“A single rose can be my garden. . . .A single friend, my world.”
~ Leo Buscaglia, Tireless Advocated of the Power of Love (1924-1998)

Friends.

I love them. They love me back.They make me happy.

Last weekend, I went to visit a few of my oldest most dearest friends.
And we got are toes done.
And our nails done did.

You can’t tell it from the picture, but my finger nails have sparkles in them 🙂

And they made me crack the mess up.
And they told me my nails were pretty even though they were painted psychedelic pink, and it hurt our eyes to look at them.
And they told me I was silly and smart.
And I told them they were the best things in the universe EVER.

All day we giggled too loudly. And told each other things that we wouldn’t dare say out loud to other human beings. They made me feel whole. They pulled back my internal time clock to a time when I was 7. And my friends were my world. They made me wonder, Why don’t I make more time for visits like this? And so I decided that I would make an effort to see them whenever I could. With kids, without kids, with husband and kids. IT WOULD BECOME A PRIORITY.

Like it used to be when I was 7.
Like my daughter Bella.

Who has a bestest who is the bee’s knees.

They giggle together. They whisper together.
They are considerate and kind to one another.

And they look for sparkly things in the street together.
But mostly they just walk through life together.
Hand in hand.
Forever.

To friendship.
To You.
May love over take us all.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

I don’t know what Bella’s criteria for friendship is, but mine definitely includes nuts.

So here me when I say, ONE MUST BE A NUT should they be applying for a friendship opening with me.

And looky here.
I have 500 gazillion openings.
But. . . .
One must also like crunchy things.
And shiny things.
And sparkly things.
And sweet things, that could or could not get stuck in your teeth.
And if they shouldn’t, just as long as they’re breathing and nice to me, we should be good.

And honestly it wouldn’t hurt if they could wrestle down a 500 pound alligator. Because I think that’s awesome, and it would encourage my current obsession with Swamp People. But that’s not mandatory.

Peanut Brittle
adapted from The Unofficial Harry Potter Sweet Shoppe Book 

Oh, and I am so obsessed with this nut brittle. I’m warning you its addictive, and easy, and yummy, and heaven. Put in your friends favorite nut, wrap it up, hand it over and say, “I love you.” And they’ll love you back forever. And it only took a few minutes to make. Pretty good returns.

And another Oh! A candy thermometer makes this easier, if you don’t make candy often. However, it’s not necessary, I’ll show you how. 

Ingredients.

1 cup sugar, granulated (regular white sugar)
1/2 cup light corn syrup*
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt
2 TB butter, unsalted
1 1/2 cups roasted peanuts (or any nut you like), chopped
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
A small glass with Ice Cold water.

*Should I admit that I’ve made this 3 times in the past week? And I ran out of corn syrup. So I used pancake syrup. And it worked. So don’t let ‘no corn syrup’ in the pantry stop you. Use dark, or golden, or pancake syrup. Just do it.

Directions.

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
2. If using, clip a candy thermometer on the side of a 4 quart saucepan. To the saucepan, add sugar, syrup, water, and salt.

Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until the temperature reaches 280 degrees F. If your using golden syrup, and no thermometer, you can tell the desired temperature has been reached because the mixture will have turned a lovely shade of deep amber.

3. At that point, add the butter and nuts, and cook (stirring constantly) until the mixture reaches 300 degrees F.

This doesn’t take long, less than a minute. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can check if the candy has reached the desired hardness, by dropping a little bit of the mixture into your glass filled with ICE COLD water. If the mixture immediately hardens into a crunchy state (hard crack stage), its ready.

4. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and baking soda. When the baking soda is added, the mixture will expand.

5. Pour mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, and spread with a wooden spoon.

6. Cool completely. Break into bite size pieces. Eat and Enjoy!