Day 4: Friday, Sept 11
Marshmallow Wands and Monte Cristos
Ok, so today is better and I can tell our story now.
We have wildfires in our county. Throughout our state, nearly 1 million acres have burned since Monday. Thankfully not in our part of the county, but close enough that we are on level 1 (Get Ready) of evacuation. That meant that yesterday was spent cataloging all of our things, making a list/staging the things we wanted to take in evacuation, and obsessively checking the evacuation map. My day really went downhill when an area close to us went from level 1 to level 2 (Get Set - pack, and either leave now or be ready to leave on a moment's notice). Then I really freaked out. On top of that, I was still trying to get work done, because school was supposed to start on Monday!
Today, we seem to be in a better place. The wind, which was causing so many problems, has died down. It's basically non-existent at this point. That means the smoke isn't clearing and our air quality is now the worst in the world BUT the fires are more manageable now. They were able to stop the fire about 1 mile from town where my 98 year old auntie and 76 year old cousin live. They both evacuated and are safe, and now we're fairly certain their homes were spared, too. My school district also canceled today and Monday - they said to treat it like a snow day - which was a huge help since I really couldn't focus on work. It also means we now have lost days of school to inclement weather before classes even began
2020, man. What a doozy.
Today was also supposed to have been the last day of a large arts festival that I helped plan. We had to postpone because of the situation, of course, so then I invited my parents over for dinner to continue our fake Disneyland adventure. I made three things that I've actually never had at Disney but was planning to try on this trip - Marshmallow Wands, Monte Cristos and Pomme Frites.
First, I made the caramel for the marshmallow wands
Moments after this photo, my candy thermometer fell in the caramel
All I could do was laugh. Then I pulled out my meat thermometer and used it instead. It's a digital read out, so if the probe fell all the way in, oh well.
I used the recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction that
@mre200200 posted about, but I followed his instructions and took it to 248F (firm ball stage) instead of the 235-240 (soft ball stage) that the recipe called for. It made for delicious, but very chewy, caramel. It's possible that I put it on too thick
The store didn't have any sticks, so I used plastic straws!
After the caramel, I melted the chocolate. Note to self - the microwave is way faster and delivers the desired results. I did semi-sweet over a double boiler and milk chocolate in the microwave. My mom doesn't like dark chocolate, but I was afraid the milk chocolate would end up being too sweet (spoiler: I was wrong).
The finished product!
I put the chocolate on too thick, but it still tasted delicious. My dad said "Better to have too much chocolate than not enough!" I did have to put them in the fridge - does everyone have to do that? It could have just been because it was warm in the house. I took them out before dinner because I was afraid that with the cold caramel and chocolate they would be hard to eat, and when I served them the milk chocolate were very melty and messy. The semi-sweet weren't as much.
Speaking of dinner, here it is! I even made the remoulade
It was really good! Even my dad and husband, who both poopooed the idea (and for whom I made backup meatloaf, just in case) loved it. I think I need to raise the temperature of my oil so it fries a little faster and doesn't get as greasy. Also, I wanted to use challah or brioche, but I couldn't find any in the store and ran out of time to make my own, so I just used regular ol' white bread. The problem is that I think the bread really needed to be thicker. But overall they were tasty - we didn't even need the backup meatloaf! The fries were also a huge hit - we ate the entire batch, though I think I'm the only one who used the sauce.
So overall, a much better day!
Outfit of the Day
"Dinglehopper Hair, Don't Care" (Look closely and you'll see chocolate from the marshmallow wand near the hem of my shirt. oops!)
Ears of the Day
One of my favorite pairs - Little Mermaid 30th Anniversary ears!