While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Liquid gold is on the menu - October is National Caramel Month.

One of the best ways to satisfy your gotta-have-sugar craving is to heat it with other like-minded ingredients until it reaches the bliss stage, or what we call caramel. It may be mid-October, but you've still got plenty of time to savor the sweetness (if it doesn't give you a toothache).

The word itself derives from the Medieval Latin word for sugar cane, known as "cannamellis." Some lucky ducks realized that boiling milk or cream with sugar, butter and vanilla resulted in a soft, chewy candy. Keep it from reaching such a dense state and you've got the perfect sauce - cook it a little longer, and crispy candy results. As long as you don't burn it, you can't go wrong.

Caramel has become dessert's best friend. From puddings to pralines and nougats to cheesecakes, the sticky stuff is downright delicious. Richly sweet and subtly creamy, caramel is also a standout star in crème caramel, crème brûlée, drizzled over ice cream, or the finishing touch on one of our seasonal favorites, caramel apples.

Just don't blame us if your mouth gets stuck together after eating all of that sticky, sweet caramel.