I love popcorn. I have all kinds of popcorn seasonings that I like to use. It has to be cooked on the stove in a kettle or it just isn't the same. I recently made some caramel popcorn and everyone loved it so I'll tell you how I made it!
First, you have to have a bowl ready. The last thing you want to be doing when the popcorn is popping like crazy is having to scurry through the kitchen to find something to pour it into before it burns! So that's the easiest part if you do it first:) Second, you have to have a stove top kettle. If you don't have one....get one! So far this is pretty difficult, but keep up with me!! I call my creation, Chocolate Cookie Pecan. This is no recipe, I'm just telling you how I made it so you can follow along as well.
Measure the amount of popcorn you want to make and pour it into the kettle. pour in popping oil like vegetable oil to cover the kernels. When the oil is hot, slowly pour a mixture of sugar and cocoa, equal to half the amount of popcorn, into the kettle. I used a mix called "glaze pop" which is made up of: Sugar, Cocoa, Lecithin, and vanilla flavor. the sugar with give it a nice crispness. When the popcorn is popped, pour it onto a large pizza pan with Pam sprayed on it. Brake up small pieces of chocolate cookie and put them on the popcorn like you would put pineapple on a pizza! Break up some Pecans and put them on as well. You can add toffee or other nuts if you want. Then make up some of Judy's Caramel and drizzle it onto the popcorn evenly. let the caramel cool. Then drizzle on melted white chocolate to give it some style! You can add milk chocolate as well. The easiest way to melt chocolate is to buy some chocolate chips and put them in a cheap plastic bowl. Then you fill a slightly larger bowl with water and put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Put the bowl with the chocolate chips in the hot water and hold it there while you stir. It works great! Sometimes white chocolate will need a little oil. Whatever you choose, do not just put a bowl of chocolate in the microwave because it wont work! After everything is all cooled, separate the popcorn and put it into a bowl! If you want to make popcorn balls, use more caramel and put handfuls in a bowl until you can shape it with your hands. TA DA! Have fun!
A few years ago I bought a Christmas book by Jason Tonioli, it's one of my favorites. I was excited to play a duet with him at Riverton music. He is such a great guy. I'll have to practice up to play with him again. His Duet was more difficult than I expected! I got another one of his books because Chelsea likes the Called To Serve song in it. So here is a picture of Jason Tonioli and me playing the duet:)
The most exciting news for us this year was our new piano. It is a Yamaha Clavinova CVP-405. It is an awesome piano! If I would have bought an acoustic it would have been a Young Chang, because they make great upright pianos. With our apartment, a grand piano was out of the question. In the end, what I wanted was something that I could record on as well.
I am so happy to have a piano! I've played it every day. We plan on teaching our kids on this piano. All the family has come over to sing with the Karaoke songs it has and play with the sounds. Chelsea's grandpa, Fred, offered to help us pay for this piano. Thanks Fred!! He is a great person. Chelsea's family has been so awesome. I have Chelsea and Two awesome families! It's been great spending time with our family. We are so blessed to be surrounded by great people!
We had to get a picture in front of the tree too!
