Deans and Elys in San Diego

Gretchen and I had a terrific five days in San Diego last week. It was wonderful to see Tom, Marge, John, Chris, Karla and Allison and spend some quality time (even some asymptotic time) with all of them. A few photos for you here.

We spent nearly six hours on Wednesday crawling all over the USS Midway museum with Tom. We got on early, before it was open to the public and spent quite a bit of time on the "Island", the part of the ship above the flight deck. Here you can see Tom in his element, as he explains to Gretchen the system for communicating engine speed from the bridge to the engine room, a long, long way away.

Tom on the Bridge

We then moved from bow to stern, port to starboard and up and down about 10 deck levels on the ship. Tom took us a number of places where the public can't go (yet). It was awesome. I got a much fuller appreciation for what our sailors do and put up with.

Another treat was a chance to spend an hour on Friday with John as he produced The Ray Lucia Show on Friday. As a radio nut myself, I loved being in the studio, watching all the goings on with callers and news. John is a hoot and is clearly in his element doing this. I thought you'd enjoy this action shot of him.
John at the controls

We also went on a 4 hour sail Thursday to watch grey whales migrating north. This was a terrific time on a sailboat...very comfortable and enjoyable. We actually did see a mama whale and her calf come up for air about 5 times...wow, are they big and move so gracefully under the water. And, to prove we were there, here's a photo of the four of us.

All 4 of us

So, it was a fun time, a nice break from the Indiana winter for G and me and great to be with family. We spoke of each of you many times and enjoyed the blessing of good family over and over.

The Great Peanut Brittle Challenge of 2009: Baking like Grandma Baked

2/15/09

The day started with many feelings ranging from angst and fear to joy and jubilation. The angst and fear was attributed to our respect from the great brittle we all received from our Grandmother and the thought of duplicating a culinary masterpiece such as this was daunting. The technical language that was supplied in the previous post by our Aunt Karen also made us believe that we might need to touch up our knowledge of the periodic table. The angst was then superseded as we talked about our memories of G’ma in the kitchen and the love that she put into all the things she cooked for us in our youth. We remembered the apron, the smells, and the constant smile that she had on her face as one of us youngsters walked into the room.

On to the event.



Nay selecting a pot that is sufficiently "heavy duty".














So many thermometers!

















Carefully reading about the difference between "hard ball" and "hard crack".

















Ingredients purchased!

(Nay's tribute to the famous Matt pose)













Butter, water, sugar and corn syrup go in.



Nathan likes to do aaaaall the work while Maureen takes pictures for the blog.








Skies were clear.....or about as clear as were going to get in Portland.














Butter was our friend.





Lathering up the pan (notice that Nay is not using the Ely-approved Ziploc baggie method. There was a long discussion about how this could compromise the integrity of the project.)




Those peanuts. A pound!




Not "hard ball" yet.....that's 255!






The peanuts and vanilla go in....starting to smell good!






Getting sticky! This was right before the peanuts started to smoke.






Onto the pan (and not a well buttered tabletop as Anne offered as a Marge Ely-approved alternative to a cookie sheet).







Spread out thin, because that's the Ely way!




Smidgening it to death.....




We would like to report that the brittle now resides in a plastic bag on the counter but is dwindling by the day! It was delicious! Thanks, Grandma!

Love, Nay and Mo

Marge Ely's Peanut Brittle

We all have fond memories of peanut brittle from Auburn, so thin, crisp, and crunchy packed in baggies or cans. It was a part of every Christmas package! Maureen and Nathan are wanting to try their hand at it in an upcoming visit, so I'm including the recipe in Grandma's handwriting along with some comments based on some experiences Amy and I have had in making it.

Believe me, there is a lot of chemistry involved which Mother knew so well! There are some key points in getting the supersaturated sugar solution just right!

I've scanned her recipe, such as it is:




Peanut Brittle
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup white syrup
2T. butter
Bring to hard ball

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lb raw peanuts

Bring to hard crack

Add 2 teaspoons soda.

Pour out.

Now this sounds simple, but there is a lot that isn't written in the recipe. The package of raw peanuts (Wal-mart) has a recipe that is essentially the same with a few more instructions. We compared it with several cookbooks and they are all pretty much the same. Then we read the section on Behavior of Sugar Syrups in Harold McGee's milestone book "On Food and Cooking" (1984 edition--a classic). His graphs and microscopic photos of the crystallization process are incredible. In the end, you see that the RATE OF COOKING and balancing evaporation of liquid to crystal formation is the key. Amy and I made peanut brittle a number of times and we enjoyed talking about Grandma and the science she understood better than we did! So here's my advice:

Use a recipe on the package of raw peanutes or one similar to this one:
Good instructions:
http://www.thenutfactory.com/kitchen/dessert/peanut-brittle.html


But this one has excellent reviews
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Old-Fashioned-Peanut-Brittle-2682


A couple of things about equipment:
a) use a large heavy duty pan. It expands A LOT as it cooks.
b) use a candy thermometer (Grandma could tell the stages or "soft ball" or "hard ball".... we can't)
c) lubricate the cookie sheets and utensils (or your fingers) with butter. It is very sticky and hard to clean as it hardens
d) stretch it thin...... that's the Ely way!

And most of all, enjoy talking about Grandma and Auburn things while you do this!!