Caramel Popcorn

Date: 2010.06.07 | Category: Kids, Life, Snack, Sweets | Response: 0

Summer has officially started at my house. We will be driving from Texas to Virginia Beach, Virginia for vacation this summer. We lived in Virginia Beach for 5 years while we were in the Navy and have a lot of friends that are still there. We are so excited to see everyone again. For the first time ever we rented a condo on the beach instead of staying at hotel. We are hoping with a full size kitchen we will cook more and not eat out so much, to save a few bucks. I can’t wait to get to the beach!!

What are you guys doing this summer? I would love to know.

With summer in full swing the kids have been staying up a little later, playing the Wii, playing in the sprinkler and watching movies. Last week I make caramel popcorn to go with their movie. My daughter was the only one that ate it, not sure why, I thought it was pretty tasty. The results tasted a lot like Cracker Jacks minus the peanuts. I have never made caramel popcorn before, I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I was trying to make popcorn balls on a stick but that didn’t work out, I pretty sure it’s because I did not have cream. I only used sugar and butter. My next attempt will start with a recipe search on Tastespotting. For now this was pretty easy and really good. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter
1 bag of microwave popcorn

Directions
1. Pop popcorn according to package.
2. In a medium sauce pan combine sugar and butter and cook on medium until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Cook until you get a nice amber color.
4. Spread popcorn onto a cookie and evenly pour caramel over popcorn.
~~~Caution: The caramel is very very very hot so please be careful. Do not touch with your bare hands give it time to cool~~~
5. Let the caramel popcorn cool and break the pieces apart.
6. Enjoy!!

I have everyone has a great summer.

New Design and Features

Date: 2010.06.03 | Category: Blog, Life | Response: 0

Hello my loyal readers. Sorry I have been a little MIA lately. I have been working on a new design. The template is a free WordPress template but the header was created by me. I’m currently working on designing my on theme. It will take me a while because I know very little about CSS. I’m lucky enough to know plenty about HTML so trying to learn CSS has been fairly easy for me. For now I will just use the free themes and change things to my liking. I liked the last theme I was using but it seemed to be really crowded to me. I like this theme a lot better, a nice clean design. I wanted to highlight a few changes that have been made. Click on the images below to see to the changes. If there is anything you would like to see please just leave a comment and I will see what I can do.

Also if you would like a header I will be more than happy to help you out. I’m not the best graphics designer but I can come up with something you might like. Your creative and my creative I’m sure I can produce a nice header.

If you scroll down a little further I added Google Connect to so please connect with me if you use Google.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Date: 2010.05.17 | Category: Cookies, Snack, Sweets | Response: 3

Hey Guys and Gals!  I hope everyone had a good weekend.  We had a pretty great weekend, my 4 year old niece stayed the night with us and we made cookies.  I promised her the next time she came over we would make cookies.  She loves chocolate and chose to make chocolate chip cookies.  Everyone in my house loves chocolate chip cookies.  I would have to say it’s the favorite in our house.

I did not use my go to chocolate chip cookies recipe this time around, I wanted to try this recipe I found on Desert Candy.  The ingredient that drew me in was the oatmeal blended into a powder and the lovely story about her Mother.  I’m not sure how I came to find Desert Candy but I can almost guarantee it was through Tastespotting or Food Blog Search.  But any who.

This recipe was great.  The cookies have a wonderful chewy texture to them and I love the chocolate chips along with the specks of grated chocolate.  You must try this chocolate chip recipe, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Ingredients
adapted from Desert Candy

1 stick butter (soften)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cuplight brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cups oats, blended to a powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 oz milk chocolate chips
2 oz milk chocolate, finely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Blend the oats to a powder in a food processor.  Combine the oat-flour with the regular flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, set aside.
3. Cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the chocolates
4. Roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball and place on a parchment  lined cookie sheet two inches apart Bake for 6-10 minutes.