Every once in a while our house gets inundated with 6-8 year olds. It's great. Penelope has a little gang of friends that she parties with, they bounce around from house to house on their bikes scavenging for tasty snacks and things to do. I tend to keep a closed pantry policy most days, but every once in a while I bust out the popcorn maker and make a giant batch of popcorn and send them outside. It gives them something to do, something to eat and it's incredibly easy/cheap to make. It's also very allergy friendly as well (unless using peanut oil). For some reason I thought that kettle corn was a tricky recipe with a tricky process, until last week. It's not. Now that I've figured it out, I'm off to experiment with other flavors. I found this recipe on How Does She?, a recipe for stove top kettle corn. Below is my adaptation for cooking corn with a regular popcorn maker. This would not work for a hot air popper. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Kettle Corn Recipe

Makes about 6 cups of popcorn | For popcorn maker adapted from How Does She?

• 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil
• 3-5 tablespoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
• dash of salt

The coconut oil in this recipe makes a huge difference with the flavor. It's incredibly delicious. A MUST add in my opinion. Turn on the popcorn maker so the spinner is rotating, but the lid is off. Put coconut oil in the popcorn maker and wait for it to melt to an oil-like consistency (takes a minute or so). Add the popcorn kernels THEN the sugar. Replace the cover and allow the corn to pop until you hear a 1-2 second pause between pops. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle salt overtop. Serve.  You may want to add more oil and more sugar for a more caramelized, intense flavor. Measuring bowls c/o Red Envelope.