kitchen_fu

I've been on something of a sugar binge, and nothing will do but for me to teach myself how to make the caramels I want. The first time I tried to make caramels, I used this recipe from 101Cookbooks, and they mostly came out okay-ish, but either due to the extremely high temperatures inside my apartment (that place was a sauna) or some other deficiency, they tended to melt at room temperature. My next try was these orange-scented caramels from the Craftzine blog, which came out like rocks. Hard sticky ones. My dad lost a crown to those suckers.

However, a little help from Google brought me to this recipe, from about.com of all places, and I have found my happy caramel place, where the caramels are perfect and wonderful (and don't need corn syrup).

Time: ~30 mins to make, ~2hrs or so to cool
Cheapness: not bad.
Difficulty: pay attention and be bold
Meal: dessert
Servings: not enough for your entire Christmas gift list, but enough for that small party you are going to.


( Recipe, with my modifications noted )

mmmmmmmbabiesChicken!

This is the thing you make when you want to impress the people you are feeding with what a good cook you are, even if you aren't that good of a cook.

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Ingredient Level: Half a step above basic.
Meal Level: Dinner.
Time: 30 mins if you've done it before, 1 hour max, unless you're cooking for an entire horde.
Cheapness: Chicken and canned tomatoes don't cost that much.
Servings: Completely scale-able. The measurements I've given are for 2 or 1-with-leftovers.

( chicken is tasty and delicious when poached in home-made tomato sauce )

And there you go! A delicious meal to impress and delight anyone you invite over for dinner! Unless they don't eat meat, whin which case, maybe not so much.

Originally posted here.