Caramel Corn

I only ate a banana for breakfast knowing I was going out to lunch yesterday.  We had decided to go to Bite 9 – they had tons of different wraps and pitas, and Hannah had a jones for gyros.  And I had a jones for hummus, which their menu said was made fresh daily.

But guess what?  It’s closed on Sundays! 🙁  So on to Plan B.  I had also read about this restaurant called Diced Fresh – salad bar, baked potato bar, fresh soups.

But we walked in and the place was completely empty except for one table.  We stood looking at the menu trying to figure out what to get, no one acknowledged us, it felt awkward, so we left!  On to Plan C.

We then went to Bentley’s Bagel and Brew.  A complete 180 from what I thought I was going to have for lunch, but it was delicious.

Where else can you eat where they spell out “I love you!” in bagels?

The service was nice and friendly.  I ended up getting a turkey breast sandwich on a cheddar jalapeno bagel – and considering this was my breakfast and lunch, worth the 13 points. 😀

And as we were leaving he gave us a bag of three free bagels – nice! 😀

I told Tony that I had seen Affy Tapple caramel corn at the store on the Halloween aisle at Walgreen’s, to which he replied “so where is it?”  Um, I didn’t buy it because a tiny bag was $3!  So I decided to make some for him for his football Sunday snack.

OMG, so easy, and after he ate the first bowl I was in the kitchen and he said “Biz, I think this is the best caramel corn I’ve ever had!”  Winning!  I couldn’t agree more – it was light, not overly sweet and the popcorn was still really crunchy.

Caramel Corn

• 12 cups popped popcorn
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup peanuts

Heat oven to 250.  Melt butter in a sauce pan and whisk in the brown sugar, corn syrup, alt and water.  Continue whisking until the temperature reads 250 on a candy thermometer (about 3-4 minutes) – if yoiu don’t have a candy thermometer, wait until mixture starts bubbling up.

Remove from heat – whisk in vanilla and baking soda.  Put popcorn and nuts in a large bowl and pour sugar mixture over popcorn, making sure to the popcorn is well coated.

Put on a baking sheet, bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.  Don’t worry – when it comes out of the oven its still really sticky, but in just 15 minutes it crisped up nicely.

But Tony had another idea, which I think I’ll do when I make this for Christmas gifts this year – add bacon bits to the mixture!  Everything is better with bacon, right?

Stats for Sunday

• 35 points (includes 6 points in tasting while I was cooking!)
• no exercise (although operation closet/laundry is 75% complete)
• I was a lazy diabetic this weekend – never tested my blood sugar once!

Today is going to be a busy day at work, I have a new attorney starting and my other boss is only in today and is traveling the rest of the week.  I’ll catch up with you guys tonight! 😀 Hope you had a great weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MIL BONNIE!