I made Homemade Cranberry Sauce

I grew up eating canned jellied cranberry sauce.  You know the kind that plops out of the can looking like a purple blob?  I LOVED it when I was little and I still LOVE it now.  I have it with everything from chicken and dumplings to baked chicken and of course a fabulous Thanksgiving Day feast.  But, the other day in making "Sunday dinner" , I was baking a chicken and went down to the basement to pull out some chicken broth I had cooked and stashed down in the freezer to make stuffing when I ran across two bags of Ocean Spray cranberries.  I think I bought those things a long time ago!  I probably intended to make cranberry bread out of them because that's my favorite way to eat whole cranberries, but knowing I had chicken baking and stuffing "in the works", I peaked on the bag to see how difficult making homemade cranberry sauce would be. 

The recipe sounded easy and I had everything I needed.  In the past, it seems like homemade cranberry sauce had always involved some citrus taste to it that I didn't care for, but the recipe on the bag was easy, simplE and only used three ingredients, berries, sugar and water. 

I will definitely NOT be buying anymore of those cans of cranberry sauce.  This stuff is divine and I will certainly be stocking up on cranberries once they make their appearance in the grocery store!  I'm seeing lots of cranberry sauce in my future!  Yea - yea... I know, it has lots of sugar, but those cranberries are REALLY good for you, right?  LOL.


This is how I made Homemade Cranberry Sauce AT HOME MY WAY:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 12-ounce package fresh or frozen cranberries.

Directions:  Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Add the cranberries, return to a boil.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes,stirring occasionally.  Cover and cool completely at room temperature.  Refrigerate until serving.

I'm sure you can "can" this and I'm going to check out how to do this as well.  It would be so nice just to dump this out of a jar.  Even easier!

Here's my plate of leftovers last night.  Not a great picture.  But Oh So Good!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce works for me and this post is linked to:

Menu Plan Monday - August 29, 2011

http://www.orgjunkie.com/

Breakfasts:

• Toast with butter, jelly or Nutella (ahh! My new favorite!)



• Applesauce Bread from Heavenly Homemakers blog (from my freezer and it freezes GREAT!)



• Smoothies using frozen bananas, milk, strawberries or HM chocolate syrup



• Breakfast Burritos from the freezer (to try)



• HM Apple or Blueberry Fritters (to try)

Lunches:

• Sloppy Joe or Bean Burritos from the freezer



• PB&J on HM Sandwich Bread,

(with yogurt or fruit, and possibly some tomato juice... heard tomato juice lowers blood pressure)

Suppers:

• Leftovers (Baked Chicken, Stuffing using leftover HM Sandwich Bread, HM cranberry sauce (will post with pics if I don't eat it all LOL) using cranberries in the freezer from Thanksgiving, and leftover HM cornbread)



• Bacon-Tomato Sandwices



• HM Chicken & Dumplings (using the same recipe for Dumplings as I used in beef/roast broth in this post) in the Crockpot



• Chili in the Crockpot



• HM Stirfry and HM egg rolls



• Spaghetti, Pineapple Lettuce Salad, and HM french bread;

Snacks:

• Black Bean Brownies (to try)



• HM Kettlecorn in the microwave



• Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Pie with an Homemade Crust (made with Oil)

The first day of my "pity party" (when my youngest moved to college), I was in a quandry (gotta love that word LOL) as to what to cook.  My daughter was an adventurous eater like I am and if I couldn't make homemade stirfry, kinda empanadas, or frosted sugar cookie bars, I didn't know what to make! 

I boo-hooed meditated in my bedroom until I could get myself together and then decided to cook for my man!  I put some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a skillet with a tiny bit of oil and browned them, then added some of our favorite BBQ sauce and cooked them with a lid until they were juicy and saucy!  I also made a recipe I had been wanting to try for Easy Macaroni and Cheese, which did not turn out like I hoped, so I'm going to keep working on that recipe to make it a little better before posting.  But the BEST thing I made for him was a Homemade Pumpkin Pie.  It was delicious!  My hubby has RAVED about the pie I made.  Several times he told me, "Have I told you how delicious that pie is?"  I first accused him of "blowing smoke" to try to make me feel better, but he claims he really liked the "spicey-ness" of the pie!  I don't know entirely what his motivation was, but the pie was DELICIOUS!   

I didn't have any shortening to make a pie crust and so I dug around until I found a recipe for an oil crust in my old Betty Crocker's Cookbook.  It worked fine and turned out flaky and very delicious!  Here's how I made a homemade pumpkin pie with an oil pie crust AT HOME MY WAY:

Homemade Pie Crust (uses Oil)

(For 8 or 9 inch one-crust pie)

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 - 4 Tablespoons ice cold water

Mix flour and salt well.  Add oil and stir until flour/oil particles are the size of small peas.  Sprinkle with cold water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of the bowl.  If pastry seems dry, add 1 Tablespoon of OIL (not water).  Gather pastry into a small disc shape.

I rolled this dough out on a floured surface using a gallon ziplock bag as a barrier between the dough and my rolling pin.  When rolling thin crust, that just seems to work better than having to keep adding flour which makes the crust tough.  I moved the square bag around on the dough and rolled until I got a crust big enough for my pie pan.  The dough kind of sticks to the bag and that makes it easy to move from the floured surface to the pie plate.  You could also roll it between some parchment paper or wax paper, I just didn't have any and as usual was "making do with what I had."

Place the crust in the pie pan, flatten, roll and pinch the edges.


Pumpkin filling:

1 can pumpkin (15 oz) (I used generic pumpkin because I'm cheap like that)
1 can evaporated milk (I used 1 1/2 cups of reg milk + 3 T milk powder because I didn't have any evaporated milk)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Thoroughly blend all "pie" ingredients and pour into the unbakd pie crust.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 45 additional minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.  Serve immediately or refrigerate.

This Recipe Linked at:

Around my Family Table

Homemade White Sandwich Bread

We were running a little low on sandwich bread last night and after a full day of work and the LONG commute home (to me), I was NOT going anywhere!  I used my favorite homemade sandwich bread recipe and my handy dandy bread machine to create this loaf.  I've used this recipe before!  During the Blizzard of 2011 I created this terrific rainbow loaf for a bake sale.  I also regularly use this recipe substituting some whole wheat flour for some of the white flour.  It always turns out great and my skeptic husband, who prefers something like the Wonder Bread that he grew up eating, even took a PB&J with this soft, perfect bread!  I slice mine with an electric knife once the loaf is completely cold.  Remember to let it cool completely before enclosing it in a plastic bag (otherwise the steam makes it a little moist).  I have found this loaf keeps about 5 days with good results and for toasting, I would say a good week or week and a half.  Even though it has no preservatives, I haven't found any of my homemade bread having mold on it.  If I'm not making toast or garlic bread with it, I just pop it in the freezer for using to make dressing (stuffing), bread pudding, or croutons!  This is how I make homemade sandwich bread AT HOME MY WAY!


Homemade White Sandwich Bread (with picture)


1 cup warm water (hot but no hurt - should feel like hot bath water)
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon yeast (1 packet)
1/4 cup oil (vegetable oil, canola, or olive)
3 cups AP flour or bread flour (I have substituted a cup of the flour with 1 cup whole wheat flour and it makes a delicious light wheat bread)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

• In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure the very warm water (1 cup), stir in yeast and sugar, stirring well to dissolve the yeast (gently). Set a timer for 10 minutes. It will start bubbling and at the end of 10 minutes, will look like a big glass of root beer with a tall soft, frothy foam on top. Add the oil and then dump in the pan of the bread machine.

• Next add your flour and top with the salt. (I realize your bread machine may say to do this in a different order, but do it this way and you will have a perfect loaf.)

• Set your bread machine to the dough setting.

• And the end of this cycle (when it is "ready"-mine beeps), then  dump the loaf into your sprayed / greased loaf pan.  Kind of spread it out to fill the pan (gently stretching so that it reaches the width of the loaf pan).  Spray my loaf with cooking spray so it doesn't dry out (or you could probably brush with a little melted butter). Let rise 1 hour in a warmish place (I like to use the inside of my microwave) or until it rises up out of the loaf pan by a little bit.  Not huge at this point, just out of the top of the pan.

• Preheat your oven completely before putting the loaf in -to 350 degrees.

• Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

• Let it sit in the pan about 5 minutes. Then, carefully (because the loaf is so soft) take it out of the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack. Let it cool completely and then slice using an electric knife or large surrogated knife.
It makes great sandwiches, grilled cheese, peanut butter. Probably would make great hamburger and hotdog buns as well.


I baked my bread last night and sliced it this morning.  Here is the finished product!  Notice that terrific "crumb".  Just like sandwich bread that you buy at the store!  I haven't done a cost breakdown on this recipe yet, but I can bet that its a frugal choice for making homemade bread at home!  Here it is sliced and ready for peanut butter:

This post is linked to:

Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesday blog carnival!

This Chick Cooks

Baked Oatmeal

This recipe is all over blogland and that is for several reasons.  The first reason is that it is DELICIOUS!  The second probably is that it's extremely frugal, and the third is that this is a very versatile recipe.  You can substitute all kinds of fruit and make this with whatever you have on hand, either seasonally, or from your pantry.  We love this Baked Oatmeal recipe!  We eat it hot or cold, fresh out of the oven or leftover!  If you have any friends or family who claim not to like oatmeal (the cooked kind) but do like apple crisp or oatmeal cookies, try this!  Its similar to a coffee cake.  I would say this is also gluten free since it doesn't use any flour, but I'm not a specialist in that area.  I think you have to check your oats to make sure they are gluten free.  This is how I make my favorite recipe for BAKED OATMEAL - At Home My Way!


BAKED OATMEAL

• 3 cups old fashioned oats - not quick oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs (slightly beaten) (just whites works fine or egg beaters)
• ½ cup melted margarine/butter (1 stick)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Fruit (optional): 2 cups frozen (fresh is fine but not thawed) blueberries; peeled/sliced apples; or 1 can crushed pineapple, partially drained (our favorite is pineapple) ; raisins, craisins, or whatever fruit you want to use).  Sometimes I slice a few apples, add a little sugar and put them in the bottom of a baking dish, topping them with the oatmeal mixture, then baking and serving like a thick apple crisp.  That works wonderfully and serving it that way is a special treat for breakfast on the first crisp cool autumn day here in Missouri!

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In separate dish, mix together milk, egg(s), melted butter/margarine and vanilla. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in any fruit. Spread into a 9 x 13 dish (sprayed or lightly oiled). Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.


We eat this like coffee cake without milk, but my mother-in-law tops hers with milk like regular oatmeal!


I half this recipe and bake it in an 8x8 pan or med pyrex baking casserole dish (without the lid).


I cannot describe to you how wonderful this is. Like a warm oatmeal cookie but not quite as sweet. Even people who don’t like a bowl of oatmeal will like this one! And its even good leftover!

Hint:  You can mix this up, cover, and place it in your fridge for baking the next morning.  My mornings used to be pretty hectic but I could still pop this in the oven cold without preheating my oven (since the mixture was cold, not using glass, however) and it would be ready after my shower.

The "Last Supper"

We moved our "baby" to college this week, two hours away from our small town to the big city (Kansas City).  It was a very busy week but I wanted to make some sort of special "last supper" for her before she left.  She's my partner in crime for trying new recipes, taking blog pictures for me, and eating just about anything I put on the table.  Her favorites are Hawaiian Chicken and Parmesan Chicken, but she was starving when I called her on my way home from work and she wanted something faster than those other two dishes.  Since I had chicken thawed in the fridge, I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes (instant for my hubby), white long grain rice and leftover pinto beans (she and I ate this instead of the potatoes), fried zucchini, and my all time favorite dessert as a little girl, which my daughter also LOVES - Puddin' and Biscuits!  

When I was crying and boo-hooing over my sweet girl being so far away, I told my husband, "but now I don't have anyone to cook for..." and he reminded me "Let's get this straight! You still have someone to cook for!" But, a person can only make SO MUCH meat and potatoes, ya know? Having a pity party at my house, but maybe she'll come home this weekend!


Here's how I made our college freshman's last supper AT HOME MY WAY:


Fried Chicken:


I just used five boneless, skinless breasts (so we would have leftovers), sliced lengthwise to make "tenders" so they would cook faster (since I don't get home from work until after 5:30pm, I wanted the fastest route to the table); rinsed them in cool water (to moisten), dredged them in flour with a little salt & pepper; and fried in bacon grease  in my largest cast iron skillet (shhh!  The best fried chicken is fried in bacon grease and I keep a jar in my fridge for seasoning green beans, stewed tomatoes, and frying chicken).  


Fried Zucchini (from my garden)


Washed and sliced the zucchini in thin slices.  I mixed a little milk and one egg and placed that in a shallow bowl.  Also, put about 1 1/2 cup flour with some salt & pepper in another wide shallow bowl.  Dipped the slices in the milk / egg, dredged in the flour mixture, double dipped in the egg/milk, and again in the flour mixture.  I fried them in the hot oil after I got finished frying the chicken.  We dipped these in ranch dressing and they were just excellent!  




Homemade Biscuits (this recipe makes 8 biscuits)
I used to make these with shortening, but have started using margarine/butter instead because I don't buy Crisco any more.  I love them!  They are fluffier and softer with the margarine!  Easy to mix up and they are terrific leftover!

• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 Tablespoons (measured on the stick) margarine or butter (cold) (or combination of shortening/margarine)
• 1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons milk

Instructions: PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 400 DEGREES.  In a medium bowl, measure in the flour.  Next, add the baking powder and salt.  Give it a good stir.  Slice the cold measured margarine/ butter onto the dry mixture in the bowl.  Using a pastry blender, fork, or two knives, cut in the margarine into pea sized pieces so that it is thoroughly mixed into the dry ingredients.  Dump in the milk and stir good.  Drop the biscuits onto a greased / sprayed pie pan.  Pat just a little with floured fingers to take the pointed tops off the biscuits.  

Bake 15-20 minutes or until the biscuits are browning on top!  Try to wait until they cool to slather one in butter and pop it in your mouth!  Tip:  Leftovers are great sliced and toasted in the toaster or even sliced and buttered on the sliced side & grilled like you would a grill cheese sandwich in a skillet.

Homemade chocolate pudding (no eggs) 
(I got this TERRIFIC recipe from www.hillbillyhousewife.com.)  


When my mom made this, she always used Jello brand cooked pudding.  We eat it hot / warm over the biscuits.  After I found this recipe at the Hillbilly Housewife, I will never buy boxed pudding again!  Its perfect!  Same texture and same taste!  

• 3 cups milk (cold)
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup sugar
• Good dash salt (like 1/8 teaspoon)
• 3 tablespoons margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

With the burner off, in a two quart sauce pan combine the cornstarch, cocoa, sugar and salt. Mix it very well (I use a whisk.) Gradually add the cold milk, whisking it in until the mixture is smooth.   Now turn on the burner (do NOT walk away, stir the entire time this is cooking... it SCORCHES easily and you don't want that) and heat the pan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the pudding to a full rolling boil. Boil and stir for one minute (set a timer).  Remove from heat. Plop in the margarine, stir in the margarine until it melts and is blended throughout, then add the vanilla. The pudding will thicken as it cools.  Pour into a bowl to serve that can be refrigerated.  (You can pour the pudding into a pretty serving dish, or small individual cups. I pour it into small individual cups with lids and send it in the children’s lunch boxes.) Store it in the fridge either way. Makes 6 servings. This recipe is what pudding fantasies are made of.

Note: To make 3 cups of milk, combine 3 cups of tap water with 1 cup of instant nonfat dry milk powder. Stir to dissolve the milk powder, and then use as directed above.

To serve this and eat this southern "down home" dessert, split a hot biscuit in a bowl and ladle over some hot chocolate pudding!  Eat it with a spoon!  This will be like chocolate pie, but with a thick crust.  If you like chocolate pie, YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE THIS!

These are the ingredients I use to make my famous biscuits!

I use a pastry blender to blend the sliced cold margarine into the dry ingredients.

They are ready to bake!

Linked up here:

Good Cheap Eats

Using Up Leftovers - Hot Beef Open Faced Sandwich

Last night we had one of my husband's favorite meals for supper.  (I did not have to slave in the kitchen all day, thankfully.  I just used some leftovers I had in the fridge and he was happier than if I had served him a fancy feast!)  What did we have?  We had a typical midwest diner favorite, ye ole Hot Beef Sandwich.  Here if the midwest, they take white bread, scoop on a big pile of hot, fluffy mashed potatoes, and ladle on some good old roast beef and brown gravy.  This is a huge pile of deliciousness and will definitely leave you craving your recliner!  But, it was easy, fast, and we both really enjoyed it.  In fact, it was so good, that we promptly jumped in the car and took my husband's mom a plate (she was having Cheerios for supper - eek)!  She loved it too. 

This is how I make an Open Faced Hot Beef Sandwich AT HOME MY WAY:


Open Faced Hot Beef Sandwich (DINER FOOD)

Sliced roast beef from the deli or leftover roast (I used rump roast.)
1-2 packages of brown gravy
sandwich bread
Hot fluffy mashed potatoes (I used our favorite brand of instant -shhhh!)

Mix up the gravy, per the instructions on the packet and cook until thick.  Place bite sized pieces of roast beef in the gravy.

Prepare your mashed potatoes.

Ready?  Almost!

Place one slice of bread on a plate.  Scoop on some mashed potatoes.  Ladle on the hot beef gravy.

Dinner's ready!

(I also had some leftover pineapple lettuce salad with mine, but my hubby was happy with just "meat and potatoes"  (of course) LOL.)

Subtitution:  This is just as delicious to use packet(s) of turkey gravy and either leftover turkey or sliced turkey from the deli. 

This recipe was linked to:

http://savingthosedollars.blogspot.com/

Claiming my blog!

I am claiming my blog on Technorati.  My code is V43SFWWGVPUD.


:)

Zucchini Cobbler (Tastes just like Apple Cobbler!) (I promise!)

One of my favorite blogs mentioned a recipe that I posted in her "comments" section of a post about zucchini fritters.  I figured I should at least post this on here so it would be easier to find this recipe, that is... until she posts it on her blog because SHE IS GOING TO LOVE IT and you will too!  My 23 year old daughter could not tell she was eating zucchini and she is my pickiest eater!

Kim's blog is here:  http://jabezfarm.blogspot.com/

If you like apple cobbler / pie, you're gonna love this:


Any naysayers should see this discussion board where I posted the recipe.  They all went "hog wild"  LOL!
http://forums.organicgardening.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5541078301/m/5651069627?r=5651069627#5651069627

ZUCCHINI COBBLER recipe AT HOME MY WAY

Ingredients:

8 cups chopped seeded peeled zucchini (about 3 pounds) (peel the zucchini first, then slice lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and slice the zucchini.  These little slices, when seeded and peeled this way will look JUST LIKE apple slices for a totally foolproof way to serve this zucchini as "apple" cobbler!) 


2/3 cup lemon juice


1 cup sugar


1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg




CRUST:


4 cups all-purpose flour


2 cups sugar


1-1/2 cups cold butter, cubed


1 teaspoon ground cinnamon





Directions:

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice for 15-20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; simmer 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat; set aside.


For crust, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup into zucchini mixture. Press half of remaining crust mixture into a greased  (I sprayed with cooking spray)15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Spread zucchini over top; crumble remaining crust mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with cinnamon (I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar mixture that I keep in a spice container for making cinnamon toast!)

When I made this:  I used a 9 x 13 pan.  It made a thicker cobbler and was divine!Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

This recipe was shared at:











 

and

http://eatathomecooks.com/2011/08/ingredient-spotlight-zucchini.html
http://mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Pineapple Lettuce Salad

This is a salad that my mother-in-law regularly makes at her house.  I was probably married to her son 10 years before I got brave enough to try it LOL.  Something about pineapple, cheese, and lettuce just DID NOT sound good to me.  Boy was I WRONG!  This is now my favorite salad and she makes it for me often.  I'm wishing I hadn't waited all those years to try it!  I wasted some important pineapple salad eating in those 10 years! 

Whenever we have spaghetti or lasagna, I always have to have this salad!  Also goes terrific with ham dinners LOL!  This combination may sound a little strange, but trust me when I tell you, it is delicious!  Also, I think this is a great recipe for cooking from the pantry.  Give it a try!


"Pineapple Lettuce" (This is what we call it!)

Ingredients for the salad:

• 1 head rinsed, drained, and chopped lettuce
• 1 can chunk pineapple
• 1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese

Dressing:

• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 5 Tablespoons juice from draining the can of pineapple

Directions:

• Rinse the lettuce, removing the core. Drain for a few minutes on a tea towel. Chop lettuce as you would for salad. Put it in a bowl.
• Drain the can of chunk pineapple, reserving the juice for use in the dressing. Place the pineapple on top of the lettuce in the bowl.
• Top the lettuce and pineapple in the bowl with grated cheddar cheese.
• Mix the dressing ingredients. Stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Wait to add the dressing until just before you are ready to serve the salad. When ready to serve, drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss the entire salad to incorporate the dressing, cheese, pineapple, and lettuce. Its divine!

This salad is not great leftover. Everything kind of wilts, so if you are preparing this for single servings, just keep the lettuce, pineapple, cheese, and dressing in separate containers to make up single servings and to keep the ingredients themselves separate until you make another salad.

Homemade Kettle Corn in the Microwave

We have a friend who makes kettle corn at craft shows, festivals, and community gatherings.  We LOVE when he shares a few extra leftover bags of this delicious stuff with us!   Who can get enough of that sweet and salty snack?  Its addictive, for sure!  I was rummaging around in my recipes the other day and found a recipe for making small amounts of kettle corn in your microwave using a lunch sack.  It sounded TOO easy and I had to give it a try!  It works great and I will definitely be making it a lot! 

Whether or not you are adding the sugar for kettle corn as I did here - or just popping as regular popcorn in a paper bag in your microwave, NOT USING commercial microwave popcorn HAS to be a good thing!  Seems like I read somewhere something in the bags of commercial microwave popcorn is terrible for you!  But,whether or not that is true, I think making microwave popcorn using recycled lunch sacks (I used recycled fast food paper bags) AT HOME MY WAY is a much more frugal choice.  Saving money and eating something that is better for you equals a "win - win" in my book!

This is how I make microwave kettle corn AT HOME MY WAY:

Single Size Microwave Kettle Corn

1 small/medium paper sack (I used a recycled Panera bag)
1/4 cup (heaping a little bit) of regular yellow popcorn
1/8 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon oil
Sprinkles of salt


In a small bowl (like a salad / cereal bowl), dump in 1/4 heaping scoop yellow popcorn.  Pour the oil on top.  Stir well to coat the popcorn in oil.  Add the sugar and salt.  Stir well.  Dump tis into a small/medium paper bag.  Roll the top of the bag down.  Place the bag on a microwave safe plate and place all in the microwave.  The plate keeps the bag sturdy as the oil seeps into the bag and can weaken in when you lift it out. 

Microwave on high for app. 4 minutes (or however long a bag of popcorn takes in your microwave).  Once you hear a second or so after a pop, its probably ready.

With potholder (my plate was HOT), remove the plate and bag from the microwave.  Carefully unroll the bag (steam!) and pour into a bowl.  Sometimes I add a little extra salt, but its ready.

REMEMBER:  If you store your leftover popcorn in a glass jar, it will last at least two weeks and not get stale.  I use old pickle jars that have been washed and stored with newspaper inside and the lid off.  That seems to rid the jar of the dill smell.

NOTE:  If you wanted to pop regular popcorn, just omit the sugar from this recipe.

ANOTHER NOTE:  I took this as a carry-in for a dinner.  It was a great snack to munch on while we were talking before the meal was served.

Reminder:  The clean recycled paper bags I used would only have had wrapped, sealed, packaged food inside.  Never re-use a bag that has had any meat or animal products stored inside.