Caramel sauce

I found a super easy recipe for caramel sauce.

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup of water
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter

Bring sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil over medium heat. Do not stir. Wait for it to become a deep amber colour. Remove from heat. Gradually stir in cream. It will bubble vigorously. Stir in butter.

Enjoy! It made about 2 cups of delicious caramel sauce which now sits in my fridge.

You can warm up apple juice (an apple blend drink is better because it's less sweet) and put in some caramel sauce. Add some cinnamon and it makes a wonderful winter drink to cozy up with.

It starts off white-ish


Then the mixture becomes clear


Getting there..


Deep Amber.. actually.. I over did it a little.

Is your iPhone stuck in a backup?

My iPhone gets stuck whenever it tries to do a backup. It's terrible. I give up on it before it ever completed one. I'm partially to blame for this because I'm constantly installing free applications just to try them out. I finally got around to fixing my iPhone and I must say, it's nicer now.

Here are the instructions:

1. Disable auto-sync
2. Remove folders in Users/you/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
3. Under "Applications", uncheck the "Sync Apps". It's okay.. your apps are still there.
4. Sync. This removes all your applications
5. Check the iPhone to make sure that there are no residual applications. If there are, remove those. Sync again.
6. Install the applications back.

I lost a couple of recordings from my EccoNotes. I should have transferred them off before starting this. I couldn't tell you whether they were backed up, but EccoNotes provided an ability to FTP the files off the phone to the computer. Very handy. Too bad I forgot about the notes.

To flu shot or not to flu shot

I've got 2 little ones, a 22 month old and a 4 month old. Should I get the 22 month old a flu shot this year? Here's my hesitation.

1) The Mayo Clinic reports that children who are receiving their first flu shot must get 2 doses, each a month apart. I got the flu shot yesterday and my arm is still sore. Is this what I want to do to my child?

2) I read a news article where a 4 year old died from the flu. However, it wasn't the flu that she died from. She had a fever and began vomiting. Her parents thought that she was still taking in fluids, but her complexion had gone gray. The article suggests that she died from dehydration.

3) My son, like anyone else, dislikes needles. All of his shots have been terrible. Do I really want to put him through it? He's not in daycare, so I could theoretically limit his exposure to other children. Those of you with 22 month olds at home would understand that keeping an active indoors 24 hours a day would drive both parent and child batty.

4) Thiomersal. A product that's used as a preservative. It was removed from childhood vaccinations in 1999 as a precaution, but continues to be in flu shots. There's controversy over whether this mercury-based product caused autism in children. Autism is also more common to boys than girls.

I've gotten the flu shot. My husband will be getting the flu shot next week. Is this enough?