Savory Popcorn for Mom

Mother’s Day is just days away and if you’re thinking about making her a treat, why not try something a little different like some savoury popcorn.

We’ve come up with a list of some recipes that can spice up the typical popcorn snack. You can make it for your mom as an appetizer snack, package some up as a gift, or serve it with an after dinner movie or some relaxing time with your mom.

I’m usually a plain butter and salt popcorn gal. Every so often I’ll make a batch of caramel popcorn (we blogged the recipe here a few years ago) as a treat. Today though we are focusing on the savoury type of popcorn with lots of flavour! Take a look at some of the recipes below and see if anything stands out and give it a go for your mom or just for fun.

All of these recipes are best on some freshly popped popcorn. The recipes will nicely coat about 12-16 cups of popped popcorn but you can cut down the recipes to however much you’d like to make.

Brown Butter Lemon – Cook 6 Tbsp. of butter in a pan until browned and then take the pan off the heat and add 1 ½ tsp. of lemon zest. Stir and pour over the popcorn. Toss with salt.

Garlic and Herb – Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter in a pan and add 4 cloves of grated garlic and a tsp. each of fresh finely cut rosemary, sage, thyme and Drizzle over the popcorn and toss with some salt and

cook for a minute.

Parmesan and Rosemary – Add ½ cup of grated Parmesan along with 3 Tbsp. of olive oil, 1 Tbsp. of fresh finely cut rosemary, and toss with salt.

Three Cheese – For this one you’re gonna want to make sure your popcorn is warm. Then toss in 2 cups of shredded cheddar, 1 cup of grated Parmesan, and a ½ cup of Pecorino. Spread it all on a baking sheet (lined is probably best) and bake it at 350 degrees until the cheddar melts. About 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it though!

Italian Cheese – Mix 6 Tbsp. grated Romano cheese, 2 ¼ tsp. of Italian seasoning, and ¾ tsp. of garlic salt.  

Sesame – Heat 6 Tbsp. of butter with 2/3 cup of sesame seeds and cook until the seeds are toasted (5 or so minutes). Stir in 1 Tbsp. of sugar and toss with some salt.

Sesame Ginger – Melt ¼ cup of butter and stir in ½ tsp. of sesame oil, a drip or two of soy sauce, and a pinch of ginger powder. Pour over the popcorn and toss well.

Bacon Chive – Cook up some chopped bacon bits (6 slices is fine but you can some extra because the more bacon the better!). Keep the drippings and drizzle 2 Tbsp. of that with the same amount of butter over the popcorn and then toss with the bacon, ½ cup chopped chives, and ½ tsp. of cayenne. Season with some salt but it might be salty enough with the bacon and drippings.

Sriracha Lime – Whisk 5 Tbsp. of melted butter with ¼ cup of  Sriracha , 1 ½ tsp. of lime zest, , and 1 Tbsp. of lime juice and drizzle over the popcorn. Toss with salt.  

Chipotle – Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter with 2 Tbsp. of Chipotle hot sauce, and 1 tbsp. of Chipotle chile powder. Drizzle over the popcorn and toss with salt and corn nuts.

Cajun – Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter with 1 Tbsp. of Cajun seasoning , 1 tsp. of lemon zest, ¼ tsp. of cayenne, and 2 chopped scallions. Drizzle over the popcorn and toss with salt.

Curry- Melt ¼ cup of butter add in 2 Tbsp. of curry powder and mix well. Add in a tsp. of salt and a Tbsp. of turbinado sugar pour over the popcorn and toss. You can add in some more sugar or salt while you toss.

Buffalo – Melt 6 Tbsp. of butter and mix in 1/3 cup of Buffalo sauce toss in your popcorn and mix well. Add in ½ cup of crumbled Blue cheese and some celery leaves. Toss with some salt.  

French Onion – Melt 6 Tbsp. of butter with a packet of French onion soup/dip mix and toss with warm popcorn. Sprinkle in a package of French fried onions.

Salt and Vinegar – Combine ¼ cup of malt vinegar with 2 tsp. of salt and pour into a clean spray bottle. Shake well to dissolve all of the salt and spray over the popcorn.

There you have it many ways that you can make your popcorn more interesting. You can even make small batches of a few and get your mom to do a taste test to see which she likes best. Pair you savoury popcorn with some nice wine or other cool beverage and enjoy. 

Painted Wooden Spoons

Only a few more days until Mother’s Day and this week we’re showing you how to make a simple and easy gift...painted wooden spoons.

You can make this for any occasion; a house warming would be a great idea too.

You will need some wooden spoons. You can go to a dollar store to pick up some inexpensive ones or you can go to a kitchen store and buy good quality spoons; you can even make your own wooden spoons if you have the time and skills. If you get the shiny type spoons, you may have to sand them down a bit before painting.

Before we get started we should mention that you would probably want some sort of protectant or curing done if you want to actually use the spoons and not just have them as a decorative item in your kitchen - or else be really careful not to let the painted part touch the food. You can use a food safe protectant or you can cure the spoons (like in this blog here).

We’re going to paint the spoons in an ombre sort of way and we’ve chosen to do them in shades of blue. You can certainly do them this way or you can make the handles a solid colour or a variety of colours. They don’t all have to match and they can be in whatever colours you choose.

We just kind of went for it. We used sponge brushes to apply our paint and we just eyeballed the stripes. You can use painter’s tape if you want it to be more exact and straight.

We put the painted spoons in a mug to dry so that they weren't laying flat on the newspaper getting stuck to things. 

After doing one coat of each colour, we let the spoons dry or a few hours and then applied another coat.

We let them completely dry for a few days.

Since we are just using the spoons as decorations, we’re going to leave them as is (that is without a protectant or cure).

To finish off your spoon decoration gift, you can tie them all up with a thick ribbon and give them to mom on Mother’s Day.

Mother's Day Gift Certificate

Now that Easter is done, the next holiday on the way is Mother’s Day. To get prepared for that we have a few posts of some neat crafts and a yummy meal that you can make.

This week is a fun little craft that you can make for mom especially if you want to give her an “experience” as opposed to an actual physical gift.

We are going to show you a couple of versions of a gift certificate that you can make for your mom. Certificates are a little different from the coupon book of things that mom can ask you to do when she chooses to redeem them. We’ve made a couponbook for Father’s Day in the past and that is a cool idea if you want have a bunch of things that you want to give your mom. If you have a special idea of something that you want to do for your mom or with your mom, then this is a great idea.

You don’t need many supplies to make these certificates. All you need is some cardstock, punches and stamps if you choose to use those, glue, ribbon (again if you choose to use some), scissors, and a cutting machine if you have one.

We have a couple of versions for you that you can make.

The first one utilizes a cutting machine that will cut out things or write/draw things onto your certificate. It’s fairly simple to do. You just need to choose cardstock and lay it out in the software.  Just cut a certificate to fit inside of a card and then have your machine write the words you want and have it draw a couple of pictures to match your gift which you can clour afterwards.

The second one is more kid friendly but it’s also done without a cutting machine because not everyone has one to use. Pick some colours for your certificate first. Choose what gift you want to give your mom and then on a piece of cardstock (you can layer a lighter more neutral piece on top of a coloured piece), print the words you’d like on the certificate and then cut down to the size that will fit inside your card or envelope. Then you can decorate with punches and stamps and cut outs or even print pictures on the same layer as the words and colour them. We've done two for you to see...

Mother's Day Slaw and Sandwich

This weekend is Mother’s Day and we are sticking with the things to do for mom this week on the blog. We’re gonna go down the food road today and share with you some recipes for a healthy fresh Spring lunch for mom (these would be good picnic recipes too).

I’m a big fan of fresh coleslaw. I like the simple deli style with the mayonnaise sauce, cabbage, onions, and carrots. I first tried it in England and was hooked; it was so delicious. However, some people like a different and more exciting take on coleslaw so that’s why we are sharing Nicole’s broccoli slaw recipe today with you.

For the Broccoli Slaw you will need the following...

Broccoli, chopped in bite sized pieces

Red grapes, cut in half

Sunflower seeds

Red onion, sliced thin

Slivered Almonds

Raisins

Chopped Bacon

Cheddar cheese, cut into small chunks

1 cup of Mayonnaise, 2 tbsp. vinegar, ¼ cup of sugar (cane or raw)

Whisk together the sauce (Mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar) and then pour over the other cut ingredients in a large bowl and toss. It’s that easy. Most of the work, like with many slaws, comes in the form of chopping and slicing. Chill and then serve.

Something refreshing and delicious and very healthy to make alongside a slaw, is a sandwich. I came up with a form of a Clubhouse sandwich one morning when I was looking through the fridge at the leftovers.

You will need a ripe avocado, brown bread (your choice and it doesn’t have to be brown), Roma tomatoes, lettuce, bacon, turkey breast or chicken breast (I used leftover turkey the first time I made this but when we just made this, we used deli roasted chicken breast), and then some condiments (we just used Mayonnaise but an aioli would be yummy too).

First things first, cook the bacon and then let it cool slightly.

While the bacon is cooling, slice the avocados, tomatoes, and then wash and dry the lettuce.

Now to assemble the sandwich...toast the bread and then spread on the Mayonnaise.

Then place on the chicken or turkey.

On top of that put on the tomatoes, bacon, avocados, and lettuce.

 Put the other slice of bread on top and then slice in half diagonally. 

Serve with the cold slaw and there you have a yummy healthy Mother’s Day lunch for mom.