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Part One:
The Toffee Bars |
At the end of a
long, 12 hour day, Saturday, my last day of the work-week, Justin, 17, still in his pajamas, picks me up from the train
station at 6:15 PM. We get home, and
before I can even take off my coat, Bailey, age 14, who has seven dollars in his hand,
is scrounging around for enough money for the entrance and ice skate-rental
fees for “Free Skate”. We head out the door
and stop at the ATM where I get twenty dollars for him.
Always appreciative, Bailey says, “Thank you SO much, Mom. You are the best mom EVER!” (Well worth the twenty dollars, I'd say.)
After dropping off Bailey at the ice arena, I arrive back
home and begin to forage for food, rustling up some grub that I had the
foresight to freeze earlier in the week – burgers with cheddar cheese and
bacon. Jeremy examines the state of the
bread on top of the refrigerator and decides to go to our local pharmacy –
slash – grocery store, the only store nearby - for buns. As he’s leaving, I ask him to please pick up
a gallon of milk and some eggs so that I can make waffles for Sunday
morning. He agrees and no money is exchanged.
Meanwhile, Justin crawls out of his hole with his ever-present “i” device in
hand, excited about the burgers.
Jeremy
arrives home from the store with the food. Justin takes the perfectly shaped
burger, and leaves the pathetic-looking ones for Jeremy who had purchased the
buns.
Justin is
now back in his hole, and Jeremy and I chat while I’m working in the kitchen. Jeremy shakes his head and says, “When is
that Justin EVER going to get a job!?”
We talk about how different the three siblings are, the concept of
nature versus nurture, and how Jeremy was “born older”; how he was independent
and industrious from the start; how, in pre-school he was wearing boots in the
summer and shorts in the winter; and, at age 5, selling pencils and stickers to
the neighbors. Now, at 19, he works
full-time as a hydraulic mechanic and has had laborious jobs since the age of
14. Justin is a boyscout, good student, and our resident geek, who comes in very handy when the internet doesn’t work,
the TV is messed up, and we can’t get the printer to print.
I mention to
Jeremy that my assistant, Kim, just gave me a recipe for toffee bars that are different from the
ones that I made at Christmas.
He tells me that I should make them.
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1 1/4
cups butter
1 can
sweetened condensed milk
1 cup
dark brown sugar
~50
saltines
2 cups
(1 pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Chopped pecans
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet
with aluminum foil. Melt the 1/4 cup of
butter and spread it over the foil. Line
foil with saltines, breaking some to fit edges if necessary.
Into a
medium saucepan, add 1 cup butter and the brown sugar. Heat on medium-low, stirring occasionally,
until mixture bubbles. Reduce heat and
let simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add condensed milk,
stirring until well-mixed. Pour mixture
over saltines and spread evenly.
Bake
about 10 minutes or until edges are slightly browned and toffee is bubbling.
Let
toffee cool for 5 minutes, then sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Let the chips sit for about 2-5 minutes and then
spread chocolate. Press pecans into the
chocolate.
Refrigerate
until chocolate sets. Flip pan upside
down onto cutting board, remove pan and peel away foil. Flip toffee chocolate side up, and cut into
bars.
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I tell Jeremy that I used all the chips in the mandel bread
and I don’t have enough saltines. Jeremy
tells Justin to go to the store since he, Jeremy, already went. We decide that we really need 2 bags of chocolate
chips because I really should make some more mandel bread, too. Justin asks if
he will be using my debit card, and Jeremy convinces Justin that he should pay
for it. “Alright,” Justin says
begrudgingly. “I hardly have any money
because I spent it all on movie tickets that I bought for a girl who didn’t
show up.”
Off goes
Justin, changing out of his pajamas for the first time, at 8:00 PM.
Twenty-five
minutes later, we begin to worry why Justin is not back. Just then, we see him coming home. “I couldn’t find the chocolate chips! They were hiding behind the condensed milk! And they cost $3.50 a bag!”
That WAS pretty
steep, I have to admit.
The toffee
now underway, and Justin back in his pajamas and his hole, Jeremy and I discuss
the cost of food, and how, lately, he ends up spending about $100 a week on food,
between lunches, coffee, pizza, etc!
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| Stirring up the melted butter & brown sugar with the condensed milk |
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| The toffee mixture bubbling in the oven |
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| Spreading the melted chocolate chips |
About 9:30
PM, Bailey, who arrives home thanks to his friend's mom, comes bouncing into the house. “Skating was AWESOME!”
Seeing that I’m cleaning up the kitchen,
Bailey asks, “What did you make?” I show him the toffee bars attempting to
harden in the refrigerator, and we both put our fingers in the wet chocolate, licking
them off. I decide to put the tray into the freezer so that the bars will
harden faster.
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Once hardened, these toffee bars slice up like a dream.
No nuts, because that's the way they like them. |
Justin is
back upstairs now, sitting on the comfy chair, with the “i” device still in his
hand, while Bailey describes “The best day EVER!”: the close-encounter with the
Zamboni, skating while scooping up ice shavings with a sweeping hand, and the girls who asked him his name. He tells
Justin to come with him the next time, it’s so much fun, that instead of
chatting with girls online, he could actually meet some at the skating
rink! Shy Justin smiles and says no,
while the idea seems to be ruminating scarily in his head. Bailey and I
encourage him.
Bailey says
to me, “Oh, here’s ten dollars back. I
didn’t get anything to eat.” I thank
Bailey, and hand the ten dollars to Justin for buying the saltines and chips.
Justin is happy, the toffee bars are ready,
and my three sons and I enjoy the evening's treat.
Next up: Mandel Bread.
