Easy Caramel Popcorn

I have fond memories of making caramel popcorn on a Sunday afternoon when I was a kid.  I remember that it took a long time to cook the caramel and that it had to get to a soft ball stage.  I liked dripping some into a bowl of cold water to see if it formed a ball.  I didn't like how long it too.

Well, this last Sunday my childhood memories got the best of me and I was craving caramel popcorn.  Of course no one can find the recipe we used as kids so I found this one that seemed simple enough.  And wow!  Super simple, super fast, and super delicious.  No more lumps of caramel in a water bowl.  But I think I can get over that.

Caramel Popcorn

1 cup of unpopped popcorn, popped in a air popper

2 sticks butter

2 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup dark Karo syrup

We put all the popcorn in a large stock pot so we could cover it all at once.  Melt the butter on medium.  Add sugar and Karo.  Turn up the heat slightly and bring to a boil.  Boil one minute.  Stir into popcorn.

It's that easy.  The hard part is no eating it for breakfast.

Ginger Snaps for a Cold Wintery Day

It's been snowing where I live.  A lot.  We live near the mouths of both Little Cottonwood and Big Cottonwood Canyons.  It seems like the snow has barely taken a breather since yesterday morning.  I bet there is at least a foot and a half out there.

We did try to measure it, but it said that it was only a foot.  None of us believed it.

The snow caused me to cancel some plans that I was really looking forward to.  As compensation I made these ginger snaps with my two favorite cooks.  They are a really big help.  Sort of.

We ate them warm out of the oven.  Such a treat with so much snow outside.

Ginger Snaps

3/4 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. molasses
1 egg
1 T. ground ginger
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
more sugar for rolling

Cream the shortening and sugar together.  Add the molasses and egg and mix a little more.  Next mix in all the spices.  Add the flours last and mix until combined well.

Make balls of dough and roll in sugar.  I used my cookie scoop.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and smoosh with fork.  Bake 10 minutes at 325.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake

I wanted to wait to post my pumpkin chocolate chip recipe until I could put up more pictures of the cakes I have made with it.  It makes a great wedding cake, you know.  But all my cake pictures are on our iMac and I use my laptop for most things.  I guess what I'm saying is that I'm too lazy to give you more cake pictures.  But in my defense I have had a sick 2 year old.  

Here is another picture of the 2 year old's cute cake.  Just ignore the lame background.  It's hard to take a good picture when two kids are about to stick their fingers in the cake and keep grabbing the train.

On another note, I have been working on making some recipe cards for a little project.  Hopefully I get around to posting that too.  I'm pretty excited about how the cards are turning out.  Just click on the picture and you can download a copy.  It's in the right size to have it printed on 4x6 photo paper.  Just send it to Costco or Wallgreens (or wherever you like to go) and then you can stick it with your other recipes.  What do you think?

Fruit Rollups with Applesauce and Jello

Yesterday I posted a pin for fruit rollups made with applesauce and jello and I couldn't wait to try it.  (The original recipe can be found here.)  

These were so easy and they were seriously the best fruit rollups I have EVER made!  Considering I have lots of applesauce from last years canning haul, this may become a favorite at our house.

1. Mix 1 quart of applesauce with one small box of jello.  I used red raspberry because that was what I had in the pantry.

 2. Spread the mixture in a dehydrator.  Mine is a pretty inexpensive one.  I have the plastic inserts for fruit rollups, but it would be nice to place the applesauce on parchment so the rollups would be easier to store when done.  I think I might have to invest in some precut parchment rounds like these.  All I would have to do it cut a hole in the middle for my dehydrator.

If you don't have a dehydrator, you can do this in your oven (see this article).  I might try this next but I am waiting until I can stand to have the oven on for more than 30 minutes.  As in, maybe in November?

3.  Dehydrate for approximately 6 hours.  Mine might have got left in too long because I went shopping with my mother-in-law and my kids LOVE going to grandma's and grandpa's so we were a little late getting home.  Don't judge. 

They were still SUPER DELICIOUS.  Seriously, better than store bought.  I can't wait to try other flavors of jello.  I should go to the store right now.

This post is linked at Mandy's Recipe Box, Sugar Bee Crafts, Naptime Creations, Vintage Wanna Bee, Inside Bru Crew Life and Ladybug Blessings.

Dinosaur Footprint Cookies

A little while ago I saw this blog post with dinosaur footprint cookies.  I knew this was the perfect activity for my dino obsessed three-year-old.  I didn't want to use the recipe on the site because it used and entire cup of butter.  Somehow I got it in my head that I needed cream cheese in the cookie dough.  I gave a shout out on FB looking for a good sugar cookie recipe with cream cheese.  My friend Ginger came through.  The recipe I used can be found here.

So we set about making the cookies and I let the boys stamp them with their dinosaurs (after we washed them, of course.)

You can tell Stan's work because his dinos had a tendency to stomp while Kimball's were a little more artistic.

I didn't take a picture of the final cookies because they spread out and you couldn't really see the footprints.  Kimball just pretended to be a paleontologist and used a discerning eye.  The other recipe might have produced a better footprints but these were DELICIOUS!  I ate most of them for breakfast the next day.  :)

Healthy Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Muffins

The other day a friend gave me some zucchini.  I thought about using it for meal or a side dish like in this, but I knew all the boys in my house would prefer chocolate.  I used the recipe here as a starting point and then made some substitutions to make them a bit more healthy.  These were so delicious that they didn't last long. Now I need to make a second batch.

Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins/Bread

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. white flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. applesauce
2 t. vanilla
2 c. shredded zucchini
1 c. chocolate chunks

Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix wet ingredients together.  Combine the two mixes.  Bake at 350 in muffin tins or bread pans until an inserted tooth pick comes clean.

6 Minute Microwave Caramels: Super Easy!

My internet travels recently led me to a recipe for caramels that you can make in 6 minutes in the microwave--no candy thermometer needed.  (You can retrace my steps by going here and here.)

I whipped these puppies up today and they were WAY TOO EASY.  These could easily be the fastest way to satisfy a candy craving ever.  I almost put melted chocolate on top, but I refrained.

All you need to do is mix the following in a microwave safe bowl.  I suggest one with a handle so you don't burn yourself when you have to pull them out.

5 T. butter
1/2 c. corn syrup
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar (or 1/2 c. white sugar + 1/2 T. molasses)
6 T. sweetened condensed milk.

Microwave for 6 minutes, stirring every two.  Pour into a greased 8x8 pan and cool in the fridge.

Eat.  Hord.  Let your kids poke them with a spoon (Don't ask).   I suppose you could cut them up and wrap them in wax paper, but that seems like a lot of effort to me.

Apple Pie Oatmeal Bars

Last fall I canned some Apple Pie Jam.  It was a bit unintentional as I was going for an apple conserve with big chunks of apple but couldn't get the apple's to suspend in the syrup so I gave up and attacked the whole pot with my immersion blended.  I called the result apple pie jam.  It turns out I'm not a big fan of apple pie jam on toast.  So I now have the burden pleasure of using up the jam.

I decided that this recipe for oatmeal bars courtesy of the Pioneer Woman was made for my jam.  I'd like to pretend this is healthy since I used whole wheat flour, but it has nearly two cube of butter.  So I'll just enjoy it for what it is--pure deliciousness.  You know the crumb topping on muffins.  This is like a bunch of that topping with a hint of spicy apple pie.  It's really good. 

1 3/4 sticks of butter (14 Tablespoons)

1 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c. rolled oats

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

12 oz. apple pie jam

Cream butter and brown sugar.  Add in the whole wheat flour, rolled oats, baking powder and salt.  Press half of mixture in 9x13 pan.  Spread jam over top.  Sprinkle with the other half of the mixture.  Press lightly.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. 

Let cool completely before cutting.  This is important because they are too gooey to cut.  Or you can be impatient like me and eat them hot.  I was wishing I had some ice cream with this one.

No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

When I make these I always eat them until I'm sick because it's like I've died an gone to elementary school lunch heaven.  Yummy is all I have to say.

1 1/4 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 c. powdered sugar
3 c. graham cracker crumbs (or 8oz. which is half a box)
2 c. chocolate chips (milk or semi-sweet) (I used some Belgian chocolate because that's what I had)
1/2 c. peanut butter

Cream the 1 1/4 c. of peanut butter and the butter.  Add the powdered sugar and graham cracker crumbs.  Mix well.  Press into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan.  Melt chocolate chips in microwave 30 seconds at a time until smooth.  Add 1/2 c. peanut butter.  Spread on top of crumbs.  Eat until your get sick.