Summer Treat!

In the summer I could eat nothing but popsicles and snow cones.  I crave cold and sweet.  Well, if you can make ice cubes you know how to make popsicles but what about snow cones?  I don't have one of those really cool Snoopy Snow Cone makers.  Hell, I don't even have a blender!  I do have a food processor though and that baby chops ice like there is no tomorrow.  You can buy snow cone flavor syrup but I don't.  I have those little water flavor powder packets though. 

Snow Cones
2 cups ice cubes
1/2 or 1 individual serving water flavor packs

Put the above in a food processor and pulse until you have snow cone consistency.  That is it!

Target even has Margarita flavored ones so a frozen margarita with or without tequila is easy and cheap too.

Snack Attack!

Penny Popcorn

Gryffin and I love popcorn.  Let's face it, it is the perfect snack.  It can be salty or sweet and its not that bad for you.  Plus, you can eat a ton since it has very few calories.  The commercially made, chemical flavored stuff has been reported to give the manufacturer's employees cancer just by making it.   Don't have an old fashioned stove-top or air popper?  Neither do I, you can make microwave popcorn in a brown paper lunch sack.  I used one of the recipes for it via.www.allrecipes.com.  If you've never visited this mecca of deliciousness, you should.  All of their recipes are rated by the users.  I have yet to be led astray but don't attempt anything under 4 stars.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels, can be found in the same isle as the pre-packaged stuff but usually on the bottom shelf.
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (I used canola)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Directions

In a cup or small bowl, mix together the unpopped popcorn and oil. Pour the coated corn into a brown paper lunch sack, and sprinkle in the salt. Fold the top of the bag over twice to seal in the ingredients.
Cook in the microwave at full power for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, or until you hear pauses of about 2 seconds between pops. Carefully open the bag to avoid steam, and pour into a serving bowl.  

Before I poured the fluffy goodness out into a bowl I added a couple pats of real butter and shook it up to melt and coat.  It worked beautifully!  Real butter popcorn tastes so much better than the fake stuff. 

Now there were quite a few unpopped kernels but you get that with any popcorn and there weren't enough to make it non cost effective. This happens when the kernels get too dried out.  You can remedy this by keeping your kernels in an air tight container and adding a teaspoon or two of water to them.

I vow never to buy the gross, cancer causing, synthetic flavored, has to use the word butter in parenthesis stuff again!