Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Popcorn as a Snowy Day Snack!


I am surveying the wreckage of this morning. Another snow day here in the north east and it was the right call with all the ice and the slippery roads. The problem is that my house takes a huge hit in terms of cleanliness and my productivity as a working mother takes a huge hit as well.

It becomes the non-stop day of mini-meals prepared by the kids—fried eggs for one, pancakes for another, cereal and then later lunches and snacks and cups of hot chocolate and sopping wet clothes and middle of the day requests ‘can you drive me here or there.” This is the second snow day in the past two weeks so the routine is getting a little old.

My eleven year old dog just wants her uninterrupted naps and I would like to make a few uninterrupted phone calls. (All you gluten-free advertisers out there, today is an email day!)

One of the snacks we made is good, old, gluten-free popcorn. There are lots of fun things one can do with popcorn. In Ina Garten’s new cook book, How Easy is That, she makes popcorn with truffle butter! That sounds delicious, but truffle butter is not a refrigerator staple in my house.

I like the combination of butter, a little salt and a little sugar…I believe that is called Kettle Corn. We devoured a batch of that earlier. Another variation is ranch seasonings or a barbeque blend of seasonings.

I have stopped buying the microwave bags of popcorn because the popping popcorn with a touch of oil in a covered sauce pan is really easy, doesn’t start fire in the microwave and is a pretty natural and wholesome snack.

If anyone has any other popcorn ideas, I would love to hear them!
Kendall Egan

1 comment:

modernmommy said...

Salt and Vinegar popcorn is great - just sprinkle on some vinegar from a restaurant-style shaker and add some sea salt. (vinegar has no calories...). Great (and less fattening) substitute for my other favourite snack - salt and vinegar chips.