Caramel Corn

Food is such a universal thing.  I miss the foods from where I've been and am excited to try new things.

I have a friend in Canada who occasionally sends care packages of things she's talked about or that she thinks I would like.  My most recent one was for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.  She sent Cheezies, which look like Cheetos but have a different texture to them.  Sometimes the same brands in the US and Canada come in different flavors, so she sent a box of Shake'n Bake Honey Garlic flavor.  She talks about it all the time but I've never been able to find it here.  She also sent a big bag of Smarties for the boys.  Smarties in the US are small hard candies kind of like flavored powder pressed together in a cake form.  Canadian Smarties are more like M&M's but with a thicker candy coating.

Then she sent a bag of Old Dutch Popcorn Twists.  They are sort of like Cheetos with no cheese.  On the back of the bag is a recipe for Caramel Corn.  So while the boys were here to help me eat them, I decided to make a batch.

The recipe was simple.  A whole lot of butter, brown sugar, light corn syrup cooked together.

Then you add a tsp of baking SODA.  Watch out it foams up!

You mix it in with the popcorn twists.

When it's all covered, bake it in a pan on a low oven (250 degrees) for about 45 min, stirring every 10-15 min.  Take it out and pour onto waxed paper or parchment paper and let cool.  Break it up into smaller pieces and enjoy!

OMG it was so good!  Buttery and sweet and no hard popcorn kernels and I didn't find popcorn skin stuck in my teeth hours later.  (You know what I'm talking about, it happens with coconut too.  That's why Rabbit wouldn't eat coconut for a long time).  I'm glad the boys ate most of it because I would not have shared with anyone else and eaten the whole batch myself.