Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

This blog will pay for itself.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Come on, man.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

This fight is for everything.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Cooking / Friday Recipe Exchange: Holiday Gifts, Salty-Sweet Edition

Friday Recipe Exchange: Holiday Gifts, Salty-Sweet Edition

by | 110 Comments

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tamara caramel-corn-compressed

From our Food Goddess, TaMara:

I love popcorn. So much so, I actually have an electric stirring popcorn popper. It must be a family thing, because my brother, Paul, has all the ingredients to make movie popcorn – and he did serious research on how to get that flavor. I’m good with butter and salt, myself. But my true weakness is caramel corn, so one year when I was trying to think of something fun to give for those neighbor Christmas treat boxes, I decided to try my hand at caramel corn.

And to take it up a notch I decided to make Bacon Caramel Corn. The featured recipe tonight.

But let’s begin with some other salty-sweet ideas for the holiday gift box.

Tex-Mex Popcorn Mix, recipe here.

White Cheddar Popcorn and Chili-Cheese Popcorn, recipes here.

And if popcorn is not your thing, how about some Cajun Spiced Nuts or Indian Spiced Nuts, recipes here.

Finally, the dinner menu this week is all about improving Oven Fried Chicken and amazing Baked Garlic Potatoes, complete menu, recipes, shopping list are here.

What favorite recipes are in your gift box this year? If you give food gifts for the holidays, do you include copies of the recipes? I’m always torn. Either way, go ahead and share some of your favorite recipes in the comments. Next week we’ll tackle sweet treats for gift giving.

Tonight’s featured recipe actually came about because I read this comment at Balloon-Juice, I was intrigued enough to search out a recipe. If bacon isn’t your thing, just omit it from the recipe below to make regular caramel corn, or caramel corn with nuts.

Cashew Bacon Caramel Corn

8 oz maple smoked bacon, cut into eight pieces per strip
12 cups (3 quarts) of popped corn
10 tbsp butter
1-1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups salted cashews (or peanuts, or peanut/cashew mix)
Skillet, saucepan, baking sheets*

In skillet, cook bacon until mostly crisp, drain on paper towels and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Reduce to 200 degrees after 15 minutes of baking.

Place popcorn onto a well-greased baking sheets.

In saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a low boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to med-low and simmer until thickened, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla and baking soda (yes, it will foam up so be prepared). Gently stir nuts and bacon into sugar mixture and pour over popcorn, toss, coating popcorn evenly. Bake, stirring occasionally, until popcorn is a deep golden brown, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours – mine was done at the 1 hour mark. Cool and break apart.

*most recipes call for a roasting pan, I had better luck on my second batch using baking sheets – the popcorn cooked more evenly and was very crisp.

That’s if for this week. Bixby is 6 months old today which doesn’t seem possible and I may have an update on him later, depending on how work goes today – TaMara

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    Help, I need a few recipes that I can make ahead for a vegan that is visiting over the holidays and btw I’m not fond of tofu. I have sweet potato soup in the freezer and will serve that with a salad.

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @JPL:

    There’s a butternut squash and macaroni recipe on the Whole Foods website that looks pretty good even to this non-vegan — it’s basically macaroni and cheese with no cheese/milk.

    Also, people who don’t like tofu sometimes like seitan, so you may want to try a bit and see. IIRC, it’s pretty much pure gluten, so if your vegan is also anti-gluten, you may be out of luck.

  8. 8.

    Scamp Dog

    Never mind that work nonsense, we need puppy pictures, stat!

    In other dog-related developments, I will be running a “teach your dog to jump through a hula hoop” class tomorrow. It was my donation for my church’s annual fundraising auction. This is the second time I’ve run the class, and it’s a lot of fun. I’ll see if I can get some pictures and video to post somewhere…

  12. 12.

    Violet

    @JPL: It’s not make ahead, like days ahead and freeze, but chickpeas tossed with olive oil and lemon and then add a variety of things like onion and/or garlic, cherry tomatoes (chopped in half if they’re big), parsley. You can go a different direction like radish, pepper, olive. Whatever. Chickpeas are versatile.

    Also, too, hummus.

  14. 14.

    beth(not the calendar one)

    @Violet: my vegetarian daughter mashes the chickpeas, adds lemon juice, celery, onion, dill,carrots and some mayo to make a sandwich spread like tuna fish. It’s very good and could be made with the vegan mayo substitute.

  17. 17.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @Scamp Dog: Work would have gone much better if I didn’t have an 85 lb dog who viewed my work as a personal rejection and tried to a) climb in my lap b) bring me toys to play with c) ask to go in and out every 10 minutes. Eventually had to crate him.

    MUST have video of hula hoop training!

    Yesterday we met a man in the park who trains search and rescue dogs, he gave me some good games to play with Bixby. He seemed to think he was a very smart dog who would need lots of stimulation. He. Has. No. Idea.

  18. 18.

    Elmo

    For the ultimate in popcorn goodness – I give you Funky Chunky (www.funkychunkyinc.com but link won’t embed).
    Amazeballs.

  19. 19.

    YellowJournalism

    I may try this recipe, but I really, REALLY want the movie theatre one. When I was pregnant with my second child, I craved it so badly that Hubby offered to in into the theatre to get me some.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @JPL:

    I admit that my vegan friend is probably the most non-ideological vegan ever, but she’s usually happy with any non-cheese-based vegetarian recipe. You can probably adapt at least some of your recipes by leaving out cheese/milk. Leaving out eggs would probably be trickier.

  25. 25.

    dr. luba

    My friends and family get quart jars of home made Bailey’s, the Ukrainian version (vodka instead of whiskey). I found the original recipe in a catholic cookbook from the UP (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) a couple of decades ago.

    Blend together:

    1 can sweetened condensed milk
    1 cup half and half
    4 eggs
    2 T chocolate syrup
    2 t instant coffee
    1 t vanilla
    1/2 t almond extract

    I add vodka (the cheapest kind the liquor store sells) in a ratio of 1:3. You can add more or less as you wish. I make double batches in my extra large blender, and end up with almost 3 quarts finished product to 2 recipe batches.

    The stuff does not need refrigeration once you’ve added the alcohol. I assume it will last for years, but no one has ever kept it around that long. Great in coffee or over a bit of ice.

    I posted this on my blog many years ago (2005–remember when everyone had a blog? Good times!) and got more hits than anything else I ever posted. It was the number one hit on Google for “Homemade Baileys” back then. The recipe has metastasized all over the internet since.

    Enjoy!

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @JPL:

    Help, I need a few recipes that I can make ahead for a vegan that is visiting over the holidays and btw I’m not fond of tofu.

    Have you tried tempeh? Like tofu, it’s a soy product that has a lot of protein, but it’s made with lightly fermented whole beans, so it has some real texture and a stronger flavor. I greatly prefer it to tofu as a meat substitute.

  27. 27.

    Helen

    @Little Boots:

    Didja see the exchange earlier? Prolly yesterday – I missed it in live time but read it this morning. It was Omnes Omibus and Corner Stone talking about how you are weird but normal and where the hell is Steeplejack, but Tommy? Not so normal. Made my day.

    Really. Send me some Billy Joel. The old stuff. The good stuff.

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    @Little Boots:

    there is steeplejack, and that’s important.

    Thank God you’re here. Where the F were you when Omnes started linking music videos the other night? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU?!
    Never. Ever. Leave me again.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    @JPL

    Link to my recipe for curried eggplant posted here previously. Easy-peasy to make – the hardest part (relatively speaking) is peeling the eggplants. :)

    Broiled whole portobello mushrooms (broil ’em on both sides just as if you were broiling a hamburger) make a nice sandwich when put on a bagel.

  39. 39.

    Helen

    @Little Boots: No you did not. Just asking now. Get drunker then get back to me. I am just back from my office Christmas party, so a little drunk I am. Just like you.

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    Popcorn sprinkled with a touch of garlic powder and li hing mui powder is mighty tasty.

    The li hing mui powder can be found without aspartame. but sometimes takes a little extra effort to track that down.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    @Scamp Dog:

    In other dog-related developments, I will be running a “teach your dog to jump through a hula hoop” class tomorrow. It was my donation for my church’s annual fundraising auction. This is the second time I’ve run the class, and it’s a lot of fun. I’ll see if I can get some pictures and video to post somewhere…

    If you send me pics/video, I will do my best to frontpage them!

  48. 48.

    Helen

    @Little Boots:

    Oh my goodness, I did say “early” Billy Joel. Did I not. That there UTUBE is from 1978. I was 17 yrs old in 1978. HO. LI. COW.

    Thank you Mr. Little.

  58. 58.

    mai naem mobile

    @JPL: theres a bunch of indian stuff thats lentil or chick pea based. Trader Joes and other stores have those ready to make boxes with all the ingredients you need. Also soy cheese for cheese using recipes. Pasta with veggies. Vegetarian chili with kidney beans.

  60. 60.

    Yatsuno

    @efgoldman: Everything sweet should have a counterbalance of another of the four basic flavours. Almost all desserts have either a salt or sour component, but even dark chocolate has that bitter component to balance the sweet. Otherwise sweet things taste flat.

  70. 70.

    Tommy

    I have noted I just bought a few thing from Blue Apron. That place rocks. I love food. Just unpacked well a package from Ohio Steaks.

  74. 74.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Omnes Omnibus: Laibach is almost more performance art than a band, even by industrial standards. They did a cover of The Beatles Let It Be, the album, not the song. And there’s this.

  82. 82.

    Roger Moore

    @efgoldman:

    By all means, RWNJs, let’s cut money for the part of the government that brings in the money.

    Don’t you know we need to starve the beast? There’s no better way of doing that than gutting the part that brings in the money.

  85. 85.

    elmo

    This thread just made me buy a popcorn popper.
    It might also be that I’m a little drunk and a lot lonely and bored in a Holiday Inn 2500 miles from home.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @elmo: I can say that I have never drunk bought a popcorn popper. Pizzas? Sure. Gyros? Of course. And so on… But an appliance? No.

  94. 94.

    elmo

    @Corner Stone: I’m sure there must be. But they would charge too much to come to San Jose.
    And I’d be embarrassed in any event – ye gods, but this Holiday Inn is a dump.

  99. 99.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Others may scoff, but have an el cheapo hot air popper (cost less than a sawbuck 25 years ago or so – Hamilton Beach, IIRC) spits out perfectly fine popcorn. Noisy little bugger when it is doing its thing, but c’est la vie.

    @efgoldman

    As someone who abhors the taste of salt, couldn’t agree more. The flat taste is only among those whose taste buds have been subjected to an habitual overabundance of salt. I do utilize a bit of salt in the cooking process for some but not all dishes, but have found one of those round canisters of Morton’s salt typically lasts me 10 years or more.

  101. 101.

    Corner Stone

    @NotMax:

    As someone who abhors the taste of salt

    but have found one of those round canisters of Morton’s salt

    I think I’m seeing a connection to the issue here.

  107. 107.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: I actually use bery little salt when I cook and when I eat out I am frequently surprised by how salty the food is. One can come home with a terrible thirst.

  109. 109.

    Violet

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, restaurant food can be extremely salty. I went through a phase where I didn’t use salt at all in my cooking. Now I use it a bit more and find it enhances the other flavors. Still very minimal, though.

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