Recipe #6 - Stovetop Kettle Corn

Once upon a time, I was pregnant and craving everything.  Just about any food I saw, I wanted.  I saw a commercial for a Taco Bell Chalupa and had to have one right now.  Grocery shopping was an expensive challenge; they typically want you to pay for your food before you eat it.  Must. shop. faster.

During my pregnancy, I came upon a person selling kettle corn.  Its smelled delicious and I needed it right now.  So I bought a bag of yummy, delicious kettle corn.  And I ate and ate and ate it, until it was all gone.  I recall enjoying every moment of it.

Another issue that I had with this pregnancy (with all of them for that matter) was that at about ten o'clock each night, I was sick,  I would throw up 15-20 times, every single night.  Well, let's just say that the kettle corn did not taste nearly as good coming up as it did going down.  Pretty sure I threw up an entire bag worth too.  Kettle corn just hasn't sounded good ever since.

I was looking at my cookbook last night...while on my elliptical...yes, ironic.  I knew that I was going to be gone for the bulk of the day, and I had very little time to prep anything and no time to shop.  So I settled on the kettle corn recipe because it was fast and I had all the ingredients.  (Recipe can be found on page 256 in the cookbook or here)

IMPORTANT:  Read the entire recipe before you make it.  It is a lot of writing, but still very basic instructions.  It took me 5 minutes from the time that I turned on the stove to the time that the popcorn was ready.  There is no time to be referring to the cookbook during this process.

So simple and so fast!  Heat the oil.  Pour in popcorn kernels and sugar.

Stir to coat kernels, and cover the pot.  Give the pot a shake, rattle and roll.  Literally seconds later, you're done and the popcorn is ready.  In fact, it was so fast that when the popcorn stopped popping (my cue that it was ready) I opened the lid to see what was going on.  Only then did I realize it was done.  Wow!

I've had many friends volunteer to be taste testers, but these cute little things won the opportunity today.

And the verdict?  Loved by all!

My husband thought it was just "okay" but he doesn't like kettle corn at all.  And as for me, I was a little nervous about eating it, since I still have visions of throwing up an entire bag.  But I ate it and it was super yummy.  (Even blogged while munching!)  Surprisingly it tasted similar to the people to mix up huge metal caldrons of it on a cold, wintery night while you're out shopping for Christmas presents.

My only note is that the recipe says it makes about 10 cups.  This sounds like a lot more than it is.  That's probably a little more than a bag of microwave popcorn.  We filled those cute little popcorn boxes and had just a little bit to spare.  If you're feeding a large crew, you'll definitely need more than one batch.