Tis the Season for Fairs!

Our LA County Fair is going on right now and we are very excited to go! We hope to go this coming week (unless it's going to be so terribly hot, then maybe we'll wait til the next week). Thinking about going to the fair gets me excited about the yummy food! This year instead of paying for fair food (at the high price!!!), I thought I would be smart and thrifty and make some of our own yummy "fair food."

So this morning I made caramel corn! Yum-my!!! I had never made it before but found a recipe in my new favorite cookbook, which I found at our thrift store, Blue Ribbon Winners: State Fair Recipes. (How appropriate!!!) The actual recipe is from a winner at the Iowa State Fair - how even more great is that?! It turned out easier than I thought and I would definitely make more. I'm just hoping we still have some left when we actually go to the fair!!! I guess if we don't I'll just have to make more...



I thought I'd share the recipe in case anyone else wants to eat yummy "fair food."

Caramel Corn
yield: 8 1/2 qts.

8 qts. popped corn (that equals 4 bags of microwave popcorn; I used kettle corn since that's what I had which I think makes it extra yummy)
1 cup pecan halves
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter/marg.
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Grease 2 large baking pans. Remove any unpopped kernels from popped corn. Keep popcorn and pecans warm in 250F oven while making caramel mixture. In a heavy 4-qt. saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to dissolve sugar. Boil 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in baking soda thoroughly. Place popped corn and pecans in a large bowl (I used my largest stock pot -- it's a LOT of popcorn!). Pour caramel over popped corn and pecans, stirring gently to coat popped kernels. Spoon caramel corn into greased baking pans. Bake in 250F oven 40-60 min. or until crisp, stirring every 15 min. Turn caramel corn out onto sheets of foil. Cool completely, then break into pieces. Store in tightly covered containers.



The 8 1/2 qts. of caramel corn made filled this large plastic container (which used to be filled with pretzels from Costco, in case you have or have seen that container--for size comparison) plus more than half a gallon sized ziploc bag.