Burning Myself Is a Real Life Lesson...

At 31, you still think you are 21, yesterday, I learned this absolutely not true.  You are 31 and have the reflexes of a woman over 30.  I made over 100 lollipops on Thursday, trying to make a new addition to our ever expanding craft endeavor, those were dye-free and vegan.  I then decided yesterday to make gluten-free and traditional, during batch number 5, my first traditional, something went terribly wrong.  I dropped a wooden teaspoon in the batch as I dropped the flavoring in, then decided to dig it our before mixing.  As I pulled it out, 300 degree sugar hit my palm.  I screamed like a banshee and could not get the darn stuff off. 

I lost a whole afternoon of production, because I didn't ask for help.  The lesson here, just leave the damn spoon until you are done, it was clean, it wasn't going to hurt anything. I iced my hand all night, but my lollipopping for this show is over. Here's the damage and why I didn't blog yesterday....

As you can see, my hand is swollen and it is blistered.  Don't try mass production at home. 

The reason I started the whole lollipop thing is simple.  Every time I went to buy a lollipop or sucker for my kids, I would check to see where it was made, many times, I found "Made In China."  Check your cabinets, you would be surprised to find where stuff is produced.  This is the same country that has produced unsafe toys and I am supposed to feed my child candy from there, I think not. 

Also, I have a dye allergy. I thought about all the people in the same boat as me and decided to make a change. This makes it next to impossible for me to eat hard candy in the traditional sense, imagine how may others have the same problem. So, "Granola Girls" was created this year. My son had me change the name to "The Granola Gang," he desires to make candy too.  This is going to be the first craft show where we will sell our products.  Here's what we have so far:

Plus a tray of 3 once bags of hard candy for those who refuse to lollipop it.

So, I bet you are wondering why we are calling it "Gronola."  An acquaintance once said, "I love Kristi, but she's turned into such a granola." I was quite the hippy at one time, still always trying to be kind to mother earth.  So, we always laughed and said, over the years, "Quit being such a granola." Our lollipops are all natural and hand-poured. And as always, Buy Local Think Global. We live near Lawrence, KS, the ultimate place of "live and let live." That is where our first show of the season is, South Park, Sunday, September 11.

Just a side note: I do realize the tragedy of 9/11 and feel that it should be mourned.  But, I also feel a gathering like this proves America can make it through anything and come back strong.  God Bless America.

My husband was concerned because I haven't posted the Key Lime Cake.  He wanted to make sure my followers knew he helped in the process of making that cake.  So, hats off to him, he did the lime zest for the monster cake.  See, I mentioned it honey, now can I move on? 

I will post that recipe when my show is over, thanks for all your help Derek. Also, thanks for all your patience, our kitchen is currently a candy factory. 

I will go for now, I have to sort, mark, repair, and make new stuff for the show.  'Til next time, let your true granola show....