Whirley-Pop Kettle Corn

 Step 1 - Make sure you own a Whirley Pop.  Not just so you can enjoy this AmAzInG Kettle Corn, but so you can ditch the microwave popcorn and opt for homemade stove top popcorn instead.  Whirley-Pop popcorn is just as easy as microwave popcorn and 75,000 times more delicious (maybe even more).  Plus, popcorn is healthier than other dessert options, and there are so many varieties in how you can flavor your popcorn!
If you already own a Whirley-Pop...Congratulations!!  You have made a solid life choice. If you don't own a Whirley-Pop, go to Bed, Bath and Beyond right now and buy one.  It's worth the $20.

I usually add oil and a little salt to my popcorn, simple and delicious.  However, I am drawn to kettle corn.  Whenever I am at a fair or festival, I can smell kettle corn from a mile away and am guaranteed to get a bag of fresh popped kettle corn, straight out of the kettle, whenever the opportunity presents itself.  I blame my Mom...she has the same addiction.

Gooey Kettle Corn Deliciousness

Anyway, this recipe provides the same satisfaction as the kettle corn from the fair.  We don't make it often, typically sticking to the simple oil and salt, but man-o-man is it a happy day when we choose to make kettle corn instead.  It all depends on if you want sweet and salty, or straight up salty.  Either way, this recipe is delicious.  I imagine we will make this well into the future, and will probably pass along the kettle corn addiction to future children (and their friends) the same way my mom passed along her addiction to me.

Whirley-Pop Kettle Corn
Technically this recipe serves 8 unsatisfied people, but it is best shared between 2 people (trust me)

Ingredients:

Only 3 ingredients + a Whirley-Pop!!!

• 1/2 C popcorn kernels
• 2 T oil (canola or olive)
• 3 T sugar
• 1/2 t salt (you can use more salt, but I found 1 teaspoon of salt to be a bit too salty.  Somewhere between 1/2 t and 1 t is probably best)

Directions:
I recommend having everything measured out prior to starting, and placing the popcorn kernels, sugar and salt in one bowl because you will add it all at one time and need to do so quickly.

1. Pour oil into your Whirley-Pop along with two to three individual popcorn kernels
2. Heat over medium-high heat until 1 of the 2-3 kernels pop.  This let's you know the oil is hot enough to get started.
3. Quickly open the lid and pour the 1/2 C kernels, sugar and salt into the Whirley-Pop and begin cranking the handle on the Whirley-Pop.  While cranking, I also sometimes give the Whirley-Pop a bit of a shake to make sure the sugars and popcorn aren't sticking to the bottom. There is the option of having someone change the heat from low to high to low to high while cooking to make sure the kernels are heated evenly, although I think you can just heat over medium heat and be just fine (this only applies to gas stoves).
4. Keep cranking, even when you hear the glorious "pop!" of the kernels, and don't stop cranking until the popping slows such that 1 second passes and you do not here a "pop"!
5. As soon as the popping is done, immediately transfer the popped kettle corn to a large bowl and stir it around to prevent extremely large clumps of popcorn sticking together.  You can use your hands to do this, but I usually use a spoon because the popcorn will be hot!
6. Immediately, put the Whirley-Pop in the sink with a squirt of soap and some water, and allow time to soak while you eat your kettle corn.  Don't worry, putting the hot Whirley-Pop in the water won't break anything...it will simply make clean up MUCH EASIER.  Otherwise, all that sugar sticks to the bottom and I imagine would be a pain to clean.
7. Eat, eat, and eat some more!
8. Thank me for your at home, as good as a fair, kettle corn experience.

I should let you know, it is possible to make kettle corn on the stove in a standard pot.  I personally enjoy the Whirley Pop because it allows you to stir the popcorn to prevent sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan, all without taking the lid off the pot.  My husband tried to convince me the standard pot is just as great as a Whirley-Pop and we ended up with popcorn kernels all over the kitchen.  Neither of us could figure out the best way to stir the kernels while keeping the lid on the pot...  I won the battle to keep the Whirley-Pop, and deep down I think he is glad we kept it around!

Bon Appetit!!

Thai Chicken Enchiladas

I know that many people think Pinterest is useless and is just a way to waste time and think about all the crafts and trips and recipes you won't ever try.  I agree it is the central hub for procrastination nation; however, I truly think it is a wonderful tool for people to try new things, and change old habits for the better (pending user motivation).  I really try to only add pins to my boards that I really want to try, and the following recipe is the perfect example of a glorious Pinterest find.

Can't decide if you are in the mood for Thai food or in the mood for Mexican?  Have both!!!!  This recipe from How Sweet it Is was a delicious find and is definitely a must try.  My husband took one bite, his eyes opened wide (along with his stomach) and a look of pure delight spread across his face.  Don't get me wrong, he generally enjoys my cooking, but this was probably one of the best reactions to a meal ever and I knew this was a recipe to stash away with "those which we are willing to eat again" recipes.  I am more of a recipe scouring, experimental cook than a stick to the same menu, repeat old recipes cook, so it says something that I already am excited to make this again.

If you never try anything else I put on my blog, at least give these a try because they are scrump-didilly-umptious!

Thai Chicken Enchiladas
Yields: 8-9 enchiladas (Serves about 4)

Ingredients:

• 8 flour tortillas
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked.  - I boiled them for 15 minutes (or until cooked through) and then shredded as soon as I took them out of the water while still hot
• 1T canola oil - or whatever oil you prefer
•  1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• about 1/3C carrots, shredded - I found it easiest to chop fine in a small food processor
• about 1/2C cabbage, shredded - you could either chop in small food processor or slice in thin pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 t salt
• Pepper to taste
• 4 green onions, sliced thin
• 1/3 C chopped peanuts + whole peanuts for garnish - again, easiest to do this in a small food processor
• 1/4 fresh cilantro - food processor style
• 1 can coconut milk, divided into 3/4C and whatever is leftover
• 1/3C Sweet chili sauce + about another 1/2C - This can be found in the Asian section of the grocery store where you find the water chestnuts, rice noodles, soy sauce, etc.

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. When prepping ingredients, place onion, carrots, cabbage, garlic, and salt in one bowl.  Place green onions, pepper, cilantro, and peanuts in another bowl.
3. After prepping all ingredients, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
4. Pour onion, carrots, cabbage, garlic and salt into skillet and saute over medium heat until veggies begin to soften, about 7-8 minutes.
5. Add cooked chicken to the skillet along with the pepper, green onion, peanut, cilantro mixture.  Mix well and cook for 1-2 minutes.  At this point, taste your creation and adjust salt as needed.
6. Pour 3/4C of coconut milk and 1/3C sweet chili sauce into the skillet and mix well.  Remove from heat.
7. Grease a 9x13" baking pan
8. Take what is left of your can of coconut milk and pour some chili sauce into the coconut milk can until the level of the milk is close to the top of the can.  Mix well. *Note #1: The chili sauce will sink to the bottom of the can, so make sure you use a spoon that will aid in spooning out all the deliciousness the sweet chili sauce has to offer!  **Note #2: Keep in mind, the original recipe called for more coconut milk for the sauce for the top of the enchiladas, but I did not want to buy more than one can because I am not a fan of excess coconut milk so I used less and it still tasted great!!  Refer to the link above to the original recipe if you are interested in more sauce. 
9. Spoon a small amount of sauce into the bottom of the pan...just enough to dot the bottom of the baking dish (but you don't have enough sauce to cover the bottom of the baking dish)
10. Spoon equal amounts of your chicken mixture into the flour tortillas.  Roll tightly and place in the prepared baking dish.  I find placing the wrapped tortillas seam side down is most effective for keeping everything in place
11. Spoon the remaining coconut milk mixture over the tortillas trying to cover as much of each tortillas as possible 
12. Snack on any leftover mixture, or any mixture that fell out of the sides of your tortillas when placing them in the baking dish  =) - this step is optional
13. Bake for 20 minutes
14. Remove from oven and garnish with additional cilantro and whole peanuts
15. Serve warm and enjoy your Asian Fiesta!!

When serving the enchiladas I tried to spoon some of the warm sauce from the bottom of the pan over the tortillas being served since the sauce is limited and pretty thin.
The enchiladas are filling on their own, but for future Thai Chicken Enchilada meals I may try to make some sort of salsa with an Asian inspired bread for dipping.  Yummy!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE try this recipe.  You won't regret it!

Bon Appetit!!

An Easy French Loaf

Since making bread this summer and learning a variety of techniques and methods for homemade bread from relatives and the interwebs, I decided I would not buy bread from the store for the remainder of the year.  Crazy? Possibly.  Rewarding? Definitely.  It may take some time but I can not express how satisfying it is to eat a slice of bread that you have made from scratch.  Mmmmm Mmmmmm Carbs.

Miracle Boule

Making yeast bread can be frightening, but absolute worst case, you make a loaf of dry, dense, not so delicious, or not gonna rise for you bread and you throw it away and start over.  BUT you have to start somewhere!! The good news is, all the bread I have made is atleast edible, and usually tastes good too.  So if I can figure this out, you can too!

The first yeast bread I made were pumpkin garlic knots, which my sister raves about (and I do too), BUT the first loaf I made without the use of a bread machine was The Miracle Boule, from the cooking channel.  Let me tell you, if you need a little self esteem boost about bread making, and you want to impress yourself and others, you have to try this.  It really is very easy and it is oh so delicious!!  Just make sure you start preparing one day before you plan to devour this bread.

Ingredients and materials:

•  3 1/4C bread flour + addt'l flour for tea towel and later kneading pending stickiness of dough  *NOTE*: At sea level or lower altitudes, use 3C flour
• 1 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 C warm water
• Tea Towel
• Dutch Oven

Directions:

Look of dough after the first rise

1. Mix bread flour, salt and yeast in medium bowl.  Pour in warm water and mix until dough is raggedy, sticky and a bit wet.  Cover bowl with a damp tea towel and let rise in a warm area for 12-24 hours.  *NOTE* - if you live in a humid environment, the tea towel can be dry but I found that in Boulder I needed the towel to be damp so the dough wouldn't dry our during this first rise.

2. After the first rise, once the dough is dotted with bubbles, dump the dough onto a well floured tea towel or other floured surface, it should be floured enough so the dough won't stick to it.  Sprinkle dough with flour, fold dough over a couple of times and cover with tea towel for 15 minutes.  If your dough is REALLY sticky after the first rise, I added additional flour (about 1/8 - 1/4 cup) and briefly kneaded the flour into the dough before covering with the tea towel.

Dough once folding in additional flour

Cover with tea towel for 15 minutes

After 15 minutes, fold into floured tea towel

3. After letting dough rest for 15 minutes, unwrap tea towel, shape dough into a ball, and fold tea towel around the dough.  Allow dough to rise for about 2 hours or until it has doubled in size.
 
4.  About thirty minutes prior to the end of the rise, place Dutch oven in the oven while it preheats to 450 degrees.

5. When dough is ready, remove Dutch oven from the oven, unwrap tea towel, and dump the dough into the warmed dutch oven so the seam side of the dough is facing up.  Shake the pot so the dough settles and return to the oven with the lid on.  Bake for 30 minutes.

6. After dough has baked for 30 minutes, remove lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the top of the bread has browned to your liking.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.   OR if you are like me, remove the bread from the oven, cut a nice size slice and eat it right then!!!  This probably isn't the best way for slicing the bread, but jeez, bread fresh out of the oven is heavenly!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!  I attempted to make a similar version with wheat bread that just didn't have the same gusto, so I recommend sticking to All Purpose or White Bread Flour. 

I shout "hooray!"
for the Miracle Boule
Yeast you can Beat, so...

Bon Appetit!!

Classic Granola

Let's face it, store bought granola can be down right expensive and each box has about 1/4 the amount of a standard box of cereal.  Thanks to this delicious and easily customized recipe from my wonderful friend Margaret and a need to save some money with my husband and I both being in school, I have vowed to never buy granola again.  

I have tried a variety of homemade granola recipes:  pumpkin granola in the fall, cranberry lemon granola, tropical granola and the like, but this recipe is the one I come back to time and again.  It is terribly easy to make and you can add some different spices to switch things up from time to time.

Classic Granola

Ingredients:

 - 8C Rolled Oats

- 2 C Nuts, your favorite kind, sliced or chopped

- 2 C Puffed Cereal (I get the regular 7 grain Kashi Puffs, my friend uses puffed millet)

- 1 1/2 C Brown Sugar

- 1/2 C Water

- 1t Salt

Ideas for Added Ingredients to Make it Your Own:

-  Once you make the syrup with the brown sugar and water, jazz it up with some ingredients such as honey, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.

- When mixing together the dry ingredients add in some dried fruit, coconut, chia seeds, flaxseeds, wheat bran, more nuts, pumpkin seeds, etc.  The last batch I made I added honey, cinnamon and nutmeg to the syrup and added some chia seeds and ground wheat bran to the dry ingredients and it tastes yummy!!

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients in large bowl (and add any of your personal dry additions)
3. Mix together the brown sugar and water in microwave safe dish and microwave for 2-5 minutes, until sugar is melted and you are left with a syrup.
4. Add salt to the syrup
5. Mix in any of your own personal touches to the syrup
6. Pour syrup over the dry ingredients and mix until oats are well coated with your sugar goodness
7.  Spread oats on two cookie sheets and place in preheated oven.  At this point I always find it necessary to sample some of my raw concoction.  You know, poison control.
8.  Bake for 45-60 minutes*, remove from oven and loosen with spatula while still warm.  *Note: I usually swap the two trays half way through cooking time for more even cooking.  I also err on the lower length of cooking to avoid browning the oats toooo much.  I find even though the oats may still feel wet after 45 minutes, they dry out quickly out as they cool.

Store in an airtight container and enjoy with milk, yogurt or by the handful whenever you are bored and find yourself staring into your fridge / pantry because you don't know what else to do with yourself.  Just go crazy!!  It is hard to mess this recipe up.  The only time I had issues with it was when I used nuts that may have been a bit old giving it a stale flavor, and also when I baked it in an oven I had never used before, resulting in burned granola (but delicious never the less)!

Oh Granola, how you please my soul

Each morning you smile up at me from my bowl

Your sweet salty crunch with each precious bite

Makes my loving taste buds want to take flight

In the afternoon, you make a healthy treat

So to anyone that may actually read my blog...

Bon Appetit!!
 
....YES, it is that good...so I wrote a poem about it.

Baked Brie

I have determined I am terrible at keeping up with my blog regularly, but my love for food is in full force.  After a successful bridal shower for my best friend Emily, whom I have known since pre-school, I was inspired yesterday to keep posting.
The recipe for baked brie below wasn't part of our wine and food pairing for Emily's 5 senses shower; however, it is perfect for entertaining (and I already had the recipe typed up)!  It is really a classic appetizer and always seems to go over well with guests.  If you have a large gathering, I would suggest making two....yes it is that good.
More recent recipes to come, but in the meantime, this is great to try for your next gathering:

Baked Brie
Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 of a 17.3 oz. package of puff pastry (1 sheet), thawed (I use Pepperidge Farms)
• Apricot, Berry or Fig preserves or jam
• Sliced almonds
• 13-16oz. round of brie cheese
• Entertainment crackers

Directions:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees and beat the egg
• When thawed (but not warm) unfold the pastry sheet on a floured surface and roll pastry out to about a 14" x 14" square
• Spread generous amount of your favorite flavor of preserves / jam on the pastry within 2 inches of the edge of the square
• Place brie round in the center of the pastry
• Add additional preserves on top of the brie round and sprinkle with sliced almonds
• Fold edges of the pastry up and over the brie round.  I usually fold the four edges into the middle of the pastry which creates four more corners, or a smaller pastry square.  Lift the four "new" corners to touch and then twist one direction to make a flower shape.  Secure on top of the brie with a toothpick
• Brush pastry with beaten egg
• Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool for 20-40 minutes  and serve with crackers

Bon Appetit!!!    ....and I will post again soon! (fingers crossed)