A lot of people make plans for the holiday like going to the beach. I always like to take the time to try out something new in the kitchen. Over the past few days I have made a challah (recipe coming soon) banana chocolate chip muffins (ditto) and caramels.

I took the caramel recipe from thekitchn.com, a site almost certainly born out of the lack of available top-level domain names. However, I like the conversational tone of the recipe, and the clearly written advice throughout.

The recipe can be found here and is worth checking out. I had most of the ingredients, but I needed a candy thermometer. Luckily, there’s a restaurant supply shop nearby, so for less than 10 dollars I walked out with a clip on candy thermometer that has helpful demarcations like “soft ball” and “hard ball.”

I think the recipe might need some tweaking, because the final came out both bland and too hard. Of course, I blame it all on being a candy-rookie, because I know by Labor Day I’ll be getting it just right.