Cooking Thursday

I have a few things to share with you today that are good gift ideas. This first one is something I've given to neighbors and I also used to give to the girls I worked with. The work girls already asked if any are coming this year now that I've retired.  :)  These are homemade caramels, the soft chewy ones.  They are so good, and so easy!  The hardest thing about making these is wrapping them up.

10  Minute Microwave Caramels

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
sea salt

Butter an 8-inch square pan, or for thicker caramels, a 9x5 inch loaf pan. If you like, you can then line the buttered pan with foil and butter the foil.
Melt butter in a large microwaveable bowl (microwave for about 1 minute).
Stir in the corn syrup, both sugars and sweetened condensed milk. Continue stirring until most of the sugar is dissolved.
Microwave on high for 3 minutes and 5 to 15 seconds. (* I recommend starting with the shorter time of 3 minutes 5 seconds, since I'd rather have my caramels too soft than too hard). Remove from microwave and stir and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Return to microwave and cook on high for another 3 minutes and 5 to 15 seconds. Stir in the vanilla. Pour immediately into the buttered dish. The mixture will be liquid - don't worry it will set up after several hours!
After about 15 -30 minutes, sprinkle sea salt crystals over the caramels.
Allow to sit for several hours until cooled and set. Cut into squares and wrap in waxed paper.

*I've ended up doing 3 minutes, 10 seconds each time.

I found it was easier to cut the caramels with kitchen shears than a knife.  Also - I used these wrappers I found on Amazon for $8.99, so much easier than cutting all those squares of wax paper (and there are 300 wrappers so they last forever!)

This is how I packaged some of them to give as small gifts.  I use this site from Avery to make personalized tags to put on them.

And here's one more thing that's a recipe, but not to eat.  This one is to make simmer pots, to make your house smell good.  I gave these to our friends in our small group from church.

Christmas Simmer Pot

For each jar you need:
2-3 dried orange slices
2-3 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon allspice
1-2 sprigs of pine or evergreen
1-2 whole star anise pods
1 small handful of dried cranberries

Layer ingredients into a pint sized glass jar. Tie label with instructions on it;  "Pour contents of jar into large pot and cover with water. Simmer on low adding water as needed."

* I got dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks, dried cranberries and anise pods from Amazon.