Butterscotch Popcorn

Don't blame me for this one - blame Jenny in Williamstown - she is a member in one of my Yahoo groups - we were talking about Christmas gift ideas and she made this last year along with home made cookies for all her family and friends as her homemade gifts.

The butterscotch popcorn recipe I use is the one in the Women's Weekly Original Cookbook. Easy as!! And everybody loves it.
Here it is:-
BUTTERSCOTCH POPCORN
125g popping corn
2 tablespoons oil
125g butter
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup sugar
In a large saucepan or frypan, heat oil until very hot.
Add corn, place lid on pan, shake pan continually until popping ceases.
Place popped corn in large bowl.
Combine honey, sugar and butter in separate pan, stir over low heat until sugar dissolves, slowly bring to boil;boil 5 minutes.
Pour syrup over popped corn and mix till corn is well coated.
Pour quickly onto well greased oven trays, cool.
Enjoy!!

She also had this to add -"You might have to make a double lot because you'll eat most of the first one yourself, I'll bet!!!!I am fighting the urge to go and make a batch myself right now!!!"

I'm also fighting the urge, but will try it on the weekend when the children are around to sample eat it all - so I can stick to my diet!

Blondies

No I'm not talking about the 80's rock sensation, or the fact that I do have blonde moments!

This is another in my series of "family favourite" recipes. I can't lay claim to inventing it...it comes from the fedup website. It was one of the first recipes I tried when we went failsafe.

They are called blondies because they are like brownies, but without the cocoa!

BLONDIES

2 cups of flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 cup of butter (125g)
2 cups of packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp of vanilla (optional)

1/4 tsp sea salt

failsafe carob buttons (optional) final step.
Grease a 13x9x2 inch (35x22x5cm) baking pan. Combine flour, baking powder and sea salt. Melt butter, remove from heat. Stir in sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir till combined. Stir mixed dry ingredients (and carob buttons, if desired) into sugar mixture. Spread in pan. Bake in a 180’C (350’F) oven 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into bars while warm.

My children don't like the carob buttons on them, plain is just as nice! Yes, they will be quite soft in the middle, how soft is up to you. I normally got 25 -30 minutes in my oven. You might need to adjust times to suit your oven.

Today I found the birthday bed, yesterday we found the doona cover and sheets. So it seems the birthday gifts are all organised. Now we just have to organise the celebrations. We will share this one as she is at her Dad's house on her actual birthday, so as it our tradition he will cook her chosen meal. As for her celebration with friends, she want to go out to dinner with a few girlfriends, not sure what else she has in mind, but I am sure we will figure it out...soon I hope!

I now hav ea glut of lemons from my parents who pruned back their tree on the weekend. Tomorrow perhaps I will try and make some lemon cordial.

take care of you.

Traditions

One of the things I enjoy doing with my children is creating family traditions. Special things we do as a family that will hopefully create some lasting memories. Sunday morning is pancakes (or more correctly pikelets) for breakfast. Rarely a Sunday passes where we don't have them. My 11yr old DS even has a go sometimes. This morning he helped to pour and flip, but of course as soon as the plate was filling up he was off to eat.

For such a skinny thing he has a good appetite.

Here is a picture of his breakfast, (which he cooked) and I actually got him to pause long enough to let me take a photo. Yes, that is ice cream on top as we didn't have any cream!

Take care of you.