We have season tickets to University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) hockey. My husband, my brother- -in-law and I go to every game when the Nanooks are in town. The Nanooks are a Division 1 hockey team and started the preseason year ranked 13th in the nation. "Nanook" is Inuit Eskimo for Polar Bear.
We sit right behind the side with the net. You sit with the same people every game, my husband has known most of them all his life. It's fun to catch up with what everyone is doing. Sam's son is playing football now (where did the time go?) and knows all the stats for all the hockey players, Margaret and Ed are headed to Arizona (lucky ducks) and the Roger's family is settled in for the winter, they are at every game with their UAF hockey jersey's on, yelling at the refs when they don't call a play right.
I enjoy the fast pace of the games, but I love the food available at the game. No overcooked hotdogs for me (although you can get them there), no I go for the specialty ice cream sundaes, the spicy barbeque, the fresh fruit smoothies or the caramel apples.
The Fudge Pot has a booth at every game. They sell all kinds of flavors of fudge (cranberry anyone?) and they sell caramel apples.
You can get them two ways. A regular dipped apple, plain or rolled in candy or nuts or, my favorite way, sliced with a soft, creamy caramel poured over the slices, again plain or topped with candy or nuts. I love mine plain. The caramel is warm, creamy and puddles at the bottom of the paper container. The last bites of apple are used to scrape up the caramel stuck to the bottom. They bring out the kid in you, without the sticky caramel all over your cheeks. The caramel apples will set you back $5, but trust me they are worth it once in a while. It got me to thinking about how easy caramel is to make at home and how delicious it would be to pour some warm, creamy caramel over our apple pie this Thanksgiving.
I'm big into practicing before I serve something new to people, and even though I'm pretty capable at apple pie and caramel separately, I had to practice them together before the big day. (Once I practiced wellington so many times, my husband asked for a break from meat! He only eats meat!) So, it was a cold weekend, and I practiced.
Adapted from; Gifts from the Christmas Kitchen, 1998, Publications International, Ltd.
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
extra heavy cream to thin (optional)
Place both sugars, cream and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until mixture boils. Carefully clip candy thermometer to side of pan. (Make sure bulb is not touching bottom of pan). Cook, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes or until thermometer registers 238ºF. Immediately remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Cool about 15 minutes. Check consistency of sauce and thin with extra cream is desired. Serve warm or pour into clean glass jars and seal tightly. Store up to 6 months in refrigerator. Reheat sauce over low heat before serving. Makes about 2 cups.
November 20, 2011 Current Daylight 5Hrs, 48 Min, 30 Sec. Current Temp. -28º F
Sliced wit soft caramel on top please! That's a great way t prepare caramel apples and perfect for us as we tend to avoid them because they can be so hard to eat! Sounds like the hockey games are time well spent. Hope the Nanooks do well this season!
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