Meemo's Peanut Brittle

I have a great big family.  It's sort of a Brady Bunch-like family.  I have 5 brothers and one sister and there are 15 nieces and nephews.  And now they're having children!  It was always a little hectic and hard to keep up with and most of the time I just floated along in my little world happily oblivious to most things. I was the baby and so I just never thought twice about how things were.   I never stopped to wonder why I had so many grandparents!  I had my mom's folks, my dad's folks, and then Meemo and Pop Pop.  I honestly did not realize until I was almost a teen that they weren't my biological grandparents.  They said I was their grand child.  They certainly treated me exactly like every other grand child.  They loved me.  That much I know!  So I was blown out of the water to discover that they weren't really "mine"  but it took about 5 minutes to realize that it didn't matter.  They were my siblings bioligical grandparents from my mother's previous marriage.  But you know, we didn't really talk much about things like that.  I knew it was a fact that they were by definition my "half" brothers and sister but in our house we grew up together from the time I was born and nothing about it seemed "half" to me. And honestly I don't think anyone I ever grew up with used that term.  It wasn't until after I was married that anyone ever used that term "half" with me, and it flew ALL OVER ME.  We were family and they were mine no matter what.
Meemo's house was fun to stay at.  She always had something she'd made that was a treat.  She made homemade fried pies- that's what I remember the most.  She was a treasure.  She loved Days of Our Lives and watched it, I'm pretty sure from the day it started.  I can hear her now saying "poooor little ol' thang" in her sweet concerned voice if someone was quite beautiful.

I have a few of Meemo's recipes that I treasure.  I make her chili recipe all the time.  It's a staple in our house.  But she also always made peanut brittle at Christmas time.  And that's what I wanted to share with you all.
All I can say is.  I loved her dearly and I miss her.

Peanut Brittle

2 cups of sugar
1 cup of light corn syrup
1/2 cup of water

Cook until it "spins a thread" (hard ball stage at 250)  and then add 2 cups of raw spanish peanuts and cook until golden brown.
add 1 tsp. of vanilla
1 tsp of baking soda
and mix well.

Pour into a well buttered pan.  (I would use a baking pan)
Spread the mixture rapidly and then put on cotton gloves, loosen the mass, and flip it over and stretch it so that it is so thin you can see through it. When cool, crack into eating size pieces.  Store in a tightly covered tin.

Poor into a buttered pan.