Kettle Corn

At the state fair my sisters and I would always buy the big, giant bag of kettle corn for 10 or 15 bucks. If I had known it was this easy to make at home, maybe we would've been less eager to fork out our hard earned cash! This recipe isn't exactly the fair kettle corn, because that is made in giant cast iron kettles, but it is pretty darn close in flavor and texture, and is totally do-able for any home cook. If you have a heavy cast iron pot you could try that, but this recipe involves a lot of shaking, which could be hard on your arms. You decide. This recipe is great because it uses vegetable oil instead of butter, making the popcorn fairly healthy. Also, you don't need any special equipment at all to make it. It's wonderfully cheap too--much cheaper than $10 a bag!

Kettle Corn
1 large pot with a lid--notice the LARGE. like, 1 gallon or bigger.
3 tbsp vegetable oil (a few glugs, to coat the bottom of the pan)
1 tsp salt (a few shakes)
2 tbsp sugar (handful)
1/2 to 3/4 cup popcorn, unpopped

Mix everything in the bottom of the pot. Mix it pretty well, as you want each kernel to be nicely salted and sugared. Lid 'er up, and put the spurs to it. High heat, and shake that pot back and forth, round and round, constantly. This isn't the time to stop for a potty break. The whole process will last about 5 minutes or less. After a few minutes, you'll hear some intense popping--shake harder! Listen carefully. As soon as the popping wanes, you're done! Kill the heat and transfer immediately to a big bowl and enjoy.

Tip: Store your unused popcorn in the freezer. The way popcorn pops is that the little bit of water in the inside boils and rapidly expands. Because the outside is so hard, it has to literally explode open. The better you can preserve that water in the inside, the puffier the pop and the longer the popcorn will last. If you leave it out, it slowly dries up. Freezing slows that process, as well as preserves the little oil that could potentially go rancid.

Tasty, super fast Caramel Marshmallow Popcorn

Caramel-Marshmallow Popcorn
1 Big bowl of popcorn, dead kernels removed
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups miniature marshmallows

On medium high heat, melt the butter and brown sugar together. Add the salt, cinnamon, and vanilla as they are melting. When the mixture is bubbling well, stir in the marshmallows. Once those are melted, pour over popcorn and stir gently, but mix well.

Tips for this recipe:
To remove corn kernels, after popping, transfer into a second bowl. Hold the popcorn in your fingers and shake gently for just a second to make sure any unpopped kernels fall away. This recipe can be easily ruined if you bite into a hard kernel and hurt your tooth!

This recipe is easy to make your own by altering the amounts of each ingredient. I never measure the amounts, and this is hard to mess up (butter, sugar and marshmallows? can you go wrong?). So, try following the procedure, but get creative. Add more brown sugar to make it more caramelly.

If you don't own an air-popper for your popcorn, use microwave popcorn. Just use a low-butter, low-salt flavor. Or, use the buttery kind but reduce the amount of butter to 2 tbsp, reduce sugar to 1/2 cup, and remove the salt from the recipe.