Happy National Peanut Brittle Day! According to the National Day Calendar, today we recognize the hard, flat candy confection that is enjoyed worldwide. The candy’s buttery, nutty texture makes for a delicious treat and can be made at home. But it is so much easier to go to a candy store and buy some, and you can get sugar-free brittle that tastes just like the original candy. Yum!

Peanut brittle includes caramelized sugar or corn syrup. Nuts are added to the molten, sugary liquid and then poured onto a flat surface such as granite or marble and smoothed into a thin sheet. The candy cools into a hard, brittle treat broken into smaller pieces. Some of the best brittles are hand-stretched into a thin, easily cracked candy that melts in the mouth.

The history of peanut brittle is uncertain, though one legend says it was all a mistake. The story goes that a Southern woman was making taffy, and instead of using cream of tartar, she used baking soda by accident. Needless to say, it’s been a brittle search, but so far we haven’t been able to break through to the origins of this sweet holiday. LOL! I crack myself up. I wish I could claim the last sentence, but it is a paraphrase from National Day Calendar.

A little trivia: The sugar for the brittle must be cooked to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, called the hard crack stage. This makes the candy hard, with a snap to it. Stretching the sugar once it cools to a malleable temperature gives the brittle a delicate, brittle texture. Peanut brittle can be frozen for up to three months in a freezer-safe container. Sounds easy-peasy. Maybe I will make some this weekend.

Alright, this is crazy. January is almost over! Shoot-fire! We just barely finished celebrating Christmas; now January is on its way into February next week. Where did January go? Hopefully, if you made a New Year’s resolution or two, you are still working on them. My resolution is to have my family’s cell phone numbers memorized, and I am working on the extended family. But I tell you: If I miss more than two days of repeating those numbers, I find myself hesitating to recall the numbers. Well, practice makes perfect, and I have a lot of practicing to do.

Do you know what “fries my pie”? When people call me Ms. Siegalkoff. I have a gold band on my left ring finger for a reason: I am Mrs. Siegalkoff.  So I gently wave my left hand and correct them, and then they call me by my first name. Ugh! Trying not to be snarky, I let them know again, Mrs. Siegalkoff, and I didn’t give them permission to call me by my first name. I fear manners are being overlooked. And that is a travesty. Maybe we need to add learning manners to the curriculum.

And another irritant: people who don’t do their research. They just talk to hear themselves speak, and when called on their discrepancies they say, “No big deal. Nobody really cares.” Really? You just gave inaccurate information, but it’s OK? And I guess maybe it is, because there are people who have stretched the truth so much no one believes them anyway. Sad. We must hope God turns a light bulb on for those self-absorbed people soon before it is too late. God has a plan.

Recipe of the day: Peanut brittle

Flower of the day: Cactus flowers

Dates to remember:

Feb. 2 - Groundhog Day

Feb. 12 - Abraham Lincoln’s birthday; all Galt high school district schools are closed.

Feb. 14 - Ash Wednesday

Feb. 14 - Valentine’s Day

Feb. 19 - President’s Day; government offices and schools are closed.

Feb. 29 - Leap Day; there are 29 days in February, and no, it is not a holiday.

Until next week - Be strong, be courageous, make a memory.