Peanut

Sweet freedom! Winter semester is finally over, thank freaking goodness! I think I can honestly say that this was my least favorite semester of my whole college career.  Not because my classes were hard, I don't mind hard classes if I enjoy the material, boring classes on the other hand are really brutal for me to get through.     Enough of that, school is over, time to kick off Christmas vacation. I thought I would start my break off with a little holiday baking.  This year is a little different than passed years, usually I spend a whole day baking with friends and family but this season I was all on my lonesome, besides little Jim.  I wanted to bake something I had never tried before, so I chose peanut brittle.  Honestly, one of the easiest things in the world to make, I had no idea.   I needed some entertainment while baking because I had no one to converse with.  Jim and I decided on Jane Eyre.  I had originally planned on reading Jane Eyre before watching the movie but I'm so glad I didn't, because to be completely honest, I was not very impressed.  ha What I was impressed with was my peanut brittle, it's pretty delectable if I do say so myself. 

If you feel inclined to bake this holiday season, here's the recipe.  

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup peanuts
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.
2. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in peanuts. Set candy thermometer in place, and continue cooking. Stir frequently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.
3. Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter and baking soda; pour at once onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14x12 inches; cool. Snap candy into pieces.