is always lavishly wrapped AND handsomely embellished with various other goodies.)   Some years it is Macarons!  I'm surprised we did not try some Super Brownie this holiday season, but maybe because we have already given the UPS guy a dozen of them.   This year....  Seafoam! 

Breaking up the toffee.

Second batch did not puff
up. 

Seafoam was one of my Dad's favorite candies.    When we could find it... and Dad could "afford it"  we would buy a bunch and gobble it down like it was ... seafoam, I guess.  Toffee with bubbles in it... covered in Chocolate.  What is not to like? 

With a recipe in one of Cheryl's new books,  we marked it for this season's  gift ideas.   How hard can it possibly be? 

Everyone likes larger
small chunks.

Surprisingly,  not too hard.   We normally prepare for a 50% success rate when attempting new things.   Especially things that could be qualified as "candy".   Any item that requires baking,  Cheryl is on top of it!   But stove top melting of sugar and butter is never a given for success.  

The first batch came out as planned... which was not planned!  So we decided to make the second batch anyway.   Which turned out exactly how we imagined it...  namely:  a Failure.

But we had an entire pan of success!  Time to cover it in chocolate!   

It was a good thing we were only 50% successful with the candy part, as we ran out of Chocolate just after the last of the large pieces  were covered.  I made a "Chocolate toffee Bark" with the remaining crumbs.   ( Bark is a fancy name for the leftover fixin's) 

Making Bark with
leftovers.

Cranberry Pistachio blondies
just like the picture in the book!

Cheryl made some other cranberry pistachio Blondies and world peace cookies.  She then finished off  the treats with some Almond  Toffee Bars.   All of those items require baking... so I was not needed for their success ( or failure)   The remainder of the night was spent wrapping them up and getting them ready for delivery. Hopefully, our Delivery drivers will make an appearance over the next couple of days. 

Hiro on the Sheepskin carpet.

Hiro Checking on 
the Presents.

For now...  Rest.   Playing with cats and cleaning up the shop for our next endeavor.  Mostly Cheryl wants to continue running and having some "boredom" time to recover her energy from this Stocking season.  Only a few most posts until I get my second highest blog posting year ever!  Will I do it?  Will enough interesting stuff happen to us that I can blog about?   ( Well, interesting to me, anyway.)  Stay tuned!   I have a UFO theory/ story in the back just waiting to be put onto the internet for everyone to read.   I can't wait! 

Leo Showing us how to relax. 

Thanks for stopping in!.