The second big accomplishment of the week was booking a GMAT test date. I had been telling myself that I was going to take it before President's Day, but hadn't actually booked it. Well the other night I logged on to the test center website and saw the month of January was nearly booked and February was pretty full as well. I moderately panicked, because the date in my head was full. So I adjusted and started through the process of booking it, when I got to the end my card wouldn't go through for some unknown reason....panic did set in at this point because it had just taken my 25 minutes to fill out the information before the payment and the month of January had completely filled up in that time frame. So I called my mom, mind you it was 1:00 am Central Time, whoops! But she gave me her card info and it is officially booked! February 16th at 8:00 am, please send care packages or notes of encouragement, thanks! :) Or I guess I can just go with Libby's advice and go buy all the Valentine's Day candy that will be on sale, which sounds like an awesome plan. Thanks Libs!
Lastly, the struggle of the week was finding almond bark. The special addition to any holiday treat during the Christmas season or so I thought. Not the case in Oregon. We are going on a ski trip this weekend and I wanted to whip up a treat I learned in first grade over break, almond bark covered puff corn. So I went to a grocery store on the way to volleyball after pacing the chips aisle at least 6 times I finally found the puff corn and grabbed a couple bags. Then I headed to the baking aisle to find....every kind of addition to cookies, but no almond bark. So I asked, they called their manager and told me it was seasonal they don't have it anymore. For gosh sakes, it is only 2 weeks after Christmas, how'd you run out already. So I paid for my puff corn, in fear that I may not find it at other stores and left. As I got closer to practice I knew there was a Target, so I decided to stop and give almond bark another shot. I didn't see it on the shelf, so I asked. Only to be asked my the Target worker, "What is that?" Well needless to say, they didn't have it either. At practice I said something to one of my coaches about almond bark, she asked what that was, and it is not the easiest thing to explain and I started to fear that maybe it doesn't exist in this area. The next day I went to Safeway in Forest Grove, failed again to find almond bark again. After calling my mom, I decided to make caramel puff corn instead, and according to her it is on the back of the puff corn bag. Well not in Oregon, because they don't have the brand we have in Iowa. So she told me what I needed. Later I brought up the lack of almond bark supply with my boss, he also did not know what I was really talking about. I was utterly disappointed in this missing ingredient, but maybe it's a regional thing. The midwest must have better holiday treats!
Anyway, I thought I would share the caramel puff corn recipe, because it was the third accomplishment of the week:
Ingredients:8 oz of puff corn (approx. 2 bags)1 cup butter (real butter, do not substitute)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
Directions:1. Place puff corn in a large roaster pan. (I used 2 large kettles, because we don't have a roaster pan.)
2. In a 2 quart sauce pan bring the butter, sugar & corn syrup to boil, then cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add the baking soda. (This will cause the caramel mixture to foam up.)
4. Stir well and remove from heat.
5. Pour over puff corn and bake in 250 degree oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, spread out onto wax paper to cool.
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