The Zen of Popcorn – Kernels of Happiness and Comfort

Notes From Dikki-Jo’s Kitchen
Sometimes I like to spend the whole night just making fragrant and snowy mountains of delicious popcorn. There is a mystical and fatalistic quality to this experience. For example this 1930’s recipe mysteriously surfaced in an old family notebook … for popcorn balls …. Just when I had a big batch prepared and was afraid I’d have to make popcorn strings for the birds in order to use it all up. If you love popcorn as much as I, then you might like to try this …

Grandmother Esther’s Easy Popcorn Balls
4 quarts of popped corn. Melt 2 Tbs butter, ½ C sugar, 1 C Karo (corn) syrup (the red label is light and not high fructose), 1 tsp cream of tartar, ¼ tsp baking soda. Pour melted mixture over the popcorn, stir very gently and shape into balls, with lightly buttered hands. Makes about 8 large popcorn balls.
Here is a quick party or dinner dessert recipe and it gives you an excuse to pop lots of corn. It’s kind of a meditative and Zen experience to indulge in this pastime of culinary excess.

POPCORN CAKE
1 16 oz package of miniature marshmallows
20 caramels
1/4 cup butter, cubed
10 cups popped corn
1 cup M and M’s candies
2 cups of peanuts

Melt marshmallows, caramels and butter, stir, pour over the popcorn in a large mixing bowl. Stir in candies and peanuts, press into a cake pan (a bundt works well). Let cool until firm, remove from pan with a serrated knife, serves about 7 hungry souls.

Gift Idea!

Popcorn treats make wonderful, welcome and inexpensive gifts which are certain to bring a smile. Slices of the popcorn cake and popcorn balls can be wrapped in colorful cellophane or foil and presented in a paper lunch bag decorated with humorous stickers and stamps.