Summer brings memories of circus, fairs, carnivals, street festivals, fleas, farmers markets and the foods that go along with them.

I’m talking Corn Dogs, Fried Dough (Fry Bread), and the sweet & salty Kettle Corn that you thought you could only have on a hot summer afternoon, while standing in line for the Tilt-A-Whirl!

Kettle Corn, made on a large-scale for the fairs & festivals, usually involves a dedicated machine, with big copper pots.  However, Kettle Corn is really easy to make at home.  The trick is to constantly shake the pot.  Constantly.  And remove the pot when the kernels are popping every 2-3 seconds, and then keep shaking.

It does take a bit of practice to get this right — the sugar can burn too easily, if the heat is too high.  Make sure you are on a medium setting, and use an old pot – one that has seen  better times.  Burned sugar happens and it is a pain to clean.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we always have :)

Homemade Kettle Corn

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, stir in the sugar and popcorn. Cover and shake the pot.

Keep shaking the pot during the entire cooking process, to help keep the sugar from burning.

When the popping slows to every 2-3 seconds, remove the pot from the heat, and continue to shake until the popping has stopped. This will really keep the sugar from burning.

Pour the popcorn into a large bowl, salt to taste, and stir to break up any clumps, and allow to cool.

Once cool, store in ziplock bags…if you have any left ;)

Enjoy!

Variations:

• Use brown sugar, for a “caramel corn” taste
• Add in a teaspoon of cinnamon
• Add in 2 teaspoons maple flavoring, and 1/3 cup of walnuts
• Add in two tablespoons of your favorite hot sauce.  After you’ve poured out the popcorn, sprinkle with Cayenne Pepper

Butter Toffee Caramel Corn

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon extract – vanilla, maple, almond — your choice
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
16 cups popcorn (popped!!)
salt to taste
3 cups nuts (mixed, cashews, pecans, or whatever you like)

Heat the oven to 300F.

Pop the popcorn.  I usually need to do two batches.  You can use microwave popcorn, but get unflavored, unbuttered and as “all natural” as you can.  Newmans Own is a good choice, as well as Orville Redenbacher’s “Natural”.

Line a baking sheet with parchment, and then pour the popcorn evenly over the sheet.  Sprinkle the nuts over the popcorn and set the baking sheet aside.

In a saucepan, mix the brown sugar, butter and corn syrup.  You can use light or dark corn syrup, but I prefer the light.  Heat to boiling, and then boil for 5 minutes.  Stir constantly.

Remove the pan from the heat and add in the cream of tarter and baking soda, stiring constantly.  This is going to foam up, just keep mixing it.  Stir in the flavoring.

Pour the mixture over the popcorn and mix well, coating each piece.  This gets messy!  If you have one of those gigantic mixing bowls that people like my Mother always seem to have, you can mix the popcorn in that, and then transfer it to the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow this to cool, and then break apart.  Once it is totally cool, store in a tightly sealed container or a ziplock bag.