Caramel Corn

My friend Amanda and I made this on Thursday. It won't last through the weekend. Yummy.

2 cups light brown sugar

1/2 pound butter

1/2 cup white syrup

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

6 quarts popped corn, lightly salted (about 1 cup unpopped)

Bring sugar, butter and syrup to a boil; remove from heat.


Add baking soda and cream of tartar.


Stir well with a wire whisk until foamy.


Pour over popped corn in a large roaster and stir until well coated.


Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes with a wooden spoon.


Remove from oven and turn out onto waxed paper to cool.


Store in tightly sealed container.

Smitten Kitchen tomato sauce - my version

So, in the blogging world, there is no better tomato sauce than Smitten Kitchen's. Everyone loves it, including us!

But, I came across a different recipe that added in a can of pureed tomatoes in addition to the whole tomatoes, and really liked that one, too. I've been in a real "let's prepare for baby" mode lately, and inspired by the recent purchase of a gently used small standalone chest freezer from my boss, have decided to start stocking up on some healthy basics that will save me some time once late October/early November rolls around and the newest addition to the family arrives, and my free time goes bye-bye.

So I played around today and came up with a hybrid recipe that I really liked. I made a ton of it to freeze in two-cup servings, but this recipe is easily halved.

Jamie's Version of Smitten Kitchen Tomato Sauce

2 28 oz cans San Marzano style whole plum tomatoes (Kroger has a nice store version of these)
2 28 oz cans pureed tomatoes (again, generic Kroger has been just fine for me)
1 stick butter (we use unsalted sweet cream butter around here)
1 onion, peeled and quartered

Dump it all into a big saucepan. Bring to a simmer and let simmer on very low heat for about an hour. Take the onion out and salt to taste.

Depending on how chunky you like your sauce, either break up the tomatoes with a spoon while it's cooking, or do what I did and do a quick runthrough with an immersion blender.

This made somewhere in the neighborhood of ten cups of sauce - I divided it up into four heavy-duty freezer bags and then put some in the fridge for my immediate gratification.