Immediate Intervention Necessary

After posting yesterday's popcorn recipe, I came home from work and made up a batch of it.
It was super easy to make, and as my husband put it "it's kind of addictive!"
I bagged some of it up and took it to my nice snow-shoveling neighbor. He wasn't home, so I left it on his porch.
If he hasn't noticed it yet, feel free to go snag it off his porch and keep it for yourself. I could NOT STOP eating it. Could-not-stop. Wylie, you may not get brownies this Christmas as previously planned!

Here's a couple of hints that will make your life easier if you make it (and you should make it! NOW!). One cup of popcorn kernels is the amount you need to pop to make the 5 quarts of popped popcorn.

After popping the corn (and I used the brown bag method I told you about a few posts back, popping about 1/3 cup at a time), and you start pouring it into the bowl (which you've sprayed with Pam), check for any "old maids" or un-popped kernels. That way, you won't bite into one after all is said and done and break your tooth.

Good luck in trying not to snatch several handfuls of this before it's been baked because you just can't wait for it any longer. The baking makes it not sticky. If you want it sticky, don't bake it. If you bake it, it will be like the caramel popcorn you buy in the big metal tins decorated to match whatever holiday for which it is being sold (Samuel, the structure of that last sentence was just for you, including the lack of a contraction).

I've got to get this stuff out of the house, fast! If I don't, I'm going to eat it all, immediately. HELP!

Snow And Caramel Popcorn

Bud left early this morning to go to the office to shovel out the parking lot there, so I got out of my warm bed, suited up, grabbed the shovel and got started, only to find that my totally awesome neighbor, Johnny, was already taking care of it. That meant I only did the little pathway that leads to our front door. By the time I was done with that, Johnny was done with everything else! Thank you, my wonderful neighbor!


Oh it doesn't show signs of stopping, and I brought some corn for popping.
The lights are turned way down low, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
Even the snowman is covered, rightly so.

Since we're talking about popping corn, try this out!

Updated 1/19/16- you don't need a cup of butter! Half that amount will create the same deliciousness. Just use 1/2 cup of butter and follow the rest of the recipe as written. 

Caramel Popcorn

Rated: Submitted By: BS4U2C Photo By: Monika Prep Time: 30 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour Ready In: 1 Hour 30 Minutes Servings: 20

"Popcorn is coated with brown sugar and corn syrup caramel then baked for a crunchy treat."

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter 2 cups brown sugar 1/2 cup corn syrup 1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 5 quarts popped popcorn

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
2.	In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
3.	Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 11/29/2010

Swimming Fun

One of the things the girls really look forward to when they're visiting St. George is going to Sand Hollow Aquatic Center (SHAC).

Nora opted to wear the life jacket at first.
It didn't take long before she was ready to try the big slide. She thought it best to go with her dad.
Once with Dad was enough though. She loved the slide and went on it a lot.
Then she decided the life jacket was extra baggage she could live without. Literally.
When did she get so big and able to do things like this by herself?
Little Sara, on the other hand, started up the long staircase to try the slide but halfway up decided against the idea. Here she is on her way back down!
This slide was more her speed!
Eventually, after watching Nora on the big slide time and again, Sara decided it would be okay to try it with Daddy.
Look at the lengths Samuel went to, to make sure his little girl was safe!
Sara, are you drowning?
No! Just playing!
The kids had a blast with their daddy.
I think he had a good time with them as well! Splash! Who's dunking whom?
They had a lot of fun. I'm sure they'll want to come back again soon.

Cute girls, don't you agree?
It got two thumbs up from Nora!
And a big grin from Sara.
Maybe next time Mia will get to come too!

Twinkle Toes

I need to get back to telling stories about my girls in St. George. While shopping, Nora and Sara were positive they needed me to buy them each some nail polish. Then they decided they needed to paint Nana's toes.
Here's the artist of the left foot.
Here's the artist of the right foot, showing her multi-colored fingernails (notice the bandaid? She was obsessed with them while in St. George).
And here's my right foot (sorry, but it had to be shown).
And the left foot. Yes, the left foot. It's very... colorful, don't you think?
The polish was more like a plastic, in that it peeled off very easily. Lucky me.

Thankful

Last night I told my husband how blessed I was. As I was starting to tell him, I got all choked up and I had a hard time getting the words out. Eventually, I told him that I was so blessed to have a husband whom I loved and who loves me, a warm house full of food, a car that is full of gas, money in the bank, and a testimony of the gospel. I love my God, I love His Son, I love my children and I adore my grandchildren. I even have a few terrific friends and neighbors. Life doesn't get any better than this.
I'm also thankful that I did NOT buy more than one bag of these guys!

If you see these in the store, RUN AWAY! Do not be tempted to buy them because you're curious about how they will taste. Take my word for it on this one- THEY TASTE DISGUSTING! I am a super duper chocolate cherry lover. Hence, I partook. I ate ONE. Yeeeeuck! It was so mediciney-tasting. The bag was so pretty! But inside was just pretty nasty. Now what am I going to do with the rest of the bag? Laura suggested I make a Christmas decoration using them (an advent countdown). Maybe if I get around to making a gingerbread house I could use them as a brick road. Whatever they're used for, I'll go with the idea that they are inedible, because they are.

What are you thankful for?

P.S. The winner of the 16x20 canvas print is (drum roll, please) #5. Six votes for #5 (seven if you count Bud's vote). Personally, I voted for #4. Thanks for your help!

Temper, Temper!

In my desire to figure out this candy-making process, I've learned a thing or two. You remember the chocolate-covered pretzels, right? I used some of that caramel to make something new.
Here we have chocolate-covered caramels and another concoction, caramel on a graham cracker which was spread with chocolate and also drizzled with chocolate.
My testers decided that the graham cracker guys needed more chocolate. And the chocolate caramels...look how dull they are. The chocolate should be shiny. Lucky for me, my candy-making tutor called me today. I told her about the dull chocolate. She said I need to temper the chocolate first. This means that I'll have to try again. Look at this if you want to learn how to temper chocolate too. And I've decided that the little square of caramel will taste even better if it's sitting on a pretzel twist. Yes, I like the pretzel-caramel-chocoate combination that much.

P.S. You still have one more day to vote. I've heard from most of my regular readers, but if you haven't voted yet and would like to put your 2¢ in, I'll wait a little longer before I tally the votes.

Please Vote and Other Stuff

I have a wall that needs a picture. Coincidentally, I have a coupon for a 16x20 canvas print.

Which of the following pictures of mine do you think I should use? The room it's going in is mostly red (a deep red) and green (a mossy green), currently decorated with nature-type pictures, and a couple pictures of barns.

• 1- Sacred Grove

• 2- Sacred Grove (still)

• 3- A rose at Universal Studios, FL.

• 4- Crystal Springs, near Midway, UT.

• 5- Sacred Grove (again)

Pick your favorite and let me know. If you don't comment, I'll assume you think they're all lame and I should go back to my iPhoto library and search for something else.

Not included in the voting, but something that made me happy last week- three remarkable sunsets. Here's a picture of two of them.
The picture above was taken while driving. Not to worry, I wasn't the driver. Cheryl was driving and she kept looking at the sunset. There was a significant amount of traffic around us (freeway driving) so I stuck the camera in front of her and snapped this shot, and told her to just drive.

This sunset was a couple days earlier. We were almost finished working that day. Bud told me to come look out the window. I did and saw such beautiful colors that I grabbed my purse camera and after figuring out what settings Mia had changed on it (it was in her hands last!) I turned off the black and white setting and took this picture. What good is a sunset if it's shot in black and white?
And finally, being too lazy to cook "real" dinner last night (for some reason that is happening a lot these days) we had a can of soup and a quesadilla. Yep. Needless to say, I was not fully satisfied when my dinner was finished. Therefore, I decided it was the right night to try some popcorn.

I put some regular ol' popcorn (about 1/4 cup) into a regular ol' paper bag (thanks for the bag, Cheryl!). I folded the top of it over twice and laid it flat in the microwave. I pressed the popcorn button and watched it (or listened to it) for about 90 seconds. I poured a little melted butter over the popcorn, gave it a sprinkle of salt and I was set!

Except I needed something warm and delicious to drink with the popcorn.

When I was in St. George, I tried a cup of this. Pumpkin Spice- sounds tasty, right? Wrong! It was lousy! However, I couldn't just throw it away! I thought I'd give it one more try and for whatever reason, this time I loved it! *LOVED* it! I have no idea what the difference was between the first cup and the second, but I'm glad I didn't throw it out!

So, after the popcorn and yummy melted pumpkin pie drink Stephen's Pumpkin Spice drink I was satisfied.

Don't forget to vote on your favorite photo! I'm relying on your good judgement to help me figure this out! Whatever you all decide is what I'll put on the wall! My decorating fate is in your hands. I'll wait for your comment until Wednesday afternoon :)

Three Cute Girls

Last week I got to spend some time with these kids.
My sweet Nora-
My precious Sara-
and my adorable Mia!
You'll hear lots of our adventures soon!