A Letter To My Oldest Son...and His Beautiful Bride!

This one's for you honey!

My oldest son is somewhat of a coffee aficionado.  Oh..he's many other things...a caring and loving son....a wonderful husband and an amazing dad....let me say that again...he is an amazing dad!

However, he LOVES his coffee and he knows how to use all those fancy words that sound like Greek to his tea loving mama...frappe..latte...macchiato...caramel...aaaahhhh...that's the one...caramel!

When he goes into a coffee shop he has a saying that he always uses to express to the barista  how much caramel he wants in his coffee...

"I want extra caramel.  I want enough caramel to kill a mortal man".  And he ain't kidding!

I have been known to purchase a bottle of said caramel (and I blush to think what I paid for 6 ounces!) to satisfy his deep obsession need for caramel in his coffee.

No more.

The ingredients in a variety of caramel sauces at the store read like a chemistry shop...corn syrup or even worse high fructose corn syrup...soy...preservatives...emulsifiers...mono and diglycerides... flavors and colors...and the beat goes on.

No more. 

If we are going to eat something that isn't considered "healthy" food, we can at least use real food to make it.

Dear Oldest Son,

Honey...have I got a recipe for you.  I made this tonight in just about 5 minutes!  Easy peasy!

Put 1/2 stick of butter in a saucepan on the stove and melt it.
Add 1 cup packed brown sugar and stir into butter - keep heat on low.
Add a pinch of salt - the good stuff. Stir.
Add 2 tsp. vanilla extract (the real thing - not that fake stuff!)Stir.
Add 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream.  Organic is nice. Stir until you mix it in.

Get a whisk and turn up the heat...just a little.  Bring to a good simmer...just under a boil...stirring constantly.

Cook for about 5 minutes or until you see it beginning to get thick.

Turn off heat.

Pour into a pint jar and let cool. (It makes more than this but two of your brothers found it before I could find the camera!)

Spoon over ice cream...like this home churned vanilla! (I found one of your brothers doing this when I came back with the camera.  No names but he might have green eyes).
Spoon it into hot cocoa (my favorite!) or into your coffee.

Cap and put in refrigerator.

Think of all the money you'll save!

Do not ask your beautiful bride to make this every day!

You will want to thank me.

Bring me my grandbaby!

I love you,
Mom

PS  To his Beautiful Bride....you are not required to make this every single day. I love you too!