Most Improved

It turns out the candy thermometer was all this recipe needed to bring it to life. It was so good I was burning my mouth picking off pieces as Scott was smashing it out onto the parchment paper. Actually, the candy thermometer wasn't all that changed. Obviously, there's chocolate drizzled on the top (way less than the recipe called for... but I wanted to have lots of chocolate when I do my hypothetical batch for the pot luck). And I also doubled the caramel recipe and used the same amount of popcorn. Oh - and I had Scott mix the popcorn into the caramel. He has the magic culinary touch!

I was telling Girl Chef about my harrowing experience with the first batch, and she looked at me and told me to go to Publix and buy brownies from their bakery. Oh, how I was wounded! The last pot luck, I wanted to bring something made by professionals, and was told that I had to make it myself. And we all know how that turned out! So then I was absolutely determined to make this work. And I think it did. I'm bringing this batch in to work today, mostly so that she can taste it, and I bet it doesn't last through pre-meal. (of course, I'll probably eat 3/4 of it!)

ASIDE: I don't think I mentioned that Girl Chef recently came back from her benchmarking trip to NYC bearing gifts! I couldn't believe I actually got anything! She brought me a little container of caramel corn from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. Anyway, that stuff was the best caramel corn I've ever had - it's so rich and buttery, one tiny bite satisfies my sweet tooth. My stuff isn't that good, but it's also not as rich, so you can eat giant handfuls of it. Plus, it's drizzled with chocolate!

AND BACK-TRACK: Anyway, when I was making this stuff last night, I asked Scott if he thought our family members would mind if I made this instead of pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving this year. And then I had a revelation. We're about 90% sure we're moving into a two bedroom apartment when our lease is up (November 30). (and please, Mother, don't get any grand-maternal jolt from that sentence... we just need more space) This means the weeks before are going to be filled with packing, throwing away, and not filling our fridge with leftovers. I think maybe Thanksgiving this year will fall somewhere between then and Christmas. Or maybe in January. Or we can all just go out for pizza or Chinese!