Do not try this at home!

Bill and I decided that it would be a GREAT idea to make homeade caramel apples...okay, so it was my bright idea! I googled a recipe and went to Target to get everything we needed; apples, caramel, sticks, heath bar, nuts, and chocolate. We were set! It all started when I tried to do this activity with as little mess as possible. One recipe said I could use a crockpot and since I recently purchased these handy little slow cooker savers that make cleaning a crockpot easy, I thought I'd use that. I put all the caramel into the lined crock pot. It was taking FOREVER to cook, so I decided to switch to a pot on the stove. I originally didn't want to do this because I was afraid I'd ruin our new pots. Within about 5 minutes our caramel was ready to go! Bill was 1st to go, he dipped the apple, we wiped the bottom with the excess caramel, we took a picture (we needed one for the blog!), but by the time we got it to the candy the caramel was dried and the candy wouldn't stick. No biggie, I went next. This time we were prepared to go faster. After dipping, I decided that I wanted chocolate on this one. Well, that's when we learned that because the caramel was still hot, it melted all the chocolate and we ended up with nothing but a big chocolate/caramel mess! Okay, so we're learning as we go. The next few went really well, except for the fact that when we would bring the apples from the stove to the candy dishes, caramel would drip EVERYWHERE. We got smart and put a paper towel down, but not before dripping caramel all over the stove and countertop. We decided that the heath bar was the best and the easiest to do, along with just the plain caramel. Can you guess what the remaining apples were? Although we had a lot of fun and laughed till our stomachs hurt, I don't think this will become an annual activity. I spent all night and the entire next day cleaning all the pots, stove top, and counters from caramel. Did I mention that the lining for the crockpot, which makes for easy cleaning, leaked and caramel got all over my crockpot? So much for easy cleaning (those won't make my Friday Favorites anytime soon)! The final project turned out okay, but only because it doesn't matter how it looks, they all go down the same way. I wanted to send some with Bill to the office and give away, but that won't be happening since they are not very pretty...just yummy!

Moral of the story, do not attempt this at home. Don't say you weren't warned!

Right before the madness started!

We should've just stopped here!

Bill dipping (the caramel is hardening as we speak, but I NEEDED a picture)

Finished! Yummy...just not pretty. Notice the chocolate one that is just a big mess!