Paper Bag (microwave) Caramel Corn

Easy + Fast + Yummy

Too EFY not to share...this took about 5 minutes to pull together.

10 minutes later we were eating it.

Paper Bag (microwave) Caramel Corn Place 8-10 cups popped corn into a paper bag.

Place the following in a glass bowl:

1 cube butter (no fakes)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup karo syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Microwave until you see it boiling - let it boil for 1 minute.

Stop and stir.

Microwave for 1 more minute (boiling).

Add 1 tsp baking soda and stir - will turn opaque and taffy-like.

Dump over popcorn in paper bag.

Shake well.

Place bag in microwave and cook for 90 seconds.

Shake again.

Cook for 90 more seconds if you like it crunchy - I opted out for chewy.

Let cool for a few minutes, but dump out of bag before completely cool so it doesn't stick to the paper. I dumped onto waxed paper.

Enjoy.

Baked Sweet Fries

1 Sweet Potato
1 Russett Potato
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Julienne potatoes into 1/4 inch sticks.
Toss with oil and spices.
Bake at 425 for 30 -35 minutes until crispy, turning once at 20 minutes.

Yum.

Does your annual usage of saran wrap determine your worth in the kitchen?

When we moved away from "Costco Country" five years ago I was missing the good saran wrap. On a trip to visit my folks my Mom handed me a two-pack of the good 'ol streth-tite saran wrap in the yellow box. 500 sq ft per roll x 2.

I got to the end of the box the other night while trying to cover the frog eye salad I'd made. Although, I wasn't positive, I had a hunch that this was only the 1st of the 2 boxes. Sure enough, I was up at the other house today and found the 2nd box in the pantry.

Who knew that 500 ft of saran was a 5 year supply?

I'm pretty sure this is only an inidication of how little I cook. Sad.

The funny thing is they now sell this at Sam's Club, but I'm sure I'm still set for another 5 years.

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

I believe this qualifies as the yummiest victim, to-date, of our crumbling economy.


With the bail out and presidential election dominating the headlines in October, I failed to realize until now that Mother's Cookies was shut down in mid-October when the parent company filed for bankruptcy. Another one bites the dust. This was a bay area based company, and you may not be familiar with these little yummies if you're not a west-coaster, but let me assure you they are yummy. 3 grams of fat per serving yummy! Which is one reason they've been reserved for only an occasional treat.

I'm going to the grocery store tomorrow to see if there are any left on the shelf. If there are, I will buy a bag. And save it for a special occasion. And then I will share it with someone who also has fond childhood memories of little blobby, pink and white frosted cookies with crunchy sprinkles in their lunch sack. Adios my animal cookie friends.

Someone is selling these memorial t-shirts. Cute.

Halloween Cake - Eat Dirt!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It's been far too long since I had an excuse to decorate a cake. Jimmie doesn't like cake, so I don't make them for his birthday.

I was inspired about a month ago when I found a skeleton garland at the dollar store in St Louis. I decided then and there that I'd be making a halloween cake.

I had some serious fun putting together these graveyard cakes tonight. I was baking a cake to take to a work party tomorrow, so I thought I'd just double the fun and take one to the church trunk or treat and chili cookoff, too! My favorite part ended up being the 'picket' fence around the pumpkin patch.

Spiderweb Pizzas

How cool is this? I came across this fun halloween meal idea on another blog. It came from the current issue of Woman's Day. Although I probably will not go to trouble of making this purely to entertain myself, I thought if would be fun for my nieces and nephews. :)

Happy Halloween season!

Spiderweb Pizzas

INGREDIENTS
1 pkg (10 oz) prebaked mini 8-in pizza crusts (Boboli) OR use pita bread

1/3 cup pizza sauce

2 mozzarella string cheese

3 large pitted black olives

PREPARATION
1. Heat oven to 450°F. Place crusts on a baking sheet; top with sauce. Pull cheese into thin strips; place on pizzas in the shape of a web.

2. Bake pizza for 8 to 10 minutes until cheese melts. Cool 3 minutes.

3. Cut off one end of 2 olives for spider heads. Halve remaining olives lengthwise. Use one half for body; cut remaining pieces into strips for legs. Assemble spider on each pizza.

BaGeL, BaBy!

In my opinion, it's not easy to find a good bagel. We have bagels at Panera Bread and Atlanta Bread here, but they don't really count in the world of bagels.

Growing up in CA, we had a favorite place called The Bagel Basket, which was conveniently located near the high school. My best friend Elisa's mom worked there when we were 12 and she'd let us come with her at the crack of dawn on Saturdays to get the bagels going and even help customers. We thought that was pretty cool at 12. I still appreciate knowing the bagel cooking process, which involves rising, boiling, then baking to bagel-y perfection.

When I went away to college, I discovered Einstein Bros Bagels. This is when I discovered a plethora of flavored cream cheeses. And bagel sandwiches. And bagel dogs. Who knew a bagel could taste so great in so many different ways?

After college, I was able to do quite a bit of travel to New York when I worked for Twinlab. On several occasions, we made the drive from Long Island over to New Jersey for meetings at The Vitamin Shoppe. Part of our routine was stopping for 'the best bagels in New York' (according to Bob, our VP of Sales). 'The best bagels in New York' happened to be a little bagel shop located in Queens, for which I sadly cannot remember the name. To this day I can say that I've never had a better bagel. Several people have told me the reason bagels are better in NY has to do with the water, and that's why NY bagels and pizza can't be duplicated elsewhere. I was also happy to be accompanied by a few very tall men when we stopped for bagels in Queens. We drove through some projects where I wouldn't want to be stranded, for sure.

Recently, Meg, Jerushia and I discovered an Einstein Bros Bagels while we were in St Louis. We had breakfast there two days in a row. We'd had butterburgers at Culvers for dinner the night before, which was so good. As Jerushia said after bagels, "The food on this trip just keeps getting better and better!"

Anyway, the point of this path down bagel memory lane is to say that there really aren't any good bagels in our neck of the woods.

Until now.

Has anyone else noticed the brand new Einstein Bros Bagels that just opened next to Home Depot, behind Olive Garden?

BaGeL, BaBy!!!

Pumpkin Muffins

Can you bake without flour?

I've gotten in the habit of baking while listening to conference on the internet (it certainly keeps me more attentive than falling asleep on the sofa!). I've been excited to try a recipe my sister Natalie shared for Pumpkin Macadamia White Chip cookies, and bought all of the necessary ingredients yesterday. Although my flour canister was empty, I didn't buy flour because I have a 5 gallon bucket of it in my pantry....just needed to refill the canister.

So, I pulled out my 5 gallon bucket this morning and discovered it was FULL of weevils. I should've guessed as much. Even double bagging contents doesn't seem to keep those guys out anything. So, I tossed the entire contents into the garbage. I guess that's why it's worth paying a bit extra to buy it in sealed cans. And then I improvised.

Do you need flour to bake? Not when you make these little yummies.



I combined 1 yellow cake mix with 1 cup of pumpkin, a little cinnamon and some allspice. And 25 minutes later, voila! Yummy, moist pumpkin muffins. Yep, there's already one missing from that pan, because I ate it! A little dallup of Cool Whip put this little baby over the top.



I'm glad I have a party to take them to so I don't eat them all!

I froze the other cup of pumpkin so I can make those cookies later this month.

Creme Brulee de Jimmie

Below, Jimmie demonstrates his master hand at brulee-ing creme.
And because I'm special he did 3 separate layers of sugar for me, so mine was extra crispy on top! Yum!