Homemade Caramel Apples

Today the girls were telling me that they have never had a caramel apple before. This shocked me! I love caramel apples and I believe that no one should be deprived of this great invention. I also needed a time filler so we made them. Now this was a first for me, but I knew how hard it would be to make caramel. The caramel ended up tasting great but was having a difficult time hardening. I really want to try this again with a bigger pot so I can get the heat just right. But the girls were happy with the apples and I thought it tasted great!

What you will need:

8 apples

1 cup heavy cream

3.4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Candy thermometer

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Add butter, corn syrup. heavy cream- 3/4 cup ( save the other 1/4 cup for later), and sugar

cook on high heat until temperature reaches 280 degrees F. ( You will need a thermometer for this) The caramel should harden a bit and at this point add the vanilla and the rest of the heavy cream.

Stick the apples and put on wax paper

dip the apples in caramel and let sit to dry

Final product

Last week of summer :(

It's backwards, but heres my week in pictures

I went home this weekend to spend some time with the boyfriend

Colton came down to SD on friday

Meet my best friends aren't they so cool?

We celebrated Alli's birthday this week with sushi and cupcakes

Becky has malaria and has been in the hospital all weekend :(

Becky and I attended the farmers market on Wednesday, where I decided to buy everything in sight

Slurpees after a day at the beach

This is where I almost killed myself.... Oh the things I let them talk me into

Taco Tuesday

BBQ Chicken Pizza Braid

Becky came over for dinner last night to catch up and watch the bachelor pad. I made a BBQ chicken pizza braid for dinner. It was delicious and super easy so I just had to share it with you all . All you need is...

• Pizza Dough
• Celantro
• Red onions
• Chicken
• BBQ sauce
• mozzarella cheese

Let the dough sit for 20 minutes before rolling it out. While the dough sits take some chicken and mix it with BBQ sauce ( I forgot to take a picture of this step sorry :/)

**Little side recipe**

I bought a chicken from the store for the pizza and then used the carcass to make chicken broth for another day.

Chicken Broth: Take a chicken carcass add a whole onion (no need to peal it) , some dried bail leafs, salt, pepper, and garlic. Once you have everything together fill a medium size pot with water. Cook on low for a couple of hours, do not bring to a boil. The longer you cook it the better the chicken broth is.

Alright back to the Pizza.....

Chop up some red onions, cilantro, and mozzarella

Roll the dough into a rectangle. Drizzle BBQ sauce down the middle and add the pizza toppings. Next, cut the sides and then rap it like a braid.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 20-25 mins

I drizzled some olive oil on top to make it golden brown

Make sure you enjoy the pizza with great friends, it makes it taste way better!

*Thank you Brittany and Ryan for the Chicken broth recipe

Weekend at home

I spent the weekend in Orange County doing lots of fun things. I was able to hang out with really great friends, see some really funny movies (if you want a good laugh go see attack the block), and spend some time with my mom. I only took 2 pictures (lame I know, but I forgot my camera in San Diego) and I am not sure if they do my weekend justice, but its all I got.

Spending the day with the Witts and Phil might be one of my favorite parts about this weekend. I laugh so hard when I am with them, as you can see from the pictures bellow. Seriously, how could you not laugh?

Picture #1:

This is my friend Ryanne. She really loves backpack chairs and HD sunglasses.

Picture # 2:

This is Phil with his laundry. Yes, you can only see half of his face, but in his defense he didn't know I was taking the picture.

Life back at Loma Loma

Last time leaving for school, mom had to take a picture

Oh just building a crib for myself

SO I don't know why I am posting this horrible picture of my room because in real life it does not look like a highlighter exploded all over it.But this is my cute room that Alli helped me paint and set up. Its not done yet but I love it so far. I promise for better pictures of my room soon ( since I know your are all dying to see it ;) )

Well I was peer pressured by an 8 and 11 year old to get my ears pierced. I know its so crazy that I dont have my ears pierced, but I finally did it.

Signing my ears away

The family I nanny for adopted a Great Dane while I was gone. It's only 3 months old and by the time its fully grown it will be over 200 pounds. If you didn't already know I hate animals, but mostly just dogs, so this will be a fun year for "the animal" and I. (Yes I refer to it as animal)

I took the kids and their friends to the beach today. I laid out for 3 hours while they played. Have I mentioned that I have a really great job?

Last Days in Brooklyn

I'm already back from Brooklyn, but I have been too busy to blog about the last couple of days there. So here are a few pictures:

Marlow and Sons

Alright people, if you don't know about Peter Luger then its about time you do. It's a restaurant in Brooklyn and has been around since 1887. It's been voted best porterhouse steak in NYC for over 27 years. The steak is a bit pricey and they only take cash and of course the Peter Luger credit card. We went for lunch and ordered some burgers. The burger was delicious, but make sure you order bacon on it.

Reese was in LOVE with this truck. I think we sat there for 10 minutes watching it go back and forth.

Marlow and Daughters

Best lunch ever

Little life update: I have already moved back to San Diego,started to decorate my room, and am back to nannying. It's going to be a great year and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Food Trucks

Brittany has been telling me of these amazing food trucks... well since I can remember. They run during the summer and only on the weekends. So with this being my last summer trip to NYC until next year we had to go. Like most things (but not all) Brittany was right. The food was delicious! Here are some pictures!

Peach and Tomato Salad

Alright well I first heard about this recipe from a blog called Cupcakes and Cashmere, but she originally heard it from Mark Bittman's 101 simple salads. You guys this salad is amazing! and to prove it heres a quote from ryan, "This is the best thing I have eaten in over a month; that includes the things we ate in hawaii, home, and NYC" Let me tell you guys that thats a huge compliment when it comes to ryan. So you guys have to try it.

Here is what you will need (buy ingredients according to how many you are serving)

• peaches
• red onions- thinly sliced
• Tomatos- make sure they are ripe!
• Avocado
• cilantro
• lemon juice (1 lemon will do the trick; 1-3 ratio)
• Olive oil (3-1 ratio)

Cut the peaches and tomatoes and add to bowl

Thin slices of onion makes for a perfect salad (then add to bowl, along with minced cilantro)

Heres a little trick you might not know. To get the most juice out of your lemons roll them first

The dressing is the hardest part. I had about 1/4 cup of lemon juice so I added 1/2 cup olive oil (3:1 ratio). Add salt before the olive oil because once you add the olive oil the salt will not mix properly. When adding the olive oil make she you add a little bit at a time and continue mixing through out this process (the continual mixing is the most important part). When you stop mixing you don't want to see the olive oil on top.

I added the avocados last because I did not want them to go brown

The beautiful/yummy/amazing/I cant wait to make it again, Peach and Tomato Salad