Monday Morning in the Kitchen: Sister Mabel's Caramel Popcorn

My first year of college, my dorm mom, Sister Mabel, would invite the girls to her room for an evening of caramel popcorn and good conversation. She graciously shared her recipe with us, and it has become my favorite caramel popcorn recipe.

Sister Mabel's Caramel Popcorn

6 quarts popped popcorn
1/2 lb. butter
1/2 c. light corn syrup
2 c. brown sugar
1/4 t. cream of tartar
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Place popcorn in large, 4-inch deep buttered baking pan. (A turkey roaster is perfect.) Keep warm in oven.

In a large saucepan, combine brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, cream of tartar, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in baking soda. (John always helps me with this step, measuring out the baking soda for me just before the five minutes are up. The conversation is the same every time. John: "How much baking soda do you need?" Me: "One teaspoon." John: "Heaping?" Then both of us laugh at the joke that never grows old. In fact, because it is a tradition, it grows funnier every year.)

Remove popcorn from oven, and pour caramel mixture over the popcorn. Stir gently until well-coated. Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Thanks for Sister Mabel, and her wonderful caramel popcorn.

Ten Things of Thankful: Autumn Edition

It's autumn time, one of my favorite times of year. I just couldn't leave this weekend as a one-post weekend.

Ten Things of Thankful: Last Two Weeks

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, as viewed from an overlook I apologize for not commenting on your blog posts this past week; John and I took a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, leaving behind our computers and, to a large extent, cell phone service. We escaped the outside world and just spent time in nature. Though we have friends near Yellowstone (who we love to visit) we made this trip just about us, so please forgive us if we were nearby and didn't stop by. The crowds were minimal (though we did mask up whenever we passed someone on the trails) and we spent our days hiking, taking photos, and watching geysers erupt. Today, we are back home and back to work, and, in the case of my computer, back to old shenanigans like not letting me import my photos. (I was able to add the above photo by using blogger on my phone, but that isn't my preferred method.) I want to write about Yellowstone and have photos I want to share, but will leave that for another...

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago. I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon. (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this...

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