My first blog post...

So I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but after flirting with it on a site with a mini-blog type feature (http://www.foodbuzz.com/) I thought it might be fun. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving and my family is on their way here tomorrow, today though I'm catching up on my TV and being lazy. I'm a Top Chef addict and until today only had the first two episodes of this season on my DVR -- I've been watching and am not really sure what I think of this season yet. Sending two people home on the first episode was a bit harsh in my opinion, but hey, this is my only forray into reality TV watching so maybe that's what these shows have to do to "step it up" each season. Anyway, watching Top Chef made me want to get in the kitchen and cook but since it's 2PM it's not really meal time -- instead I went for the snack foods. I love caramel popcorn and have morphed a few recipes I've tried into my own version, here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 quarts popped popcorn
1 cup roasted peanuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place popcorn in baking dishes (I split this between two dishes) and mix in 1/2 cup peanuts in each dish.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, molasses and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

It's hard not to pull this out of the oven and eat it straight from the pan, but I warn you, it BURNS! Make sure to let this cool so that your tounge remains intact. Maybe this isn't Top Chef but it still tastes good.