Nut Butter Crunch, or the story of the empty cookie jar

I had this morning off (which is how I came to be at the farmer's market buying root veggies and Indian lunch). When I came in this afternoon, Maura filled me in on the comings and goings of the guests. Those who were here for Jerry and Gail's daughter's wedding (congratulations, Jill!) were so sad to miss hors d'oeuvres because of wedding festivities, we decided to do two hors d'oeuvres hours. I love wedding guests--whenever I see them all dressed up I think the Blue Hill Inn ought to have a dress code! I love the fancy clothes and in Blue Hill and our mostly rural life, there's so little reason to dress up. As a friend of a friend said, "Maine's a great place to live. You don't have to wear pantyhose--not even to a funeral!"

I noticed, just after starting my shift, that there were only three cookies left on the plate! On a cool fall day, three cookies were not going to last long with a full house. I looked for cookie dough but there was none already made. I didn't think I'd have time to mix some up so I looked for a quick and easy recipe in a cookbook a sweet guest gave me last year, River Road Recipes, "the textbook of Louisiana cuisine." I make glazed pecans, p. 212, almost every week. Tonight I thought I'd try Nut Butter Crunch, p. 213 ("You must hide it if you expect it to last at all!"). The recipe is short: butter, sugar, corn syrup, chocolate, and nuts. The directions were short: melt, add, stir until 320 degrees, spread, harden, break. What the recipe didn't tell me is how long, at low heat, it would take to get to 320 degrees!

I only had two more guests checking in but of course they arrived at about 232 degrees! Dennis and Judy, from Massachusetts, were great sports and found their room on their own. Dennis came back wondering about a key. He willingly stirred while I got the key for room 11 for them. Then, at about 276 degrees, Lynn and Neil from New York were ready to head out to Deer Isle. I really wanted them to see the Settlement Quarry overlook so Lynn willingly stirred while I pulled out the map and the yellow highlighter. Finally, we reached 320 and I poured it out into my greased pans just before serving hors d'oeuvres to the second group of guests.

I just offered the first bits to guests from Colorado and Massachusetts and got rave reviews! Lucky for me, some of it crumbled as I was breaking it. I can't put out Nut Butter Crunch crumbs so I had to try it. Pretty yummy...