Ooey Gooey Caramel Corn

A couple days ago I had a craving for something sweet. So I went to Pinterest and found this:

Marshmallow Caramel Popcorn

 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

9-10 Marshmallows

12 cups popcorn

 

1. Microwave brown sugar and butter for 2 minutes.

2.Add marshmallows and microwave until melted.

3. Pour over popcorn.

 

I did this with about 6 cups of popcorn. There wasn't enough syrup to cover all of the popcorn. so I decided to change it up a bit. Here is my recipe:

 

1/4 cup unpopped popcorn kernals

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

15 marshmellows

 

 

The first thing I did was pop the popcorn using an airpopper.

 



 

 

Then in a 1 1/2 qt  saucepan I melted the butter.

 



 

 

Then I added the brown sugar and mixed it in until it was a nice caramel color.

 

 

 

 

Next came the marshmallows!!!!!

 

 

 

 

This part took some arm muscles! I had to continually stir to melt the marshmallows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I poured it over the popcorn.

 

 

 

 

Then came more stirring.

 

 

 

 

After it was all coated I spread it out on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. This was sticky and I had to use my hands. (I had to fight the temptation to stick my fingers in my mouth to get the hot sticky caramel off. )

 

 

 

 

This was very yummy!







 







 



Bug Spray! Who Knew? - How to clean nail polish out of your carpet.

I was repainting my nails before heading out for a birthday lunch with the girls when somehow I managed to knock over my dark blue nail polish. I must have hit it just right to make it flip up through the air and fling polish everywhere. I immediately busted out the 100% acetone polish remover. This is what it looked like after a few minutes of scrubbing:

The next thing that I used was Windex and water. I had a friend that spilled red polish on her carpet and was able to get it off with this combo. However, I was not so lucky.

Next came 409. Still no luck.

Then I used carpet cleaner. NOPE!

Needless to say I was getting desperate at this point. Then I remembered that on my recent trip to Haiti our bug spray would take our polish off (we had to spray ourselves a couple times a day). So I went to Wal-Mart and bought the cheapest high level of deet bug spray. And I had success!

 

 

There is still a little bit of a bluish tint to the carpet but overall it looks pretty good!

A wreath for Thanksgiving

Now that it is past Christmas I figured that I should post about my Turkey Wreath. I started off by wrapping a Styrofoam wreath 1/3 of the way around with brown yarn.

 

 

 

Then I cut strips of red, yellow, and orange toole about 10 in long. Then I tied them around the wreath. I used a double knot to make sure they stayed tight. 



 

 

 

I had to stabilize the wreath to make the tying easier. so I stuck my leg through it. Needless to say I was covered in glitter by the time I was done. 

 

 

Here it is after I tied on all the toole. 

 

 

Then I cut out pieces to make the face. I glued them all together and then glued them to the wreath.

 

 

Then I glued a loop on the back to hang it with. 

Here it is hanging on my door!

My twist on Twisted Tater Tot Casserole

The other night I had a craving for tater tot casserole. I found this recipe. This is how I made it:

First I pressed 1 lb of ground turkey into the bottom of a 9 x 13 in pan.

 

Then I put in a layer of tater tots and covered them with a can of cream of mushroom soup.

 

The next layer was minced bell peppers. I used one half of a green pepper, half of a yellow pepper, and half of an orange pepper.

 

Then came the bacon. (It could have used a little more. But this was all I had.)

 

And last but not least: Cheese!

 

 

 

Then it went in to the oven at 350 degrees for 20 min. At that point I stirred it, breaking up the turkey some, and back in the oven for another 20-30 min (I also added just a little bit more cheese!).

 

 

It was very yummy!

Yummy Taco Bake

This dish was super yummy! I didn’t have all of the ingredients for the original recipe so I tweaked it (like I usually do).
 
Here is what I used:

Half yellow pepper, minced

I medium sized shallot, minced

I lb. ground turkey

10 – 15 grape tomatoes, minced

1 pkg. taco seasoning

4 oz. Velveeta cheese

2 cups shredded cheese (I used mozzarella, but any could be used)

2 tortillas (I would use 3 the next time)

 

The first thing I did was sauté half a minced yellow pepper and a minced shallot.

Then I added a pound of ground turkey and browned it in the same pan as the pepper and shallot. To this I added about 15 minced grape tomatoes.

 

I also added a package of taco seasoning. I did not add the water called for on the package because of the juices from the pepper, shallot, and tomatoes.

 

While this was all browning, I placed a tortilla in the bottom of my baking dish. I trimmed the sides and filled in the gapes with the trimmings. I trimmed a second tortilla at the same time.

 

The original recipe called for salsa con queso which I did not have but I did have Velveeta! I cut off a 4 oz. section, cubed it, and added to the meat. Once the cheese had melted and it was mixed in, I took it off the heat.

 

Then I layered half of the meat mixture over the tortilla. Then I added a layer of cheeses followed by the second tortilla, meat, and cheese.

 

 

 

Then I baked it for 30 min at 350 degrees.

 

The next time I make this I will add a third tortilla on top of the top layer of cheese and then maybe some more cheese!

Summer Feet

(Sorry no pictures this time)

I saw this idea for getting rid of dead/ rough skin on your feet. You take 1/4 cup Listerine, 1/4 cup vinegar, and a 1/2 cup of warm water, mix it all together and soak your feet for ten minutes. The dead skin is supposed to wipe right off.

I tired to do this. I doubled the recipe and it was still too shallow for both of my feet. I did one foot at a time. I soaked them for 15 minutes. It didn't "wipe right off". So I used a pumas stone and the soak made it a little easier.

Mango Confetti Salsa

So I recently joined the ranks of The Pampered Chef. Before I start having parties I wanted to play with my new kitchen gadgets. So my next couple of posts might be about Pampered Chef. I hope I do not sound like a commercial. But if anyone is interested in the things I use you can go to www.pamperedchef.biz/jenniferruch.
The first thing that I made was Mango Confetti Salsa:

1 large mango

          1/2 small jicama

1/3   orange bell pepper

1/3   red bell pepper

1   jalapeño pepper, stemmed

1/3 small red onion 

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Chili Lime Rub (Papmered Chef)

   Tortilla chips (optional)

The first step is to clean the peppers.

 

 

Then I cut them with my Veggie Wedger and diced them with my Manual Food Processor.

 

 

 

 

Then I did the same thing with the jicama and mixed them together.

 

 

 

I then sliced the mango with the Mango slicer.

 

 

 

I put the mango (minus the peel) in the food processor and diced it and mixed it in to the rest. I realized that my mango was kind of small and I added more later.

 

I also chopped and diced the onion and added it to the mix.

 

 

 

Then I added the juice of a lime and some Chili Lime Rub from Pampered Chef.

 

 

 

Last of course I tried it! It was YUMMY!!!!

 

 

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