Everyday Food for Busy People
Need to satisfy an extra big snack craving? This is your recipe. It makes a bunch. And I warn you – if you start munching it, you won’t be able to stop. I adapted the recipe from an old Taste of Home magazine. The original called for Crispix Cereal, which I couldn’t find. Do they even make that anymore? I also changed a few other things.
A few weeks ago, a friend brought this popcorn to our small group. She left some for us to munch after the group was over. I hadn’t tasted it, thinking it was just regular popcorn but then my son said something about how good the caramel corn tasted. Caramel corn? I wasted no time digging in once I realized it was a sweet treat.
The kernels were lightly coated and not real sticky like other caramel corn I’ve tried. It almost tastes like kettle corn.
I’ve made the recipe twice, altering it slightly each time. Here’s what you’ll need:
The original recipe calls for:
10 cups popcorn – I think that 12 or more is better, just a big popper full. When I used 10 cups, the kernels were too heavily coated.
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbs. molasses (My friend used corn syrup. I tried that once too and I liked it better that way. The molasses made it stickier.)
1/2 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
Boil everything but the popcorn in a saucepan. Pour over the popcorn and stir to coat. Put it out on a rimmed baking sheet (2 if you have them, because it’s a lot of popcorn) and bake at 300 degrees to crisp it. Stir it every few minutes, baking for about 10-15 min. total. Watch it so it doesn’t burn. Cool completely, or at least until you won’t burn your fingers and tongue.
This Honey Apple Ham Glaze couldn’t be easier. Stir a few ingredients together and pour it over your ham. It makes a big difference in the flavor and is so simple.
I ended up with about 1½ cups of glaze. I don’t think you could really mess this up. Use the sweet, fruity ingredients you have in your kitchen. There was plenty of liquid after the ham cooked. I covered the ham tightly with foil to bake it. It tasted delish!
As I’m typing this, I’m thinking it would be great poured over the top of cut-up sweet potatoes and baked. Yum!
These were really good. My kids licked them up. I modified a Rachel Ray recipe from her cookbook 30-Minute Get Real Meals.
I have to say though, chicken wings are expensive. I bought a large pack that had 20 wings in it. It cost me over $7 for that pack of wings. Kind of singed my wing feathers to pay it, but I did. Next time I might use legs or even thighs for this recipe.
The original recipe calls for 12 wings, but since I was making them for dinner for my family of six, I bought the big pack. In addition to the wings, you’ll need oil, salt and pepper and the ingredients for the sauce.
Season the wings with salt and pepper and brown them in hot oil.
I don’t care how good you are at taking pictures, there’s no pretty way to photograph a chicken wing.
Gather up the sauce ingredients:
1/4 – 1/3 cup spicy deli mustard
1/2 cup orange juice
2 inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled
2 Tbs. hot sauce
2 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3 Tbs. honey
I didn’t measure anything for the sauce, but just eye-balled it. I made a bit more than what the recipe called for because I had more wings. The actual recipe calls to heat this sauce on the stove, then remove the ginger and pour it over the wings in the skillet, popping the skillet into the oven to let the wings finish cooking. I think this would give a nice glaze to the wings. But I changed the recipe for my needs.
Here’s what I did. After the wings browned, I put them in the crockpot. Then I poured the sauce ingredients into the hot skillet and let it cook a minute.
Remove the ginger and pour the sauce over the wings in the crockpot.
I cooked mine on high for several hours. There were no leftovers because the kids loved them.
