When Family Visits

This past weekend, we got to spend time with my lovely parents! Lance (my step-dad) and my mom came out to Rexburg to party po-dunk style with us haha! First we took them to R-Mountain which is actually a crater volcano :) Maybe you recognize it from the 4th of July adventures of Braustin? We had finals (so Austin and I look like train wrecks only getting 6 hours of sleep in the last three days...  haha!) Lance and mom were doing wonderful though, and were more energetic than us for sure!

 Then we made some taffy, but what we didn't know was our candy thermometer we bought was broken in the first place. So it never rose past 150ºF despite it looking like it burned. Yeah. It ended up looking like an organ. And it also ate our black plastic spoon because it rose so high in temperature. It was molten lava! Belonged on R-Mountain that's for sure!

We had Austin run back to the grocery store who sold us the defective thermometer, and it turned out loads better....even delectable :) We made Lemon flavor (shown) and Vanilla. The recipe is at the bottom of this blog post, it's not too hard as long as you have a working candy thermometer lol!

Also on Sunday, we spent some family time in Island Park where we ended up dock jumping and swimming around with my shark. Okay...okay... Bruce the inflatable cereal box shark I've had forever. Austin hates him because he's dorky. But too bad. Mom was the brave one who jumped in the water first. We were all scared. Glad she did because we stayed in forever and had the best time. I wish I had a picture of the river, the mountains were right there. We roasted Chicken with herbs providence & olive oil, white cheese, and wrapped in bacon. And of course some good old hotdogs for Lance :D

 Lastly, I taught my mom how to make these coptic stitched books! Hers turned out great, and this is a little picture of mine I made with Niddagen paper... beautiful stuff. I've printed on it before and now am dying knowing I have a whole sketchbook of it! (Kinda pricey stuff but wow. You get what you pay for.)

 This weekend was unbelievable, and I am so lucky to have my family! Thanks for a wonderful weekend, can't wait until Labor Day weekend!!

 Salt water taffy (via Vanilla & Lace on Blogger) 
Yields approx. 50 pieces/1.5 pounds
adapted from here. Ms Humble also did it here
2 cups sugar
2 T. Cornstarch
1 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
2 T. margarine/butter
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. Flavoring oil
(I didn't have flavoring oil so I used a tablespoon or more of Mint extract)


Prepare a heat safe dish by lightly buttering it. If you are making more than one flavor, prep said amount of dishes. Also lightly butter a spatula for each flavor. And have each flavor and food color ready.

In a saucepan, sift together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in corn syrup, water, salt and margarine. Place over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Cover pan and bring to a boil for 2 or 3 minutes. Uncover, place thermometer in pan and cook to 256 - 266 degrees F. The lower temperature will result in a chewier taffy, the higher a more brittle texture. Remove from heat and add food color and flavoring. Stir gently, pour into prepared dish/pan.

When cool enough to handle, grease hands and pull the warm candy with fingertips, pulling out to about 12 inches at first. Quickly turn candy back from fingertips of one hand to the other hand, then catch center and pull again. This will incorporate air into the candy. Continue pulling until taffy is light in color and has a satiny gloss, about twenty minutes. Pull into a long rope, cut with greased scissors and wrap in waxed paper squares, twisting ends.