Food Recipe: "Easy" Candied Nuts

I saw this recipe in Real Simple magazine and though it looked delicious. So I tried my hand at making the nuts- and while the end result tasted good, I did not find the recipe easy whatsoever! I admit, I am not the world's best baker, but I had a lot of problems. Hopefully, my experience will be a lesson for you!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups unsalted mixed nuts (This should have been my first clue- I had a horrible time finding unsalted nuts!)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast, tossing once, for 6-8 minutes; transfer to a bowl. Next lesson- once the nuts are done toasting, TAKE THEM OFF THE BAKING SHEET! Otherwise, they will continue to toast and end up burnt.
• In a large skillet, combine the sugar, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water. Simmer; swirling the pan occasionally until the liquid is amber colored (about 12-15 minutes)- do not stir as it will crystallize the caramel. Yup, I stirred- so I had to start this step all over again with new ingredients. But I never could get my mixture amber colored. And my second batch started to crystallize again. So I figured it was done...
• Stir in the nuts, then spread the mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, separating the nuts as much as possible. Let cool. As you can see from my picture, my nuts were nowhere near as pretty as the magazine's. But, I guess the most important thing- they were very tasty!