Crocheting By Candlelight

Well, I just had a weekend from the 1800s!!!

Ok, I'm exaggerating a little, it wasn't that bad.....actually, it was kind of charming! :-)
For some unknown reason, after 4 days of rain, just as it was getting colder (from a cold front moving in), our power went out -- this was Thursday night.  So we lit a bunch of candles, wrapped ourselves in blankets and comforters, and waited it out!  There wasn't much to do.....without TV, movies, or the computer, so the kids sat near the candles and played cards and dice games, and I grabbed my crocheting, which I was planning on doing anyway! (Brian was already in bed)

The picture makes it look brighter than it really was -- seeing my stitches was difficult!!

There is something about the power being out, though.....did you ever notice how silent it is without the power on??  It always amazes me, I guess because I am so used to hearing the sound of our gadgets running that I never realized how much noise I am accustomed to!  Sometimes the silence seems loud!!  But I felt so peaceful sitting in the candlelight, crocheting my table mat.....like I said, it was charming!  I'm sure most of that charm came from knowing it wouldn't last!! :-D

The power came back on after a few hours, just as I was contemplating making a fire in the fireplace as the temperature dropped in the house!  It would have been strange to do that at 12am!! LOL
It WAS nice to have the lights again, but I didn't like how loud the heater sounded, or the refrigerator.....but I DO like the heat, and ice cubes for my water!!!

Anyway, that was pretty exciting, until the next morning, when the PHONE went out.....!!!!!

.....and it stayed out all weekend!! :-P
That also took the internet with it!  And being at the end of a dirt road, in the woods, cell phones don't work well here -- in fact, they don't work AT ALL in the house.  So I had to walk to a high spot in the driveway with Brian's cell phone and call the phone company!

*SIGH!*  They finally got here today at suppertime!!!  It ended up being (another) wire that apparently became un-buried after all the rain washed part of the dirt road off of it, and it got mangled and split!  So I am now back in the modern era!!  I DO like when the phone doesn't ring at all, and I didn't really miss the internet (except that I needed to make an online bill payment, which I was getting a little nervous about!).....but all the weirdness threw off my weekend!  AND my blog posts -- I had some fun stuff to tell everyone about!! :-D

I will have to post next time about the Fun Stuff, but I AM going to post the cookies/candy that I made before and then again this weekend -- they are SUPER YUMMY!!!
It's called Chocolate Saltine Toffee, or Christmas Crack, but I don't like that name....it doesn't sound as desirable when you name something after a real, BAD drug! :-P

Behold the yummy awesomeness......!

And it is amazingly simple to make!!
Preheat the oven to 350.
First, line a 9x13 pan with FOIL, and grease it, oil it, or spray it - whatever your choice is! (a jelly roll pan is the best)  DO NOT skip the foil, or you'll never get the pieces out of the pan!!

Then you spread a single layer of saltine crackers in that pan.....

(notice the now-gorgeous floor in the background of my picture!!! :-D)(with a piece of a dead leaf from outside on it, that I should have noticed and swept away before taking this picture!)

In a pan, melt 2 sticks of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar......

Of course, anyone who reads my blog knows that I don't usually HAVE brown sugar, so I used white sugar and added some molasses (most of it is under the butter on the left!) -- it tastes the same!

Get it all melted and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.....

.....and boil it for 3-5 minutes, until it thickens.  I probably boiled it for 4 minutes.

Pour it over the saltines.....

.....and place them in the oven.

Bake it for 5-7 minutes, until it gets bubbly......

Isn't that a GREAT picture??  I got all the bubbles!!! :-D

Take it out of the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes, then sprinkle chocolate chips on top.....

.....and let it sit for a few minutes again, while they soften.....
THEN, smooth them around.....

.....and try to WAIT for them to cool!!!!
I put mine in the freezer......

.....so they were ready in about 10-15 minutes!!  Oh yeah, I'm brilliant! LOL

Here's where you are so glad you used the foil.....

This is what the kids did to it, before I got the chance to cut it into bars (roughly!)!!
The cracker is in the middle of the toffee.....

YUMMY!!!
This container should be FULL.....

This stuff didn't even last 24 hours!! :-D

This recipe is all over the internet, even Paula Dean has a recipe (she calls it Pine Bark), and everyone has their favorite variation -- white and dark chips swirled on top, Heath Bar pieces instead of chocolate chips, adding vanilla or almond flavoring to the butter/sugar syrup, sprinkling kosher salt over the melted chocolate -- anything you can imagine!  I just made the basic recipe, and it was a HUGE hit!!  As a matter of fact, Brian made sure we grabbed another box of Saltines today at the store, so I can make it again! LOL

SOOOOO.....another weekend is over....*sigh!*  My Sunday-night-sadness has set in (NO Brian home! *Sniff!*), but I'm hoping to channel it into getting some organizing done this week -- he LOVES when I put my "stuff" away!! (it doesn't happen very often! Haha!!)
I'm NOT making a list, just so I can avoid being embarrassed if I go off on a completely different tangent tomorrow, but it will be very exciting IF I DO manage to get organized....it's been awhile! LOL

I'll be sure to take pictures of the rare, miraculous event.....IF it happens!!! ^-^