Honey, Honey, Honey

I like to cook and I like to be crafty

I have zero ability to come up with anything on my own

I can copy what someone else does pretty well

For sometime I have been wanting to start making Christmas gifts for people, but I have limited talent and resources so it does not always go the way I want it to.

I decided I was going to make my sister-in-law Leigh her Christmas present.

She loves to drink hot tea (or at least I think so because she always drinks some when I am around).  Thus the quest to incorporate this love of hers into a usable present.  Lots of ideas floating around the internets that involve tea, but nothing was really hitting home for me.

Then I got this email with an attachment for a new magazine that would be coming out called Splendidly Homemade

The magazine had a recipe for Honey Vanilla Tea Spoons and I knew that is what I needed to make for Leigh.  I figured those look easy enough too and I could whip them together one day while Smiley napped.

Yeah

So

Not as hassle-free as one would hope.  A true comedy of errors in my kitchen as I tried to be “crafty”.  My dear friend Amy was on the phone with me for a good portion of the event and tried to be encouraging.  I was pretty sure by the end of it I was going to have to throw away the pot I was using.

Which in the end would have been fine because I got sweet new cookware from my parents for Christmast!  Thanks Mom and Dad I am loving the new pots and pans!

But, at the time it was not fine because  I had a pot covered in basically hard candy.

Also, getting molten lava onto the spoon was not simple since I was using plastic spoons which meant I had to let the lava cool for a little way or the plastic would have melted.  I think I let it cool too long because it was not super easy to get that stuff onto the spoon, but I figured play it safe because no one wants to be eating melted plastic.

It said to let the spoons harden on a cookie sheet with books stacked under the spoon hands to keep the bowl of the spoon level, thus not letting honey candy spill everywhere.

Yeah, by the time I started this process I realized that my cookie sheet was not really level so no amount of book stacking was going to help that situation.

Notice all the honey lava spilling out.

I still had to tackle the situation with cleaning the pot.  I figured let it harden and then I could just chisel it away with a knife.  Realized that was not going to work when I almost sliced off my finger and only a pebble size piece came off.  Then I decided I would just throw it away.  Then I decided I was a well educated woman and I was not going to let honey lava win (and the pot has a bit of sentimental value for me because it belonged to my Mema and she is no longer around).  And then the light in my brain came on and it occurred to me that these spoons of honey are suppose to melt in hot water, duh!  So I poured hot water all over the pot and all was right in my kitchen again.

In the end it all worked out and she received a nice mug, a box of tea and some very lovely honey vanilla spoons.

If any of you care to make your own honey vanilla spoons here is the recipe.  Hopefully it will go better for  you than it did for me.

• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 cups sugar
• 2tsp vanilla
• 1T vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• Stir everything together in a heavy sauce pot with a wooden spoon.  Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.  Cook over medium heat until the temperature reaches the hard crack stage.  Remove from heat.  Cover a cookie sheet with nonstick spray.  Dip the spoons into the pot, making sure to fill the bowl of the spoon.  Place on cookie sheet to harden.  Wrap individually with plastic wrap for storage.  Will make 30-40 spoons.  May I suggest using real spoons instead of plastic so you can start dipping right away.  And place the  handle of the spoons on books so the bowl of the spoon stays level and honey lava does not spill everywhere.