Just a quick post to say:
Recipes to make your own candy bars! (Including peanut butter cups!!!)
Blog » October 2007
#31 in our ongoing series, "Reasons You Don't Want a Website"
You know what the best part about having a business is? Answering the same questions over and over again. What are your hours? What's your address? Do you take credit cards? And the more esoteric ones: what does your company do, exactly? How can I do X with product Z? What is the meaning of life?
Sure, it might take hours out of your day to answer these types of calls and questions, and they may pop up at the least opportune moments. But really, nothing is more fun than saying, "We close at 5pm weekdays, and we're closed on Sundays" 4 or 5 times a day. Because how often do you get to deal with questions you actually know the answers to, right off the top of your head? (You could answer these in your sleep!)
Apparently if you have one of those new-fangled "websites", you could put all of that information up there, and then your customers could find the answers without your help. They could find them when you're busy or closed. They would even find your phone number right next to the answers, in case they had follow up questions. That could free up a lot of time in your day, but what exactly would you do with all that extra time? Relax? Land a new sales account?
I'd rather answer more repetitive questions, thank you.
Today the chickens are 4 weeks old. They are mostly-feathered, and spend their days either huddled inside (if it's raining) or wandering outside (if it's clear). About 10 feet away from their house is a pine tree, from here forward known as 'the chicken tree'.
We have no idea what it is the chickens love so much about this particular tree, but love it they do. When they hop out of the house in the morning, they'll eat a little grass and then they'll notice the tree, and SQUEE they all run over to it yelling and chirping and flapping. Then they spend all day hanging out in the tree.
Notice the sneaky chicken feet in the left of that picture. (Which, by the way, are freakishly large. Somewhere around week 3 a chick's feet get huge.) Sometimes they'll try to hop up on one of the lowest branches, which will of course make that branch bend right down to the ground. Most of the time they lounge, and take dustbaths. Question: How does rubbing dirt all over yourself result in any sort of cleanliness?
Getting the chicks to leave the tree at the end of the day involves a broom handle (to herd them out of the area under the branches) and lots of yelling "Chickens! Stop that!" as they try to sneak back. You can't really herd them properly, because they are missing both the "stay close to my fellow chickens" gene and also the "don't let humans touch you" gene. They just wander all willy-nilly around the yard until you've picked each one up by hand and plopped them in the house.
I don't have any weight reports, because I don't think the chickens will stand for being stuck on the scale anymore. Since these are meat chickens, I can say: about Cornish Game Hen sized!
Today we turn our attention to candy apples. When was the last time you had one of these? Probably at some county fair, where it was $3 and full of smooshy apple. Ick. I was never a fan, until I made my own three weeks ago, and YOWZA.
Candied apples are super easy to make. Here's what you need:
- Apples. We had cause to be near Poverty Lane Orchards last week, so we stopped and picked some apples. They have Macs and Pippins there, but we went straight for the heirloom orchard -- just shy of 200 trees, growing at least 50 different varieties. The apple varieties all have different purposes (fresh cider, hard cider, baking, eating, etc), and they gave us a tree list and encouraged us to sample every tree. So we did. Many apples were bitten. Some were savored, some were spit out; such is life in the heirloom apple orchard. For the candied apples, we went for tart-crisp varieties.
For the sticks, you can use popsicle sticks or whatever you have hanging around. We used some unused take-out chopsticks (broken in half). Spear your apples right in the middle, then give them a little shake to make sure they're not going to fall off the stick.
- 1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 glug corn syrup
1 cinnamon stick
This will make enough for 6 medium-sized apples. I realize that you certainly don't need any more corn syrup in your life, but a little glug (a tablespoon or so) will help keep your sugar from crystallizing while it's boiling. If you don't have any (or don't want to use it), you can leave it out. The cinnamon stick adds a nice flavor to the syrup (anise seed is also tasty). - 1/4 tsp cherry flavor
5 drops red food coloring
You can use any flavoring you want -- we used this tasty cherry stuff from King Arthur (incidentally, only 20 minutes from the orchard!). You can also use any color you want, too. (Orange apples for halloween!)
The next step is to boil the syrup. There's nothing to it -- just stick the pot on the stove and let it go. Don't stir it (except to make sure that all the sugar dissolves), and boil it until it reaches 300F on a candy thermometer. Be careful -- as one recipe says, "Do not touch the syrup at any time -- it burns treacherously." If you don't have a thermometer, then drop a little bit of syrup into a glass of water. If the syrup turns into a little bit of hard lollipop, it's ready!
Stir in the flavoring and color, then go over to your apple-twirling station.
Tilt the pan so that all the syrup pools at one end, then grab an apple and twirl it in the syrup. It should pick up a nice even coat of candy. Put it down on parchment or foil (not wax paper -- it'll melt) and go to the next one. (If you're doing lots of apples (like a double batch), I gather that you're supposed to stick the pot over some boiling water to keep the candy from hardening too quickly. )
Ta-da! Candy apples! Delicious, and really healthy, too! (What? You're eating an apple...) Once they're cool, wrap them so the candy doesn't get sticky. You can store them in the fridge, but they're best eaten at room temperature.
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