Popcorn Lessons

I sometimes work at the Winter Park Farmer's Market selling MultiGrain Rice Cakes. (check out CoCo B2B for video on the machine).  Free samples!  Delicious MultiGrain Rice Cakes - freshly made! All natural, no fat, no sugar, no cholesterol, less than one Weight Watchers point and only 15 to 20 calories each!  Free Samples!   I feel like a carnival barker:  Heya heya heya!  Step right up!!

This and the Kettle Korn booth are both owned by a lady that I work part time for, and so our booths are side by side.  Yesterday I sold a record number of bags of rice cakes and in all my free time while I watched the machine for logjams and as I hawked my product, I watched the guy next to me cook pot after pot of kettle korn in a huge copper cauldron.  My booth can be run solo (two is better when the machine is running), but the kettle corn is a four person job, and they move about like worker ants wearing long sleeves and sunglasses and cowboy hats.  The giddyup get up isn't a fashion statement, but for safety, as an errant kernel of sizzling sugar coated corn can put a hurt on a person.  Every now and again, one would come my way, but those few extra feet of air travel cooled it just enough to sting for a second but not burn.  

This is how it's done:
First a ladle or two of oil, then a giant cup of corn, give it a swirl, add sugar, stir stir stir as it pops, dump into pan, add salt.

I usually bring home a bag, but it was such a busy day, they ran out of product and I was left empty handed. Sigh.  Today as Mark and I watched the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lose to the Saints, I took a kitchen break and whipped up my own version of kettle korn.  Here is my recipe:

You will need-
mid-sized pot with lid
popcorn oil
popcorn
sugar
popcorn salt
big bowl
large spoon

Instructions-

• In a mid sized pot with lid over high heat, swirl enough butter flavored popcorn oil to mostly coat the bottom of the pot.
• Add 4 kernels of corn and cover.  Wait to hear four pops.
• Add 1/4 cup popcorn kernels, cover and swirl just a few seconds to moisten the corn.
• Immediately add 2 teaspoons sugar.
• Cover and shake pan over high heat until popping stops.
• Dump into big bowl and give a few shakes of fine popcorn salt (to taste).  Stir well with a large spoon.

I have a glass top stove and it worked fine.  In fact, I think shimmy-shaking the pan was much easier on the smooth surface.  David came in and liked it so much, I taught him how to make his own batch.

On Writing a Book

On Labor Day morning I woke up with a start, gasping for breath at the depth of what I had just dreamed.  And from this I began to write!  Mark came in and I gave him one of those talk to the hand, I cannot be disturbed motions and he knew I was on a roll.  An hour later, he approached me as I continued to bang away at the keyboard and asked, "What are you doing, writing a book??!"  My talk to the hand palm goes up instantly and I nod.  This is my husband, who wants to talk to me, so I stopped, saved my work, and answered with a definite YES.

After many revisions and more dreams and a two week vacation and hiatus from writing, I now have a 30 chapter draft that is 53 pages long.  Each chapter needs many more pages added to it to make a true book, but my friends that have read it say my story a page turner.  EL James had better move over!  I have a winning book on the horizon and this one is clean!

Getting the Garden Bug Again!

It has been a hot and humid summer in Central Florida.  After my last big eggplant harvest, I pulled up all but one plant that still had flowers and threw in my gardening gloves.  Three weeks ago I checked the sweet potatoes and have left them to grow on their own, surrounded by marigolds that flower in wild abandon. I was confident that the regular summer rains were enough to sustain them.  When oh when will my potatoes start cracking the soil?  I'm ready to harvest!

I'm wishing for freshly picked vegetables and tonight have begun planning for late September!  Pull up the potatoes, compost the plants, compost what's left of the eggplant bush and then all vegetable plants will be removed.  If I remove ALL of the marigolds, I can start fresh with a clean clear 4'x16' slate, ready to be turned under with additional composted soil and earthworm juice.

There is a stink bug problem at the vegetable garden co-op, and we are not supposed to use poisons/chemicals.  According to the bug repellent list, petunias are what I need.  Should I pull up every single nematode repelling marigold and replace them with petunias?  I planted a few marigolds in early summer and they took over, but I suppose if me, a pretty flower lover, would stay on top of things and dead head the flowers, this would stop the prolific marigolds in their tracks.  Currently I have a garden full of tall and mini marigolds in an ocean of of yellow, orange and reddish colors that are blooming their little hearts out and I am wondering how strong those roots will hang on when I start pulling?  It's gotta happen, there is no room for vegetable gardening!

This a list of some vegetables I am considering in my late September planting (prone to change at a moment's notice):  broccoli, spinach, peppery endive and variety lettuces, bok choy, kale, sweet peas,  lima beans.   They won't all fit, so I have to make some decisions, probably cutting the peas and beans, and possibly broccoli from my list.