Peanut Brittle

The Recipe: Peanut Brittle from the December 2010 issue of Everyday Food.

The Substitutions: nada

The Verdict: Easy peasy. It's peanut brittle -- there's not much to say. Hard, stuck in your teeth, crunchy, peanut brittle. My only word of caution: you cook the sugar for 20 minutes -- when you're getting close to the end of that 20 minutes, WATCH THE STOVE. I burned the first batch and not only did it stink up the house, but I suddenly had all of this molten blackened sugar and didn't know what to do with it. I was afraid of pouring it into a bowl because I knew once it hardened, I'd never be able to get it out. I also knew that pouring it down the sink could result in a hefty plumbing bill. I ended up pouring it into a paper plate after it had cooled slightly and then threw the plate out when it was hard as a rock. On the upside, it all washed out of the pot in the dishwasher, which was a pleasant surprise.

Oh, and it tastes delicious. Not the burnt stuff, batch #2.