Years of cookie decorating has made "dinner" a very flexible word at my house. Some days I can't find 10 minutes to check the mail, much less make a traditional dinner made painstakingly by hand and from scratch with ingredients I grew in my own backyard. And on those days, I certainly don't have time to let all the possible dinner choices percolate in my brain before carefully selecting the most healthy, appealing, and seasonally appropriate menu items so that I can maximize the nutrient value for my young children while also convincing them to eat said menu item in a polite and genteel manner. I do my best. I make weekly menu plans and buy the vegetables and everything. But on my busiest of days... the allure of stretching dinner time for another 20 or 30 minutes is just too much to resist.
My "could we possibly make it 30 more minutes before dinner" snacks usually come in waves. We are currently in a yogurt and granola phase. I figure 3 out of the 5 food groups for a pre-dinner time freak-out snack is a STEAL. (Are there even 5 food groups anymore?! Somehow the pyramid turned into steps? How does that even work?) A few years ago, our fallback pre-dinner time freak-out snack of choice was popcorn. You know...a real snack of champions. It lasted only a few weeks... but the obsession was permanent.
My children are IN LOVE with popcorn. We make snack popcorn and dessert popcorn and yes... sometimes we even make dinner popcorn. My youngest (3 years old now!! Can you believe it?!) has turned popcorn into a form of entertainment. We have a movie theater style popcorn popper and the second she hears the motor click on from across the house she comes running, dragging a chair behind her. She loves to watch the kernels explode out of the pan and legitimately acts like it's a complete and total surprise every time it happens. So naturally... purely for **MY** own entertainment... I make popcorn pretty often.
After the success of The Cookie Companion cookie decorating book, my publishers were pretty anxious to get me going on "the next book." But as it turns out... I couldn't imagine what I would say in another cookie decorating book. (Leave me a comment if you have a suggestion!) Then one afternoon as my girls and I were trying out another crazy popcorn concoction and trying to remember everything we put it in so we could make it again... I realized that a POPCORN BOOK would be perfect!!!! I mean...my kids certainly wouldn't say "no" to trying out hundreds of different recipes. (As it turns out... they did actually start saying "no" somewhere around popcorn experiment #112)
Writing this Gourmet Popcorn book was actually an experience I will treasure. I spent an entire summer making popcorn with two of my girls and a girl from the neighborhood every Thursday - rain or shine. (Actually... it was always shine. I don't think it ever rains in Utah in the summer.) We made a ridiculous amount of awful popcorn recipes and even more fantastic ones that we shared with the entire neighborhood during our Friday night backyard movies. (Honestly... I'm SUPER GRATEFUL for neighbors that were willing to eat crazy popcorn all summer long!!) With children and adults of all ages and backgrounds, it was pretty easy to determine which recipes were winners and which ones were...ummm...."participation" prize recipes.
(screenshot of a partial list of recipes)
I put all those fantastic recipes together in this one giant book of Gourmet Popcorn recipes. We included sweet recipes and savory recipes. And, because of my whole "there's never enough time in the whole world" thing I've got going on - most of the recipes are pretty quick. But I have to warn you - there are at least 3 recipes that take longer than 10 minutes to make. They are SO WORTH IT THOUGH. (Toffee popcorn?! YES PLEASE!!)
Also, because I made this book with my children in mind - Every. Single. Recipe has at least one picture. Many of them even have two pictures. You can never really have too many pictures in a recipe book!!
I'm super excited to tell you that this book is now available for pre-orders!!!! It is scheduled to release on February 13, 2018...but Amazon kind of does what they want and if you pre-order you can get them up to a week early.
Because I love you...and also because I just CANNOT keep all of these recipes to myself any more -- I'm going to share my kids' two favorite recipes below!!
BROWNIE POPCORN
Ingredients:
10–12 cups popped popcorn
6 oz. melting chocolate
1 cup powdered brownie mix
Place popcorn in a large bowl. Remove any unpopped or partially popped kernels.
Place melting chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until completely melted. Pour over popcorn and stir to coat. Sprinkle brownie mix over the popcorn and stir to coat. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
(See?! EASY-PEASY!!)
PEPPERONI PIZZA POPCORN
Ingredients:
10–12 cups popped popcorn
½ cup unsalted butter
1 tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. paprika
½ tsp. salt
⅛ tsp. garlic powder
⅛ tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup mini pepperoni
1 cup shredded cheese
Place popcorn in a large bowl. Remove any unpopped or partially popped kernels.
Place butter in a microwave safe bowl and cover with a paper towel. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. Add spices and mix well. Drizzle over popcorn and stir to coat. Sprinkle pepperoni and shredded cheese over popcorn and serve immediately.
*Try melting the cheese! After adding the cheese and pepperoni, place the popcorn in the microwave or an oven until the cheese is just melted. It tastes so much like real pizza, you could serve it for dinner! (You know... if your seasonally appropriate vegetables have a refrigerator mishap or something.)
