snacks

Candy Popcorn Recipe for Valentine’s Day

February 11, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow 7 Comments

Candy Popcorn Recipe Tutorial For someone who doesn’t post a lot of holiday stuff I got totally wrapped up in Valentine’s Day this year. And most of it was last minute but I really wanted to share it. One thing that was planned out was this candy popcorn recipe that I collaborated on with Kristin of Meringue Bake Shop. Many people know her from her cupcakes and PushCakes. But she is SO much more. Twice she has made this delicious candy popcorn for parties for me and it is always a hit. And it can’t be more perfect for Valentine’s Day.

ingredients for candy popcorn This candy popcorn recipe is totally easy. I’m afraid to use a candy thermometer so that is why I wanted Kristin involved. I thought this would be too hard for me to make considering I am not a great baker. Or cook. Or dishwasher…But color me surprised when I found out all you need is popped popcorn, sugar, light corn syrup and flavored Jello! I will be making this. A lot. And then buying bigger pants.

add flavored Jello for candy flavor You make an easy syrup mixture on the store and add the Jello for flavoring.

Simply pour the syrup over popped popcorn and stir to coat. Whenever I made caramel corn I buy a disposable roasting pan from the store. It makes stirring easy especially when you’ve got hot sugar your dealing with which is just waiting to coat your finger and leave you an unpleasant burn. Not that it has happened…This also makes clean up a cinch since you just throw the pan away when done instead of having to clean of that hard candy coating. But this is also wasteful. So I should really just buy a legit roasting pan. But then I would have no where to store it. And that, my friends, is my inner dialogue.

And this is my husband. I think he was feeling left out because our kids are always in posts. He wouldn’t leave until I took a picture. But he’s pretty cute so I decided to leave him in. But if your husband isn’t as cute, just skip this part.

Then you spread out the coated popcorn on a baking sheet to finish off in the oven. This steps makes it crispy instead of gooey. Gooey is fine too, but a good crunch never hurt anything. You can sort of make out some little gold hearts here. Remember when I added stars to champagne? Well I also had the edible hearts. And they just make sense to use on a Valentine’s Day snack. We added them to the popcorn before baking so they would stick to it.

And there you have it. Super easy candy popcorn for Valentine’s Day. Or any day. Kid’s love this, in case you had any doubts. And those hearts make it super romantic.

Just add some heart candies and homemade vanilla bean marshmallows (see I told you Kristin is awesome) and you’ve got the perfectly adorable Valentine’s spread.

Recipe from Jello Rainbow Popcorn Recipe

Ingredients:

8 cups popped popcorn (I have a microwavable bowl that I use with kernals but you can also use plain microwavable bags if you have to)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine – can also use butter but my food allergic son can eat it if I use his margarine = happy kid

3 TBSP light corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1 package (4 serving size) any flavor Jello – not the sugar free kind. Gross. We used cherry. Amazeballs.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray foil with a small bit of cooking spray so it won’t stick. Set aside.

Place margarine and corn syrup in small saucepan on medium heat and stir until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello. Stir to combine and until Jello is completely dissolved.

Bring to a boil on medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix popped popcorn and syrup until well coated. Spread on to prepared sheet pan and spread out evenly. Bake 10 minutes. Cool. Remove from pan and break in to small pieces. Or grab huge chunks and shove them in your face.

Kristin made this peach version of candy popcorn for Lauren’s bridal shower. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Thanks for doing this post with my Kristin! Get excited. Kristin is starting a blog where she is going to share a bunch more of her tutorials. And not just on sweet treats. She is a talented lady and has lots to share!

Image of peach popcorn by Dez and Tam

Filed Under: Blogger Meet Ups, Family Life, Food, Food Allergies, Holidays, Orange County Resources, Party Inspiration, Recipes, Tutorials Tagged With: cherry, peach, popcorn, snacks, valentine's day

Everyday Treats are Better with COOL WHIP

April 12, 2012 by Sharon Garofalow 2 Comments

Thank you COOL WHIP for sponsoring this post. Join us on Facebook for inspiration and recipes for everyday treats. What you add makes it. #coolwhipmoms

My mom makes this delicious dessert using raspberry jello, COOL WHIP Whipped Topping and the most delicious pretzel crust that you ever did taste. But it is a mutli-step recipe which means that I am unlikely to make it. Skill wise I am capable. But I’m lazy. So I figured out how to get those great flavors from the full recipe in to a super easy afternoon snack for the kids and I.

Most days, the kid’s snack looks like this. A mish mash of things in a bowl. My oldest son loves to “cook” which means getting about 10 things out of the pantry and stirring them altogether in a giant bowl.

But some days deserve an extra special treat. Maybe it is a delightfully warm Southern California afternoon. Maybe the boys ate all of their lunch for once. Or maybe I just want to make the boys smile extra big at snack time. COOL WHIP makes our snack times extra special. Our family doesn’t eat dessert after dinner (well I do, but the boys are already in bed. I don’t like to share.) so snack time is where I can surprise them with sweet treats.

My mom’s recipe doesn’t contain chocolate chips but mine sure does. And there is no real recipe. This is one of those add what you like and leave out what you don’t type things. Get yourself a container of fresh raspberries (although frozen would work as well, they would just be a little bit more wet), a bag of chocolate chips, some pretzels and COOL WHIP. My sis was telling me about chocolate chip stuffed raspberries that she saw on Pinterest and I thought I would give it a shot. Of course you can skip that step but those two flavors together are quite tasty together. Crush up the pretzels in a plastic baggie to your desired consistency. I kept them in pretty big chunks but a fine pretzel dust wouldn’t ruin anything. And try to remember to put your COOL WHIP in the fridge to thaw ahead of time.

Grab a glass, bowl or jar (preferably one with a wider mouth than the one I used so it doesn’t get so messy when trying to layer the COOL WHIP like mine did) and add the ingredients like a parfait. Don’t forget to finish it off with a dollop of COOL WHIP!

The kids love it! What normally would have a been a ho-hum everyday snack is made extra special by COOL WHIP. It took everything I had not to eat the COOL WHIP off his cute little nose.

I made myself a fancy version in a vintage champagne coup. Who says moms don’t need a special treat too? And you know what else is made extra yummy with a little bit of COOL WHIP?

Fruit Loops! I’m not kidding. Try it! There are very few products on the market that can make something common in to something super delicious and fun. A spoonful of COOL WHIP does just that.

And don’t forget to see my post from last summer with another COOL WHIP based recipe that is a fave!!

Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content. I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

Filed Under: Family Life, Food, Recipes, Tutorials Tagged With: Cool Whip, Recipes, snacks

These Baked Salami Chips are Bananas {Recipe}

January 11, 2012 by Sharon Garofalow 2 Comments

Let me start off by saying that I think it is impossible to take a decent looking picture of shiny salami. Please pretend they look like Brad Pitt as you read on. So some of you may remember from last season’s finale, that Rachel Zoe showed a truly domestic side as she threw a party for her team. She prepared some sort of “the crack of salamis” and like vultures, her minions swooped in and polished off that salami log before some body could say, “Ma.Jor”. But what the heck was it? I needed to find out. So I began the research.

There are many recipes on-line. First I tried a salami link? log? I don’t know what to call it, but I tried it. The apricot glaze blackened well before the timer was supposed to go off. I don’t think I did it right. But I still ate the parts that weren’t black. I may have even eaten a casing that only weeks later did I see it suggested that you remove. (I have not ended up in any hospitals, so it was a pretty safe mistake after all). And then, weeks later, as I sat eating a salami sandwich, it hit me. Salami chips! I invented something awesome. Then I googled it. At least 20 other people have also invented it. But I needed to try it anyway.

As with most of my recipes, there is room for improvement. But I wanted to share this so that you all can help me work out the bugs and so I don’t have to eat a ton more salami. I tried some with and without a glaze (of basically apricot jelly and a bit of water to thin it. I laid them out on a raiser thingy (oh my gosh, why can’t I think of a name for that thing in the top right photo???) I thought that by having them on that important piece of kitchen equipment that the excess grease might fall below. That may or may not be the case. And it may have actually hurt in the act of crisping. Please let me know what you find. There really wasn’t a huge taste difference whether it had the glaze or not. But they were extra delicious if you dipped them in the leftover glaze before shoving them in your face.

Here are the recipes I tried

Baked Salami

Salami Chips but with the apricot glaze. I left out the honey mustard because I don’t enjoy mustard but I realize that the honey mustard may have been the ingredient to take this over the top.

Have any of you ever made this before? Do you think it is crack-like? Would you sell belongings to get your baked salami fix?

Now, let’s get to the good stuff. Who is watching It’s a Brad, Brad world? Do you hate him for skipping out on RZ and trying to steal her clients or do his bow-ties make you squeal in delight? I’m going to hold off making a final decision until I see what kind of snacks he brings to the table.

Sharon

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: baked salami, reality tv, snacks