Goldy’s Terrific Toffee
2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for pans
2 pounds best-quality milk chocolate (Lindt)
4 cups packed dark brown sugar
Note: A candy thermometer is essential for this recipe. Making a good toffee is tricky at high altitude, because the traditional soft-crack stage is not reached until the thermometer reaches 300°F., at which point the toffee is in danger of burning. Therefore, at high altitude, if you are close to 300°F., detect a burning smell, and stir up a darker substance from the bottom of the pan, stop stirring immediately, remove the toffee from the heat, and quickly pour it into the prepared pans
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread the pecans in two 9-inch glass pie plates, and roast until the nuts have turned slightly darker and are well toasted, about 10 minutes. Stir once or twice during the roasting process to ensure even browning. Remove the pecans from the oven, spread out to cool on paper towels, and set aside until you finish the toffee.
Butter two 9 ? 13-inch glass pans and set aside. Unwrap the chocolate and divide it between two plates. Break all the chocolate into squares and set aside. Using a deep, heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter with the sugar and cook over medium to medium-high heat,
Using a large, heavy-duty knife, break the toffee into 1- to 3-inch pieces.
mint-flavored fudge in one of Arch’s drawers. When I asked him about it he said he just kept it there to smell it, so he could pretend he was in Candyland instead of being at home.
The thermometer hit 300°; I poured the bubbling brown stuff into the two pans. Then each pan got a pound bar of chocolate, which I had successfully hidden from Patty Sue. I pushed the bars around over the molten toffee until they melted into soft chocolate lakes. For fancy parties I would have sprinkled minced pecans or filberts on top, but kids were finicky about pimentos, olives, and nuts, so I always omitted them.
“Man,” said Patty Sue as she entered the kitchen at ten o’clock, “what smells so great?”
“Toffee for Arch’s school Halloween party,” I replied. I looked at her. Her face was wan. Her hair, like her general outlook, had dulled since she had arrived in August. She puttered slowly around the kitchen, and I wondered if more could be wrong with her than her cyclical problems.
“Patty Sue,” I began, “are you feeling all right?”
She was taking an English muffin out of the toaster.
“Sure,” she said without looking at me. “I was just tired after my run yesterday.” She spread chokecherry jelly on the muffin, then changed her mind and scraped it off.
I walked over to her and said in a low voice, “Are Dr. Korman’s treatments working at all? You don’t look very good. Is he giving you iron or any special medication?”
She said, “Yes, he’s giving me some pills and no, I’m not normal yet.” She sat down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs. “He knows what he’s doing. Why would my doctor send me out here if he didn’t?”
“I don’t know. Why did you talk to Laura Smiley about it?”
She froze in midbite.
I said, “Trixie told me.”
She said, “Well, uh …” and then was quiet.
“Patty Sue, I didn’t even know you
“I didn’t know her.”
“You talked to her.”
“One time.”
“When did this conversation take place? Did she say she wanted to show you an article about Fritz?”
Patty Sue pushed the plate away and began to catch her breath, as if she was about to cry. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m just so sorry.”
“For what?”
She stood up. “Please leave me alone, please, Goldy, I feel really bad.”
“About what?”
“About everything,” she said with a cough, before running out of the room. She called back, “Please leave me alone!”
“I’m coming with you to the doctor’s office tomorrow,” I yelled after her.
“Gee, Mom,” said a sleepy Arch as he shuffled into the kitchen. “What’s going on? What’s all the racket about? Are you sick?”
“No. I just told Patty Sue that I’m taking her to her appointment tomorrow, that’s all.”
He poured himself some cereal. Between bites he said, “You always take her. Maybe after her driving lesson on Friday she’ll be able to drive herself and you guys can stop yelling.”
I said, “I doubt both.”
He ate silently and then rinsed his bowl.
“Just remember,” he said in his little-adult voice, “Pomeroy has some old-fashioned kind of driver-ed cars. That’s what he told me. You’d better be careful.”
I said, “You and Pomeroy had all kinds of conversations, didn’t you?” Arch shrugged. “I think what he meant,” I went on, “is that his cars are the old driver-ed kind, because he can’t get an increase in funds from the school board to set up a more modem instructional program. I read about it in the paper.”
“Oh-kay-ay,” he said in that singsong cadence associated with
I narrowed my eyes at him and said, “I need to make an important phone call.”
He nodded and drifted out of the kitchen while I dialed Janet Heath. She didn’t sound too happy about being called on Sunday morning, but I was not going to risk another encounter with her answering machine.
“I would like to see you sometime soon,” she said stiffly when we had exchanged pleasantries. “About Arch.”
I coughed. I said, “Please tell me what’s wrong.”
“Well, that’s what I don’t know. I just need to talk to you about some things going on in the classroom. Can you come in this week?”
We settled on Friday before school and hung up. One more thing I just couldn’t wait for.
The next morning frost painted the kitchen windows and I had the usual go-round with Arch concerning his outer clothing.
“But it gets so hot in the afternoon,” he complained, “and kids make fun of me wearing my coat when they’re in sweats.”
“So let them,” I said. “You won’t be sick for Halloween and they will, which is all right because from what you say they don’t care about it anyway.”
He stomped out muttering something unintelligible.
The van was doing its cough-and-sputter warm-up routine when Patty Sue came skittering out of the house in white lace blouse, white skirt, and matching white tights. No coat for her either. It was no wonder she had health problems. But I couldn’t ask her about anything. We had been friends when she first arrived. What had happened?
When I pulled up in front of Korman and Korman, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Patty Sue gave me a puzzled look.
