Caramel Popcorn

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 20-24 cups popped popcorn (depending on how coated you like your popcorn)

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
3. Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

Simple Homemade Kool-Aid Drink

While having a craving for Kool-Aid and having some various ingredients for candy making. Note, I use Natural Fruit Extracts for flavoring, but you could use whatever flavoring substitute you have available.

The recipe recipe below yields 8 oz. of drink.

Recipe:
1 Cup Water (chilled and filtered preferred)
1¼ tbs of sugar
¼ tsp of Citric Acid (this is a water based solution and will need to adjusted for using solid form citric acid)
⅛ tsp of flavoring

Put the water into a glass (preferably a taller glass). Stir in sugar until it desolves completely. Next add the citric acid and mix well again. Last, add the flavoring. Mix well and serve or chill for use later.

It doesn't get much simpler than this. Enjoy!

Homemade Cafe Rio Pork & Rice

I love Cafe Rio.  I have for years and have always dragged friends and of course, Mike, to Cafe Rio every chance I get.  But now I've found a recipe that tastes pretty close to the real thing so I may never go back.  I'm sure our bank account will thank me.

Pork:

Ingredients:

2 pounds pork
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can RED enchilada sauce
1 c. brown sugar

Put the pork in a heavy duty Ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinate for a few hours or overnight.

Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don’t let it get TOO dry). Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours.

And the rice:

 Ingredients:

• 1 c. uncooked rice
• 1 tsp. butter or margarine
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

Homemade Pizza Hut Pizza & Bread Sticks

There's something delicious about the way Pizza Hut pizza crusts and bread sticks are made that are just so yummy.  Now being pregnant, I have strong cravings for their bread sticks and to cut down on costs, I finally decided to make them.  I found this recipe online and changed it just a bit:

Dough (makes 2 batches of bread sticks or 1 batch and 2 - 8" pizzas)

• 1 1/3 cup warm water (~110 degrees)
• 1/4 cup non-fat dry milk
• 1/2 tsp salt (optional)
• 3 cups flour (about)
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 package instant dry yeast
• 2 tbs butter or butter-flavored oil

Bread Stick Seasoning

• 2 tbs dry parmesan cheese
  
• 1/2 tbs garlic powder
  
• 1/2 tbs garlic salt
  
• 1 tbs onion powder
  
• 1 tbs oregano
• 1/2 tbs basil

Sauce (I halved the recipe and had way more than enough for 1 batch bread sticks and 2 - 8" pizzas)

• 1 (15oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp dry oregano
• 1/2 tsp dry basil
• 1/2 tsp dry marjoram
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

For the dough, mix dry milk, sugar, yeast, and salt (optional) together and add in the water.  Stir and let rest for 2-5 minutes, or until it begins to bubble.  Add in butter and stir.  Gently mix in flour until it is all incorporated and forms a ball in Electric Mixer (i.e. Kitchen Aid) and mix for 5 minutes or knead dough on floured surface for about 10 minutes. 

Separate doughs into desired amounts and let rest.  For bread sticks in a 9x13" pan, grease about 3 tablespoons of melted butter or oil onto pan.  For 8" round pizzas, use about 1 tablespoon.


Roll out dough and place onto greased pans.  Cover.  Let rise for at least 1 hour (the bread sticks took 2 hours to raise).

For bread sticks, lightly coat the top with melted butter or butter-flavored cooking spray.  Season with seasoning.  (I added almost the entire amount of seasoning but it was too much for me.  Mike, on the other hand, loved the amount.)

For pizzas, add sauce and toppings.  Lightly top the crust with melted butter or butter-flavored cooking spray.

Place in a 475 degree preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Some people like to boil all of the ingredients for the sauce but I combined them all and let them stand for about an hour and the flavors blended together nicely.