No Tricks, Just A Treat

This is one of my foggy Mt Diablo photos with a Nelly Nero action, Milk. If you look in the upper left corner, you will notice the branches form a cat-eyed mask, so I thought it would go well with the Halloween theme.

Now for the Treat : ) Here is a fun recipe I want to share for Halloween. For those of you that are looking for a healthy alternative to the sticky-sweet caramel popcorn that is associated with autumn, I have a salty-sweet recipe for kettle corn. You can make this kettle corn on your kitchen stove, you don't need a big copper cauldron like the ones they use at the carnivals. If you know how to make regular popcorn on your kitchen stove, you already know how to make it, I just need to give you the ingredients and a few tips. If you've never made popcorn on your kitchen stove, only in the microwave, well you won't believe how easy it is! Now lets get down to business.

Ingredients:

you just need 4 ingredients and a 2 qt sauce pan with a properly fitted lid

2 tsp of canola oil (or cooking oil of your choice)
1/2 tsp of fine sea salt (or table salt if it is all you have)
1 Tbl of white sugar (it can be heaping a little bit)
1/2 cup of popcorn

Put the 2 tsp of canola oil in the 2 qt sauce pan, along with 2 kernels of corn. Place the sauce pan over a medium-low flame or burner. Occasionally shake the pan while allowing the saucepan to heat up, until the 2 kernels of corn pop. Now add the 1/2 cup of popcorn. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the popcorn and swirl around to mix (see photo)

Put the lid on the pan and continuously shake back-and-forth until popcorn is finished popping. You will know it is finished popping when the popping stops or the lid rises (see photo).

The popcorn will feel a little sticky, but go ahead and pour the popcorn into an over-sized bowl and sprinkle it with the salt. Now gently toss the popcorn in the bowl, kinda like the chefs do pancakes. The tossing motion will distribute the salt and dry the stickiness of the popcorn. Do not skip the salt as the popcorn will have a very, very bland flavor (I know because I tried it :) If all goes well, you should have a crunchy, salty-sweet treat!

This is the first time I've posted a recipe, so if you have any problems with the directions, don't hesitate to let me know and I will get back asap with a solution. I am a "bit of this & a bit of that" type of cook, therefore I had to force myself to measure out the ingredients so I could post the recipe. It took a couple of tries to get it just right. I originally found this recipe in a magazine, I don't remember which one though, and I have changed it to accomodate my taste. I've tried adding more sugar and using a bigger pan, but I didn't get very good results. The popcorn was a bit soggy and the popped kernels were rather small. You could probably add a tad more sugar and get away with it, but I wouldn't add too much more. Oh, and for those of you watching your salt intake, all of the salt doesn't stick to the popcorn, you will find at least 1/4 in the bottom of the bowl when you are finished.

Happy Halloween to all you wonderful bloggers! I hope you try this recipe. If you play around with it and come up with some new ideas, please let me know so I can try them too. Happy Eating!