Well. I finally made it! I am sitting here in my jammies, drinking coffee and blogging. Ahhhh..... I am so happy to finally be on Winter Break! Pitty Pat even let me sleep in until 8:15 this morning and that was such a gift! He is very excited that I am home. He keeps following me from room to room to see if I am leaving for school!
I woke up this morning, turned on the Christmas Tree(s), brewed some coffee and just took it easy. Every year, right after I get out of school, I always meet my college roommate Rose for lunch. We are carrying on our tradition today! So, I had better make this blog post quick because I am sure she does not want me picking her up for lunch in my jammies. Even if they are cute! :)
As I mentioned a few posts ago, I participated in our school's annual goodie exchange. There were 29 folks who participated this year. I really didn't feel like baking (yes, I think something is wrong with me), but I wanted to do something that was festive and different. So, logged onto my new favorite pastime (Pinterest) and found some great ideas! I finally settled on a recipe for White Chocolate Popcorn. Because let's face it, who doesn't love salty and sweet?
To make the White Chocolate Covered Popcorn you will need:
2 bags of microwaved popcorn (you can use butter, I used light butter!)
16 oz of white chocolate chips melted (melt these over the stove, not in the microwave)
1 cup of M and M's (I used green and red)
2 cups mini marshmallows
2 cups of pretzel sticks broken in half, not crushed
About 1 cup of melted dark chocolate (I got a bag of meltable chips from AC Moore and used those!)
*You can also use about a cup of peanuts too. Since I am allergic to those, I left them out!
2 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans
To start, pop the popcorn according to your microwave directions. Place the popcorn in a big bowl and make sure to remove any unpopped kernels or ones that don't look edible. In another bowl, combine the M and M's, pretzels, and marshmallows.
Over low heat, melt the white chocolate chips. Stir constantly. When melted, pour the mixture over the M and M's, pretzels and marshmallows until evenly coated.
Now, for the next part, you can use a really big bowl, or a huge gallon size Ziploc bag. Since I was making two batches I did both, and they both worked well.
Add the white chocolate covered mixture to the 2 bags of popcorn. Stir or shake well.
Once you see that everything has been covered and there are no clumps, spread the mixture out on a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. You will need two because the batch is large. I covered mine with parchment paper. Break up any clumps with your hands. While the mixture is "resting" melt the dark chocolate chips in the microwave. I started at 30 seconds and stirred well after each session. It only took about two 30 second intervals for my chips to melt.
Using a spoon, drizzle over the popcorn mixture. I have a heavy hand and I was very LIBERAL with the chocolate. The more, the better!
Now, pop the trays into the fridge for about 15 minutes. This will allow the chocolate to harden. When you remove the trays from the fridge, you can break apart pieces of the popcorn. Kind of like brittle! Then place in goodie bags if you are giving them away as gifts... or stand there and eat it all!!
Yum!!! Also, have you noticed? I have been cataloging and organizing stuff on the blog! So know you can tell the knitting posts, cooking posts and crafting posts apart!
I hope you have all of your Christmas shopping done... or KNITTED!!
Tootles!
:) JKP
