Last night my gardener was looking for microwave popcorn. I used to buy it.
I don't eat it. I pop my own in a pan. He asked if I could make him some and
put a little brown sugar in it. Now I can make caramel corn, but when I do,
the corn is popped separately, old maids picked out, and a caramel syrup is
made in a pan on the stove. Baking soda is added to give it a lighter
texture. It is then mixed with the corn in a big roasting pan and baked for
an hour, mixing it every so often as it bakes.

I was pretty sure that Kettle corn was made by adding sugar to the fat. And
indeed it is! So I tried adding a little brown sugar to come coconut oil and
butter and popped the corn in that. Did not add salt. Came very well! Like a
quick caramel corn but light on the caramel. Only problem was that I didn't
shake the pan so the stuff on the very bottom got almost to burned.

Some time back I made a recipe for roasted grape tomatoes with balsamic
glaze. Gardener loved it but it was too overwhelming to me due to the large
amount of glaze. This time I found a similar recipe that sautéed the
tomatoes and only used one teaspoon of the glaze per pint of tomatoes. I had
one of those huge tubs from Costco. Grape and cherry tomatoes in different
colors. They were meant for salad but due to illness and lettuce recalls we
ate no salad.

I winged the recipe. Tossed the tomatoes in a pan with a little olive oil,
salt and pepper. Cooked them for maybe 5 min. until the tomatoes began to
break down. Added perhaps three teaspoons of the Balsamic glaze, a little
dried parsley and dried basil. I know... I know. Had no fresh basil and
didn't need the large amount that the stores here sell. I cooked some
tri-color corkscrew pasta and added some chicken breast, cooked and cut in
bite sized pieces for him. I'm not a fan of chicken so had mine without. The
tomato sauce was spooned over the pasta and I topped it with Parmesan
cheese. Folks! This is a keeper! He wolfed his down before I had eaten even
half of mine. And it wasn't out of hunger as he was grabbing cookies as fast
as I could bake them.

I made chocolate chip cookies, have some vegan oatmeal and coconut dough
(didn't need vegan but this recipe uses ingredients I had on hand) and also
some Snickerdoodles with Bisquick. I got a box of Bisquick at Costco and
it's HUGE! The end result was a slightly different texture and sweeter than
the kind I make from scratch, but I didn't have to add fat. My problem was
that I've been using butter like crazy and need to make sure that I have
enough left for Christmas dinner. Am doing a mixed berry crisp (can use
coconut oil if I need to), stuffing for the turkey and buttery dinner rolls.

I also made a pan of powdered sugar fudge. Accidently grabbed the lemon
extract instead of the vanilla! Thankfully I could smell it as the first
drop hit the fudge. I attempted to scoop out the portion where it hit. The
end result is great! No lemon taste at all. Need to go do the oatmeal and
coconut cookies now. Had to let the oven cool down a bit as the prior
cookies used a higher temp.