Home-made Caramel Corn

It seems that every year about this time I say I can’t believe it’s time for football when it’s still hotter than blue blazes, but it is hot and it is time for football. This means you’ll need some snacking ideas for the stands and those living room gatherings. Never fear, I’m going to show you how to stir up my homemade caramel corn! This stuff is–tomboy honor. And you know I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it! Let’s get cooking…

• 4 quarts popped corn
• 2 cups dry roasted nuts
• 1 and 1/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup butter
• 2/3 cup dark corn syrup
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

The first thing I’ve done is pop up four quarts of pop corn in the microwave. That’s four quarts (or 16 cups) of already popped corn! So, don’t pop 4 quarts of kernels unless you want to feed your whole cheering section in the stands. Here’s a tip—it’s about 3 of the 3 ounce bags of microwave popcorn. Oh, okay. Now that we have that straight, we’ll pour our popcorn in a 9×13 metal pan, toss it with two cups of your favorite roasted nuts and set it aside. Meanwhile, over here on the stove, I’ve got my sugar mixture boiling. It’s two-thirds cup of butter, two-thirds cup of dark corn syrup and one and a fourth cup of sugar. When it reaches 260 degrees on my candy thermometer I’ll pour it over my popcorn and nuts and slide the whole pan in a 250 degree oven for about an hour. Don’t forget to stir it occasionally. Let it cool, break it apart and store it in an airtight container. Enjoy my Home-made Caramel Corn, folks! It’s good eating, from my kitchen to yours…