A Little Bit of Magic

okay, so last night I went to a
"welcome to the holidays"
party...
we were asked to bring a holiday snack munchie food
I decided to do the whole caramel corn thing

I found two recipes on my pintrest boards

Addictive Vanilla Caramel Corn source: Oh My Sugar High

Corn Syrup FREE Caramel Corn source: Amy's Food Room

so using the microwave popcorn trick from yesterday I made a boat load of popcorn
and then I combined the two recipes from my two pins...
I wanted a 'healthier' version so I made the corn syrup free version but then really liked the vanilla and sweetened condensed milk version...
so I guess taking out the corn syrup and then adding the sweetened condensed milk sort of makes it not as bad as it could be for you rather than maybe calling it healthy...
...creating...

Creamy Vanilla Salted Caramel Corn
16 cups popped corn, any unpopped kernels discarded, in a very large bowl (or split between two large bowls)
The caramel:
2 cups (1 lb.) brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2-3 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sea salt (to taste)

1. In a large, microwave safe bowl combine the brown sugar, butter, water and salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring at a minute and a half.  Continue cooking about 3 more minutes until mixture starts to thicken.

2. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.  Put back in microwave for another 2 minutes.  Remove from microwave and add baking soda. The caramel will bubble and puff up as you do this -- keep stirring. Working quickly, but carefully (since the caramel is very hot), pour the caramel over the popped corn kernels and stir gently to coat. (I put the popcorn into a large paper bag and shook it all around)...

3. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. Divide the caramel corn between the two pans, salt generously with sea salt (if you want salted caramel...this is optional) and bake for 45-60 minutes (depends on if you want a little chewy or all crunch, 45 for a little chewy, 60 for all crunch!). Stir every 15minutes. Cool briefly, then watch out...you need to pace yourself otherwise you might eat this all in about 7 minutes...

my kids kept saying, 'Wow, mom you really made this?'
guess that means it was good...