How to make horehound drops

Today I finished up making my horehound drops. It doesn't take two days, it just took me 2 days. =0)

 List of Ingredients

■2 cups of fresh horehound (include leaves, stems, and flowers) or 1 cup dried horehound
■2 1/2 cups water
■1/2 cup corn syrup
■3 c brown sugar
■1 teaspoon of butter
■1 teaspoon of lemon juice
■1 teaspoon of cream of tartar

First I harvested the last of my organic horehound. A bunch that would make about 2 cups when cut up.

Then I washed the horehound, removing any dead or yellow leaves, and cut it up with scissors. Next I got all of my ingredients together: Butter, corn syrup, cream of tartar, water, lemon juice, and brown sugar.

I poured the water on the cut up horehound, brought it to a boil and simmered for 10 minutes. Then I strained it a few times through a sieve covered with cheesecloth; into a medium stockpot.

Then I added the brown sugar, corn syrup, and cream of tartar. I brought it to a boil, and stirred frequently. I also attached the candy thermometer. When the mixture reached 240 I added the butter. Also at that point I pretty much stopped stirring except for a couple stirs here and there to make sure it didn't stick.

The next step is just waiting for the mix to get to 300. This took quite a bit longer than I expected. While I was waiting I buttered a pan (use alot of butter). Finally it reached 300 and I quickly added the lemon juice and poured the mix into the pan. It was HOT!

It started to cool down and I scored it a little. (that didn't really help, and next time I'll try wax paper on a cookie sheet) It was HARD to get out of that darn pan, hence the plan to use cookie sheets, or maybe even buy some molds next time.

Today I finally finished getting all the chunks of hard drops out of the pan, what a pain! I coated them with confectioner's sugar because they kept sticking to each other. That seemed to help quite a bit. Then I placed them in these jars for safe keeping.

Just an FYI, these are a little bitter.  I wouldn't call them candy, they are more medicinal cough drops, but horehound drops are very effective for soothing sore throats, asthma, coughs and help encourage mucous expulsion.

I am wicked smart.

So I am terribly impressed with myself. Why you ask? Because I found my old blog from 2006, not hard really. Then I remembered my password and username, that was a challenge..hehehe, and then ... here's where my impressive intelligence, well.... , impresses me....I imported my old blog posts into my new blog, (ok it wasn't that hard, and probably anyone could do it... still it took me forever to get it done.)




The whole point is:



Go read my old blog posts from '06. They are kinda funny, pretty judgmental, and boy I was bitchy! I don't agree with some of what I said then, but I left it up to remind myself of all the growth I've experienced. Just a note: I am no longer working at that job I was so excited about. I especially "like" the rant about the kids in my physics class; I worked so hard to get good grades in that class. Also I FINALLY graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors in Psychology, May 2008. I didn't keep my 4.0; it went down to a 3.9 because of a stupid drawing class..... who loses their 4.0 because they get an A- in Drawing?... Geesh... LOL at the time I was very upset, but I survived.



I occasionally ponder graduate school, but I'm still not sure what I want to be when I grow up.