Caramel Popcorn (made somewhat easy)

We have a Friday night tradition in our house of 'Family Movie Night' and a big hit with my kids is caramel popcorn. While the kids are choosing the movie I can go into the kitchen a get this snack together in about 10 minutes and down another drink in order to fall asleep within the first 10 minutes of their film choice. A quick safety note - melting sugar is intensely hot and an accident with this could a serious injury, so try to keep the kids out of the kitchen when preparing this.

Ingredients

* 1 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
* 1/4 cup light corn syrup
* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1/2 tablespoon salt
* 1/4 tablespoon baking soda
* 1 regular sized bag of popcorn (unflavored, unsalted if possible). Popped just before hand.

Tools needed

* 2 quarter teflon coated pot with lid
* large wooden spoon
* large bowl (lightly greased)
* measuring cup
* spray shortening
* one glass (or two) of favorite alcoholic beverage


Directions

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup and butter. (Measure out the brown sugar first. Then spray the inside of your measuring cup with a little bit of spray shortening before measuring out the corn syrup - it will help you pour the corn syrup out of the measuring cup.) Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar syrup starts bubbling, stop stirring, cover pot and swirl the pan around over the heat so it doesn't burn. Simmer for 5 minutes. (Be careful, melting sugar is like molten lava - keep the kids and pets out of your way while you're doing this) Remove the caramel from the heat and add the salt and baking soda. Stir vigorously but carefully (remember you're dealing with molten lava). At this point, you will have a gooey caramel sauce. Place pot to the side and take a sip of your drink, you deserve it.

Put the popcorn in the little greased big bowl and pour the caramel mixture over the popcorn (it will be easier to clean the bowl later if it's greased.) Gently fold with a wooden spoon to coat all of the popcorn (remember - molten lava.) You could add about a 1/2 cup of nuts at your stirring your mixture if you like (my kids don't like 'em, so I don't.) Once you've covered the popcorn, put it briefly aside carefully so no one can reach it before you. Soak your pot and wooden spoon for easy clean up later (make sure you have someone else do the cleaning up.) Continue to sip you drink and bring your snack out for consumption.

Enjoy.