Carmel-a-Corn

Autumn is for caramel corn as summer is for_____________(fill in the blank.) You will be graded on uniqueness. :O)

Here's my problem. Consumption quantity. I can't stop at just one handful of my not-so-secret recipe of caramel corn. Is it the organic popping corn? Or the healthier sweetners? (Don't kid yourself like I kid myself-- it's still sugar.) Or maybe it's the crunchy-crispness? Or all of the above?

Carmel-a-Corn (revised from Creme de Colorado)

8 quarts freshly popped organic popcorn (not air popped!)

1 cup unsalted organic butter

1 -1/2 cups organic dark brown sugar

1/2 cup Rapadura sugar

1/4 cup organic corn syrup

1/4 cup water

1/2 teas salt (plus a little)

1 teas baking soda

Pop corn and pour in large roaster pan.

Preheat over to 250.

In a medium saucepan melt butter. Add sugars, corn syrup, water and salt. Whisk. Bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally. Watch carefully while it gently simmers for 5 min. Remove from heat. Add baking soda. Stir quickly but thoroughly (It will rise!)

Pour over popcorn. Gently fold until popcorn is coated. Divide corn into two parts. Evenly distribute on two baking sheets. Place in oven on lower and middle rack. Bake for 40 minutes stirring occasionally.

Gourdgeous!

Smile... Say Cheese! Click!

Here... the latest addition to my art collection.

Gourds by Beaa... a sweet gardener in Colorado who grows families of gourds each year. She harvests, scrubs, dries, then hand paints, and varnishes them into life.

Happy Charlie Brown Monday...

A small cottonwood branch zig-zagged to the ground a few hours before I found it. Its school bus yellow leaves caught my eye as I walked near. "Mine," I thought, sounding a lot like my toddlers once did. I scooped it up, and finished the rest of my exercise walk with it flanking my right, rustling front to back with each step.

I made plans for it... I would plunk its super yellowness into a wood vase and put it on the dining table. And then, I'd make a Italian canneloni soup with crusty French bread for dinner. Then light some candles and call it "Autumn!"

But, and here's the Charlie Brown part, by the time "we" got back home, there was only one lonesome leaf left on the branch. Too much exercise for the little guy, I guess.

Of course... my plans will stay the same. The soup, the crusty bread, the candles... and my mono-leafed branch looking awfully cute inside that wood vase. Thanks Charlie...