The Danger is INCREASING!

So I know I just told you about my newest girl crush, Ms. Laura Calder of French Food at Home fame. Please see previous post. (you'd think that all I do is watch the food network! But I've been really busy, really!)

Well her stock has increased EXPONENTIALLY since I made her caramel sauce.

In 6 minutes.


Why I feel the need to torment myself by knowing how to make it whenever I want is beyond me right now. And not only that but it's SO EASY.

Danger Danger Mrs. Stevenson.

Danger Danger.

If you want to make it yourself here is how you do it.
(I halved the recipe because I actually had to make it three times before it worked.)

1/2 cup white sugar
2-3 T water
5 T butter (I used Natures Balance Buttery Spread. It's wonderful stuff)
1 T cream (again I used a non dairy equivalent)

On high heat in a suacepan, boil your sugar and water until it's JUST GOLDEN.
This is the key here, I let it get too golden the first time and by the time the butter and the cream went in it was bitter and burnt and gross.

Remove from the heat and let it sit for like 30 seconds or something, just to bring it down a bit.

Stir in the butter. It will sizzle and fizz. I take this as a normal part of making caramel sauce.

Stir in the cream.

THAT'S IT.

It's really hot (like burn your mouth off hot) so remember to let it cool a bit before you start shoving it into your mouth with a spoon.

I made it last night to go with baked apples (again thank you Laura Calder!) and we were both immediately in raptures over it and instantly regretting eating caramel sauce late at night.

Because it's really just sugar/butter.

Super delicious sugar/butter.

(the first time I had the heat set too low and I watched as sugar water miraculously boiled down and turned BACK INTO SUGAR. The second time I burnt it. But the third time? Oh baby, the third time was the charm!)

Lentil Soup with Chorizo croutes

Hello delicious!
I've started taping French Food at Home with Laura Calder and I am having a bit of a girl crush. Like I would love it if we met and we became friends and then we could hang out kind of crush.
The first episode that I taped featured this lentil soup recipe and I made it tonight.
Chorizo croutes and all.

It was delish. I ended up doubling the recipe because I started soaking the lentils this morning without referring to the recipe first, but it was really close to being exactly double that I just went with it. And it totally worked. (no picture, sorry!)
I even drizzled some of the chorizo oil as a garnish.
Geoff was impressed.

And since I ended up doubling the recipe we've both got lunch tomorrow.
Which is rad.

Everything she makes on the show looks amazing and I am completely inspired to cook something after watching it.

And I am just realizing now that the food network website is AMAZING.
Like I feel like I may loose some serious chunks of my life reading recipes.

Trouble? Wonderful!

And I am feeling all kitcheny and homey these past few days. Last week I baked a loaf of bread (from a mix admittedly, but it turned out really well and we had fresh, hot cinnamon raisin bread with a completely reasonable amount of work on my part. So what? Who cares!) A loaf that turned out so well in fact that I picked up a "hearty Grain bread" mix to try.

Which I am thinking I will make tomorrow morning.

Oh I can't even get into how awesome it will be if that mix is good. It might be fresh bread all the time around here.

With butter. And tea. 3 meals a day.