After all that sweaty-smelly yoga I did this week, I thought perhaps a yummy dessert was in order. Also, we’re having folks over for dinner who seem to think I know how to cook high-falutin’ food. I don’t really. I’m more of comfort-food maker and baker. You know, easy stuff: muffins, cookies, stews, occasional pies and sometimes over-cooked cupcakes. But since this has been a week of trying new stuff, I thought I would attempt crème caramel, otherwise known as flan.

It took two attempts at making the caramelized sugar (brown syrup on top) and total time ended up being two hours instead of the six minutes listed in the cookbook. Otherwise it all went well, but I don’t think I’ll be making it anytime soon.

When I cook I often have an irrational hope that my dish will look just like the photo—really kind of impossible if you know what food stylists do to the food to get their shot. I know this, but I still want it to look like the photo and I’m still disappointed if it doesn’t.

For advice on making caramelized sugar I went to finecooking.com.