TOFFEE break!

I'm on toffee break right now. If you've never made toffee, you don't know that it's really pretty easy to do. Here's the recipe, copied out of the Tightwad Gazette 10 years ago:

Toffee
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips

Butter an 8 inch square pan. Spread chopped walnuts in the pan. (NOTE: I sprinkle the walnuts over the chocolate, which also means I used less, about 1/4 cup!) Heat the butter and sugar and boil over medium heat in a 1 quart sauce pan, stirring constantly. Do this until mixture darkens and just begins to smoke, about 7 minutes. Immediately pour mixture over walnuts. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over hot mixture and put a cookie sheet over the top to hold in the heat so it melts the chips. Spread chocolate with a knife. Score into 1 1/2 inch squares while warm. Refrigerate. Break into squares when cool.


I made several batches of toffee last year for the teachers at the end of school. Joseph and I decided that this would be a good gift for the people in his office at that time. I didn't know what I was agreeing to do!

I've tried to keep this Christmas season low key. It's been nice that we are taking a small vacation instead of gift giving within our family. There is something about me though. I must need a certain amount of stimulation to exist because there HAS to be a bunch of work for me to do around certain holidays and birthdays. If the work isn't naturally there, then I create it!

It turns out that I needed to make 27 batches of toffee so that Joseph can give it to the people he manages. Here are some statistics:

**1 batch of toffee takes 7 minutes to cook and stir
**27 batches of toffee means over three hours of stirring
**1 batch of toffee has 2033 calories
**27 batches of toffee have 54,891 calories which translates to 15 pounds (not including the water retention from so much sugar and sodium!)
**It takes two days from dawn to dusk doing little else than processing toffee to make and package 27 batches of toffee.
**A box of chocolates costs $7. My toffee costs $2.50 per box. Theoretically, I just saved myself $121.50!!