Caramel Popcorn

we packaged this up in pretty bags for our neighbors...
except Dave is supposed to be delivering and hasn't! I think
he's hoping that if he holds out long enough and I say it's too
late, it's probably stale by now, then he'll get to eat it all and I'll
make something else for him to deliver for our neighbors!! 

I'm not a huge popcorn lover - Dave will go to the movies just to eat the popcorn he loves it so much...I'll have a handful and be done. Until Janis came over and we made this pretty easy caramel corn that is - I couldn't stop "testing" it to make sure it was right haha. I've never made caramel corn before but after making it with her I know it'll become a regular thing. And we had to fight Dave to keep him out of the kitchen - it smells SO good!

1 cup butter

1 (16 oz) package (2 1/4 cups) packed brown sugar

1 (14 oz) can (1 1/4 cup) sweetened condensed milk

1 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

air-popped popcorn 

In a heavy 3-quart saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and corn syrup; mix well. Cook and stir over medium high heat to boiling. Carefully clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Cook and stir mixture over medium heat to 248 degrees (firm ball stage). Cook to softball stage if softer caramel popcorn is desired.

Remove the saucepan from heat; remove thermometer. Stir in vanilla. Immediately pour over popcorn. 

Notes:

I told Janis I wouldn't use her picture
without permission..and...I didn't ask if I could
use this one but I think it's cute- let's not tell
her and see if she reads the blog ;)

• we made 4 batches of this so I can't tell you how much popcorn one batch of caramel will cover - probably more than one big bowl. 
• we used both light and dark brown sugars, I prefer the light because when you coat the popcorn you don't see the white of the popcorn if you don't coat every bit of every kernel as easily. Just looks nicer. There's no difference in taste that I can tell...and I tasted enough to know haha.
• when pouring the caramel over the popcorn we did it a little bit at a time. Carefully pour some over the top of the popcorn in a big bowl, mix it in well and then add a little more caramel. Just keep adding it a little at a time, incorporating the popcorn and caramel together slowly. 
• this makes a fairly soft caramel popcorn and we could easily shape it into balls if you want to do that. 
• lastly, we used unsalted butter and then realized after pouring the caramel on that it needed salt, so we liberally sprinkled coarse salt over the popcorn and mixed well. That really made it delicious!

Tiger Fudge

I packaged this and gave it away without
taking a picture! You get the idea tho...

This is the easiest fudge I've ever made! Not sure it should be called fudge, it's more like buckeyes in bar form -  but it's so good and easy that I don't care what it's called. Delicious is what it should be called!


3 ingredients:

8 ounces (1 1/4 cups) white chocolate chips
8 ounces (1 1/4 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups peanut butter, divided

• Prepare an 8x8 pan by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
• Place the white chocolate and 1 cup of peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl. Place the semi-sweet chocolate and 1/3 cup peanut butter in a separate microwave safe bowl.
• Microwave the white chocolate mixture until melted and smooth, stirring after every minute. Repeat this same procedure with the semi-sweet chocolate mixture.
• Pour the white chocolate mixture in the prepared pan, then drizzle the dark chocolate around on top trying to not glop it too much in one spot. 
• Take a small knife and drag it thru the chocolate a few times to swirl the two chocolates together - don't do too much or it'll get too mixed together. I went up and back 3 or 4 times and then went the other way a couple of times. Just do it until you like how they are combined.
• Refrigerate for 2 hours. Once set remove it from the pan and cut into small squares to serve. Store in the fridge for up to a week in an airtight container. 

Sugar and Spice Mixed Nuts

We were going to a Holiday party Saturday night and I realized that afternoon that I didn't have a hostess gift - it was too late to go shopping so I whipped up these sugar and spice nuts from ingredients in the pantry, made a quickie label and put them in a cute Christmas jar I found in my wrapping stuff. Great idea if you have any last minute gift needs (or just want them for yourself, they're slightly addictive I gotta say...).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt, plus additional for sprinkling 
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup pecans (I used raw nuts for this recipe)
• 1 cup whole almonds
• 1 cup walnuts

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 250'.

In a large bowl mix together the egg white, sugar, spices.

Add the nuts and stir until coated.

Spread evenly onto a greased cookie sheet or baking pan.

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Spread out on parchment paper and sprinkle while still hot with additional coarse salt.

I also did a few leftover pumpkin seeds to see how they'd turn out and they are yummy too - good to know (and Dave can eat them so he's happy...the house smells really good when the nuts are baking so he's always jealous he can't try them!).