Today my daughter came to me at lunch and said she wanted to make something. Something liiiiiike…fried chicken.

Um. No? When I eat fried chicken, you can be pretty damn sure it’s not from my kitchen. All I can think of is the mess. Plus why should I make fried chicken when I can eat it at Price’s Chicken Coop here in Charlotte, the best fried chicken I ever had?

So she started listing other possibilities and she got to dulce de leche–milk caramel–which is so popular in Latin America AND in South Florida…We’ve had it spread on things, in things. We’ve eaten alfajores (say alfa-hore-ace), buttery cookies sandwiching dulce de leche and sometimes dipped in chocolate… Bingo. Both of us had seen Alton Brown make it, so we got to work, and it couldn’t have been easier:

4 cups Lakeview Farms whole milk (the stuff that comes to my door in glass bottles)..(okay, you can use milk local to YOUR area)
12 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise.

That’s it. Get to simmer, add sugar, stir til dissolved, add baking soda, stir more. Here’s what it looks like at first. None too pretty:

Take bean out after about 45 min., and continue to reduce

until you have about 1 cup of golden, thick homemade dulce de leche. (Click on link for Alton’s detailed instructions.)

Eat with spoon.