Tahmra's Sugar Popcorn

Today, I spent the majority of the day cleaning / organizing my work room with lots of breaks to check Facebook and Pinterest. A Facebook post from my friend Tahmra caught my eye - it was simply a picture of popcorn that she called sugar popcorn. She totally teased several of us because she posted it and then watched a movie. I thought maybe it was as simple as sprinkling sugar instead of salt. After the movie, she kindly shared the recipe.  Oh, it's so much more delicious than sprinkling sugar.

Every once in awhile a tasty treat gives me a flashback to childhood. Needless to say Tahmra's Sugar Popcorn did just that. The first bite took me back to the summer before fifth grade when we got our first microwave. The microwave was a great invention; however, I quickly learned to make Rice Krispie Treats in the microwave. That summer I gained 20 pounds. Making a bowl of Rice Krispie Treats was way to easy - heck, I mixed everything in a bowl and ate from the bowl. Enough of my trip down chubby lane.

Here's Tahmra's Sugar Popcorn Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 white sugar (use brown sugar if you want a caramel flavor)
• 2 Tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 bag of plain microwave popcorn (I recommend Orville Redenbacher's Natural)

Before I devoured more than half the bowl.

Pop the popcorn - dump in bowl. Melt (medium heat) the butter, sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, the mixture will be nice and smooth. Dump the mixture over the popcorn - stir or toss to coat the popcorn. 

Grab a handful of napkins and your favorite beverage - enjoy!

I'm curious to make this with Splenda and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. I think it might also be good with sea salt or Kosher salt (something large ground) maybe even with some salted peanuts. 

Go Go Bananas and Sour Cream

Several years ago, a co-worker brought the most delicious banana bread to work. It was super moist and fabulous. She said the secret ingredient was sour cream. At the time, I wasn't aware of all the things sour cream is added to, so I was a bit shocked when she said that the banana bread contained it.

The only banana bread recipe I had ever made was from Pampered Chef. The recipe had peanut butter, peanuts and chocolate chips. A few weeks ago, we had some bananas that needed thrown out or used in a recipe. I didn't have everything to make my go-to banana bread recipe, so I searched www.allrecipes.com for a banana bread recipe with sour cream. All Recipes is my favorite site for searching recipes.

I decided to go with Cathy's Banana Bread recipe. It had great reviews and called for sour cream. I can't seem to follow a recipe exactly, so below is my version of the recipe.

Cathy's Banana Bread - Vanessa's Way

Too bad the internet doesn't have smell.

• 1 cup or 2 medium / large bananas mashed
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup butter (softened)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 bag chocolate chips (optional)

Mix the bananas and sour cream together - it'll kinda be the consistency of pudding. I use a Pastry Blender or the Mix & Chop from Pampered Chef to mash the bananas.

Mix the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla. Then blend in the banana mixture. Next add the dry ingredients. The batter will be kinda runny.

Divide the batter in four mini loaf pans. I use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter - about four scoops per pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

Me and brown sugar - I typically buy light and dark brown sugar and mix the two in a canister. The original recipe called for all white sugar. I don't think the brown sugar changes the taste that much - I just wanted to try it.

Obviously, I added chocolate chips to these.
I love a tall cold glass of milk with banana bread.