Candy Making 101

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If you are familiar with my mom at all you, are familiar with her annual holiday tradition - candy making. Every year usually around the end of November, my mom and grandma get together for two full days of candy making. For those of you lightweights who bake a couple cookies and call it a day, these two days would annihilate you.

This year it all started on a Saturday. After making my way through an awful ice storm, I safely arrived at my parents house just hours before my grandma did. This gave my mom and I some time to "prepare" the basement for the festivities. This included:

• Setting up the tables - four to be exact. Two for the more in depth treats (turtles, peanut brittle, etc.), one for the intricate mold painting and the final one for the sorting and putting away of the final product.
• Setting up the music/videos. It isn't Christmas candy making without a little Carpenters in the background broken up by watching Holiday Inn or White Christmas.
• Setting out the necessary baking items: double boilers, wax paper, forks with no middle tongs, paintbrushes, wax paper, large cookie sheets, small cups to melt the colored chocolate, wax paper, ice cubes, butter and did I mention wax paper?

Once grandma arrived we help her unload her boxes from the car. These contained her own baking supplies (cookie sheets, tins, molds, Domino sugar and more) and of course the always expected: ham salad. I won't linger on this topic because I don't eat it myself. But, not only does it not look edible, but it is actually made out of bologna which would make one wonder why it isn't called bologna salad. Oh well.

After finishing up the unloading, we set to work. The next 48 hours were non stop. We cut pecans, made caramel, painted molds, dipped peanuts and so much more. We only broke for meals and sleep.

Surprisingly enough, only one real moment of intense discussion surfaced. It had to do with one simple word: MOLDS. My mom and grandma think that molds are essential to any "tray" you create. Here are some of my favorite quotes about these molds:

• Everyone loves the molds!
  
• They add so much color to the tray.
• You HAVE to have molds!

As you can see above, while these molds are cute you have to ask yourself ... are they worth the time they take to make them? Each individual mold takes over five minutes to make. To me ... this is not worth it when you can dip over a dozen peanuts in that same time frame. So this tradition may be one that does not survive the next generation.

At the end of the two days, I was sent home with enough chocolate to make my head spin as well as some unmelted chocolate to make my own dipped pretzels. (These are considered so amateur that you must do these on your own instead of wasting the group's time.) :)

You might be thinking ... two days of candy making ... don't you go crazy? Usually I would jump up and say YES, but while on the drive home I thought about it and came to a realization.

I love candy making. I love being at home listening to the Christmas music. I love being told every year how to make turtles (even though I've been doing it for years). I love the ham salad ... okay I don't love it, but it wouldn't be the same without it. I love watching mom with her patience paint each mold with such care. I love having Grandma Hartzler out to cut all the wax paper for the tins. I love running back and forth to the freezer to see if it is time to take the chocolate out. I love hearing Grandma talk about all her crazy stories. I love running up the stairs every hour or so because we forgot ice or baking soda or coconut. And, I love my family. Crazy as they are ... nuts as they drive me ... they are who make me what I am.