aunt bill's brown candy

now that i am somewhat mobile, i have been cooking a lot. below are pictures of me making aunt bill's brown candy with my parents when i was home for christmas. there many recipes online, but, essentially, you melt sugar in a skillet, and it caramelizes, which takes a long time, whilst warming some sugar and milk in a big pot, and when the sugar is caramelized, you pour it into the hot milk/sugar and reduce it for a very long time, and then add baking soda, vanilla and pecans and beat it for a very long time. teamwork is recommended.

i discovered upon researching the recipe that this candy is an oklahoma tradition, which was fun because the reason i wanted to make it was because my aunt, no longer with us, used to make it every christmas. and she was oklahoman, as is my dad, whose sister she was. it was kind of like resurrecting a tiny part of her experiencing one of the things she used to do to prepare for our visit.

actually, there are microwave versions, and i vaguely remember she told me she made it in the microwave. next time! and there sure as heck's gonna be a next time; it was fantastic, and just as addictive as i remembered.