Good morning everyone. What a beautiful day! As I was driving across the Manns Harbor Bridge a few minutes ago, I could barely see. My glasses are photo gray and darken when I go out in the sunlight, but this morning they just couldn’t darken quick enough. That beautiful sun reflecting off the water would just about blind a person. Still plenty windy here on the Outer Banks but at least last night the elephants had decided to play quietly and just move around a little bit.
Yesterday I mentioned “pulled sugar” in my email. I have had several people reply and ask me to tell what it is. Before I started this email, I “googled” pulled sugar just to see what results I would get. Just as I thought, none of them were the pulled sugar I am talking about. Most of these references were about things like very delicate icings for cakes, extremely delicate decorations that I’ve always heard referred to as “spun sugar”. The “pulled sugar” I am talking about is a candy we used to make when I was young. We had a G.A. group at my Church which was an organization for the young girls up through intermediate age. My family lived right behind the Merry Hill Baptist Church (made it hard to miss a service) and sometimes the G.A. group would meet at my house and Mama would help us make candy. Often we would make fudge, but there wasn’t much group participation in that so most of the time we made “pulled sugar”. Sometimes some of the kids in my neighborhood would come over to make it. The best I can remember, the only ingredients are vinegar and sugar. A little water can be added to “cut” the sourness of the vinegar, but Mama never did that. I know, sounds weird for candy doesn’t it. I don’t remember how much of each ingredient because my Mama was one of those cooks that never had to measure anything; she just put in until she had it right and she was an awesome cook. The mixture was cooked over a medium/low heat constantly stirring to keep it from scorching. To see if it was done, you took a small amount in a spoon and dropped a little in a cup of water. It if hardened into a small ball, it was “ready”. It was poured onto a big baking sheet. The kitchen table was covered in wax paper; we would cover our hands with butter and one of us would pick up some of this mixture. Now remember it was really hot. You just started working with it in your hands and as you did this it would turn white and become harder and harder to move. I guess you are wondering where the group participation came in? Now! You would give one end to your partner and then you would start to stretch or “pull” the sugar. As you pulled it you twisted it over itself and swapped ends with your partner. When the piece had been pulled until you could barely pull it any more, you laid it on the wax paper. Sometimes we would twist into a fancy look, other times just lay it out straight. It would harden and then you broke in into whatever size you wanted with a knife. You didn’t cut it, you just hit it with the blade of the knife and it would break. It was hard, but when you put it in your mouth, the warmth of your mouth would soften it and it was delicious. If you’ve ever had any “pulled sugar” you would never buy another box of Salt Water Taffy. I just called my sister to be sure I had everything right and the only thing I had left out was adding the water to the ingredients. But she said I probably left that out because Mama never did it. So, that’s “pulled sugar” and how you make it. My sister also told me she found an old recipe for it a month or so ago when she was just looking through an old book. If she can remember where it was, she is going to get the recipe to me. It might be a fun thing for our Church ladies to do at one of our ladies meetings.
One more thing before I get to work. As I was coming to work this morning and having my prayer one of the comments I made in my prayer really struck me….hard. I was thanking the Lord for the forgiveness of sins in my life. I thanked him for not seeing me as me, but for seeing me through the blood of his Son. Isn’t it great that when we are seen through the eyes of God, he sees us as whole and clean. None of us are deserving of that. But I thank God every day…for the precious blood of Jesus Christ. I hope you can do the same. It’s not too late if you can’t. It’s never too late to become a Child of the King. But, don’t keep putting it off. I honestly believe this old world is not going continue much longer. I believe Jesus is coming… soon… to get His children.
Have a great day everyone. Embrace this beautiful day and all it has to offer you.
Brenda
boutlaw@carolinaregion.com
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