Teacher Gifts for Christmas

Last year I decided to change up the teacher gift giving to a food item.  When the kids hit Middle School the teacher roster increased a tad out of the budget, plus now we have boy teachers.  My jewelry just doesn't seem as appropriate anymore.  Haha...In fact, William has 4 males out of 6 teachers!  And yes, I have to physically walk the gifts in now and place them in the teacher's boxes because both kids are too embarrassed to distribute them.   I firmly believe that teachers, no matter what age the child, deserve a little thank you for sharing their love of teaching with my children.  And although this box of crack isn't much, it let's them know I am thankful and care.  

Last year I found this recipe for Caramel Chex. I have no idea where.  Probably Pinterest.  I was on a caramel kick this time last year so thought, why not try it.  Well folks.....this stuff is literally what we have coined in the Horne house as, "caramel crack."  After giving it to the teachers last year everyone of William's teachers emailed me and said either "thank you" or dear goodness what have you given me?  Our bus driver Rebecca has been literally asking for the recipe everyday since.  She got the recipe today.  :)  And now, I am sharing it with you.  Enjoy!!  The great thing is if you watch, you can get Chex and pretzels on sale at Publix BOGO.  Total I think we spent $20 on 13 gifts plus a large bag for the neighbors, for the food ingredients and the little boxes which we found 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby.

CARAMEL CHEX

box of Rice Chex

bag of pretzel sticks

1 cup of butter

2 cups of packed brown sugar

1/2 cup light Karo syrup

1.  Boil the sugar, butter and syrup 2 minutes.

2.  Pour hot mixture over the dry mix and stir.  Be sure to coat all the pieces with the warm goodness.

3.  Bake at 350' for 8 minutes.

4.  Cool on wax paper.

5.  Break up and place in goody boxes.  We like to do one handful in the box, one handful in the mouth rotation.  Yep.

This recipe requires a HUGE bowl for mixing.  And 3 baking sheets.  Be careful with the pan on the bottom rack.  I had some burning issues the first batch.  The second batch I lessened the time by a minute.  We actually made 2 batches to fill 13 large fortune cookie boxes, one large ziploc for the neighbors and a rubbermaid for ourselves.  Of course.  I hope you enjoy your holiday baking.  I'm not a big bake a million things at Christmas person.  My Mom always made ice box fruit cake, weird little cheesecakes with cherries on top, forgotten meringues, and date balls.  Only the meringues did I ever really like.  Don't tell her that because she thinks the fruit cake is the bees knees.  Our caramel crack however, is one goody I have a feeling will become a family tradition for the Horne gang for years to come!