Yum...caramel corn!

The Little Guys and I spent the afternoon making one of Daddy's favorites--caramel corn.

This recipe also comes in handy as a little hostess gift or treat. It looks darling in a mason jar tied with a ribbon. But then again, what doesn't?

What you'll need:

1 bag caramels
half stick butter
unpopped popcorn (enough to cover the bottom of a stockpot, 1 kernel deep--is that exact?)
few tablespoons oil
few tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Pour the oil on the bottom of a large stockpot and put 1 popcorn kernel in it, over medium heat. Cover the pot and wait for the kernel to pop. When it does, pour in enough kernels to cover the bottom of the pot. They'll be done when the popping slows to a few seconds between pops.

While your popcorn is popping, unwrap your caramels (or make your 2 year old do it with the promise of letting him eat one at the end) and put them in a small saucepan with the butter and water.


Melt it all. It takes about 5 minutes.


Pour the melted mixture over the popped popcorn. Toss the popcorn around to coat it all.


Spread the popcorn over a greased cookie sheet and stick it in the oven for 10 minutes. Let it cool, break it apart, and enjoy!


And while I was busy being mother of the year photographing the caramel corn process for my blog, my smarty pants 2 year old decided he was hungry for a grapefruit. Naturally, I felt the need to take a picture of the sword in the stone.


And I've got to say watch for unpopped kernels, store leftovers in an airtight container or Ziploc, be very careful when feeding popcorn to small children, yada, yada, yada...