Hello Design Dazzle Fans! Sherri, Tracy and I are so excited to be participating in Design Dazzle’s Summer Camp 2013!

We three sisters come to you from madefrompinterest.net where we make and create the things that we pin from Pinterest and then share our results with you! Some of the pins we make “Rock” and some of them are a “Flop”. Our blog helps us to actually make and enjoy what we find on Pinterest, but it also helps us stay in touch with each other. We all live in different parts of the United States. We love that we can work together even though we live far apart. Besides blogging and Pinterest we love spending time together as a family whenever possible. Between the three of us we have 10 children and 3 grandchildren.

Is school out where you live? Have the summer boredom blues already started? Before I get on to our activity for today, I wanted to share something that I came across on Pinterest. Pinterest? Really? I was surfing on Pinterest? No……..! You too? We are kindred spirits!

I loved this weekly chart that gives you ideas for your kiddos to do during summer. Every day has a different theme and one of the best things about this is that you can download it and change the list to fit your needs! Isn’t that great?

Just go to summer activities and games to edit the chart and add your own activities!

One of the things that I’ve added to my activity chart is to make Old Fashioned Taffy. Have your kids ever done that? I love hands-on activities where everyone can sit around the table, talking, laughing and create something while making a memory. A Good Old Fashioned Taffy Pull is just the thing!

Taking the recipe from the southern queen Paula Deen, here is what you will need:

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons corn starch

1 cup light corn syrup

2 teaspoons glycerin – this is a really important ingredient and the taffy won’t turn out as well without it. It can be found in drugstores, some grocery stores and some craft stores. I found mine in a pharmacy in my grocery store but it was behind the counter so make sure you ask about it!

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature plus more for hands when pulling taffy

¾ cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Wax paper cut into 50 (3”x 3”) squares

In a large pot, stir your sugar and the cornstarch together. Next add your corn syrup, butter, glycerin, butter, water and salt:

Place over medium heat and stir constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. Once boiling, let your mixture continue to boil until it reaches 270 on a candy thermometer. This process usually takes around 30-40 minutes. You can also dip a spoon into your mixture and then run some cold water over it. If it gets a little stiff on the outside, then you are ready to go!

After your mixture has reached 270 degrees, remove from heat and gently mix in your vanilla. It is also at this point that if you would like to add some food coloring, you can. I wanted mine to be pure and natural so I didn’t add any at this time.

Then pour your hot mixture onto a jelly roll pan that has either been sprayed with Pam or covered with butter. Let this mixture cool for about 5 minutes and then get everyone’s hands buttered to be ready to pull! Give a blob to all of your participants and tell them that the secret is to really s.t.r.e.t.c.h. it out! As you pull and stretch, this clear mixture will begin to turn a beautiful white:

Don’t be concerned if it doesn’t turn light right away…it usually takes about 10 minutes to get this to a white color with a satiny gloss. After it has turned white, roll your taffy into long ropes and lay out to cool:

After cooling for about twenty minutes, you can then take the back of a knife and “whack” the rope which will break the taffy into pieces:

Take your 3×3 inch squares of waxed paper and wrap your pieces of taffy:

If all of your taffy doesn’t get eaten immediately and you have some leftover, it would be great to package some up and have your kids give them as gifts! This way, they can have fun and also perform a service!

Thank you Toni for the invitation to share some summer fun! We’d love for you to hop on over to madefrompinterest.net and say hello!

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