Category Archives: Bandwagons

How to make a butterscotch sundae

11/14/2010 Nichole 2 Comments

Every now and again, someone wanders over here looking for a recipe for a butterscotch sundae. That’s a pretty reasonable thing to expect to find here, I think, and it’s not like I don’t like cooking, butterscotch or ice cream. So here it is:

The Official Butterscotch Sundae of ButterscotchSundae.com
two generous scoops of vanilla ice cream
A healthy handful of crumbled toffee
Butterscotch sauce, and lots of it
Whipped cream (optional)
A maraschino cherry

Warm butterscotch sauce. Put the ice cream in a bowl. Sprinkle half the toffee over the ice cream, pour on the butterscotch sauce, and sprinkle the rest of the top over that. Add a dollop of whipped cream and top with a maraschino cherry.

No component of The Official Butterscotch Sundae of ButterscotchSundae.com is particularly difficult to make, but you’d have to be pretty dedicated to DIY to make your sundae entirely from scratch. I don’t know that I’ll ever be inspired to make my own maraschino cherries, but this sauce is so very easy that I could make it every day. (But I won’t. I do have some self-control.)

The Official Butterscotch Sauce of ButterscotchSundae.com
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons rum
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
a wee dash of coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring sugar, corn syrup, water and rum to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. OK, now put down the spoon/whisk/stirring device. Let the mixture boil, swirling it occasionally, for about 8 minutes, until it turns a light caramel color. Take the saucepan off the heat and drop in cider vinegar, butter and salt. Don’t stir. Swirl it around until the butter melts, then add the heavy cream and vanilla and swirl some more. Return to heat and whisk for about a minute. Let the sauce cool for about 30 minutes before you do anything else with it. (Especially: Don’t taste it yet. Ouch.)

The butterscotch sauce will get really thick once it’s in the refrigerator. I suggest scooping some out and ~~eating it with a spoon~~ warming it up in a separate bowl to pour on to your sundae. Ten seconds or so is sufficient in my microwave, but your results may vary. I didn’t have the ingredients for the Official Sundae on hand when I last made the sauce, so I used a little crumbled Butterfinger bar. But really, that’s not necessary either. Just the sauce over some vanilla ice cream is dreamy.

Homeschool, National Blog Posting Month

The study of cakes, cats and composers

11/13/2010 Nichole

This week’s “Five in a Row” book was “The Duchess Bakes a Cake,” about a bored duchess who bakes a ridiculous cake that’s so full of yeast it carries her up into the sky. Ridiculous, but Poppy thought it was pretty funny. We talked about feudal society (while Pete wore the knight costume he got for his birthday), alliteration and baking. We tried to make a tres leche cake, but something went amiss. It didn’t home/school absorb all the milk and ended up looking like a cake that someone had spilled a cup of milk on. Rockford says he’ll eat it anyway, so I’m going to pour off the excess later today and let him try it for dessert.

In that-which-we-do-every-week news:

Poppy is pages away from the end of her handwriting book. Happily, Zaner-Bloser has a great tool available for making your own copywork pages. I’m using lines from the poems she’s memorized, songs she likes and movies she loves.

Speaking of poems, this week’s was “The Cat of Cats” by William Brighty Rands, which naturally became “The Marsha of Marshas” or some such derivation.

We read chapters three through seven of “The Water-Horse,” and I still haven’t decided whether or not to put the movie on the Netflix queue. I’ll be googling at some point to find out how it stacks up to the book. Have you seen it? What do you think?

Once again, Poppy finished her BookIt challenge this month with weeks to spare. Her assignment for November was to read 100 pages. It’ll be 200 next month. I don’t want it to be insurmountable, but I’d like to find a number or a book that will actually take her through the whole month.

We did start something new this week. I’ve been thinking about doing composer studies for awhile now, but I don’t have much classical music on hand. But I was given an iTunes gift card for my birthday (thanks Chloe!), so I downloaded a Mozart compilation. On Monday we listened to the Classics for Kids “About Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” podcast and then spent a little while actively listening to some of his works. We usually have music on in the background as we go about our day. This week, it was mostly Mozart. Pete enjoyed it even more than his sister did, even if he was disturbingly fixated on the composer’s fate. Nearly every time I turned it on, he’d walk into the room and say, “Is this Mozart? Mozart is dead.” At least it’s proof that he was paying attention to the podcast.

Family matters, National Blog Posting Month

Failure to launch. But it’s mostly OK.

11/12/2010 Nichole 4 Comments

I alluded the other day to my plans for the weekend. I was supposed to be doing something like this:

Instead, I am doing this:

That's me, sick in my bed. With awesome sheets.

My new friend Cintia, whom I met at the Type-A Mom Conference, invited me to go with her to a Women of Faith event. I went to one quite a lot of years ago — eight or nine, maybe — with a group of women I hardly knew at the time. I don’t remember much of the event itself, but I do remember the very emotional prayer- and tear-a-thon we had in the hotel room. It may not sound all that lovely, but it really was.

I was looking forward to sharing that sort of thing again. But then I woke up this morning feeling like a flaming bowling ball had lodged itself in my midsection. I’m not sure if it was nerves or something I ate or a bug. (I’m leaning toward Something I Ate. Rockford thinks I might be lactose intolerant. He’s usually right.)

Whatever caused the problem, though, I spent most of my morning laying in bed, shaking my fist at my bad luck and being angry at myself for being too weak to power through it. Then my daughter came in to bring me a drink, pat my head and tell me she hoped I was feeling better. And I realized this: If I couldn’t be there, at least I am here with my sweet family.