Thursday, November 11, 2010

Treats Treats and More Treats!

As I was flipping through the virtual pages of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food website I found this.
Popcorn? Pretzels? Carmel? Almonds? YES. My hands are sticky and I have stuff all over my shirt but I don't even care.

Let's get this party started.

Grab:


•Nonstick cooking spray

•12 cups plain popped popcorn (from 1/2 cup kernels or 2 microwave packages) I used 2 things of Jiffy Pop. Yeah, you know, the kind that

•4 cups coarsely chopped small salted pretzels (7.5 ounces)

•2 cups sugar

•Coarse salt

•2/3 cup heavy cream

•2 cups miniature marshmallows



In a large bowl, really, the bigger the better, combine pretzels and popcorn.




In a saucepan, bring sugar, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 cup water to a boil.




Be patient with this process, it takes 8-12 minutes and don't try to rush it because it needs time to thicken and become a rich amber color.

Once it's nice and amber-y, add cream and marshmellows. Stir until it is completely blended.



Once it's all ready to go, pour entire mixture over popcorn mixture and toss with a rubber spatula (remember, it's HOT, so you wan't something heat-proof)


If you desire (and I did) add chopped almonds for an extra crunch and texture.


Transfer mixture into a BUTTERED  9 x 12 baking dish. Use your clean little hands or plastic wrap to press into dish.



Make sure to let it cool before cutting into squares. This is important, I like to jump the gun and do things before the recipe says to because I am massively impatient....so if you're like me, stick it in the fridge! (whoa, that was a serious run-on sentence).



After it's cooled, dump it upsidown onto a cutting board and cut into squares. In my case, the carmel kind of settled into the bottom of the pan, but oh well..they were still delish.



Let's not forget Olive Oil! She wasn't in the mood for kitchen help, but was sure in the mood for some pettins! 



Oops.

Left: Best friend sleepover. Center: Amanda put plastic wrap in the oven. Good job! Right: My Jude and his new girlfriend Avery. Could you just die?

I promised myself I would blog at least once a week. And all of a sudden it's been almost 10 days. In my own defense, a lot of changes happened in Sarah-land the past week and I'm trying to settle into these changes and with that came emptiness in my dear sweet kitchen. But what did happen was junk-food and slumber parties, and I am totally allowed.
I have an a-mazing post coming up about dinner I'm making Saturday night as well as a tasty treat I made last week. So bare with me my little bloggers.
OH and are you on twitter? Can we be friends? Please? @sarahmahaira , I mean, I talk about the same things on there as I do here...food, shoes and cats. I am so typical.

Monday, November 1, 2010

LET'S GET MOOOORE CANDY!

Yesterday on Twitter a bunch of my girlfriends were talking about how Halloween goes from partying to it being more about kids as you get older. So true. Although I don't have any of my own yet, I decided to borrow a few and go trick or treating with my BFF Jude and some of his school pals.

Reason behind my title? All the kiddies would yell LETS GET MOOOOORE CANDY! After every house we went to. One of Jude's friends, Owen, took a liking to me. We're kind of dating now and its getting serious. He even asked me to hold hands.

We made candy apples before going out and it was kind of a fail. I don't know if I made the carmel too thin but it all kinda sank into the wax paper. Oh well. It was still fun, though!

Candy apple attempt:



My guy helpin' me open the carmel





See? Not so awesome. Boo hoo.



Anyway, I dressed up as a half-assed cat. I didn't wanna dress up but was FORCED by Amanda (jk love you!). Can anyone guess what Amanda was?


And this is my new boyfriend, Owen.
I just wanna make sure no one is jealous of my dragon boyfriend and my spiderman boyfriend. Oh you are? Too bad.