What do You do With Popcorn? Room Mom Ideas + Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Once I discovered that I had a hot air popcorn maker and that it is incredibly easy to use, you better believe that we have done away with the likes of microwave popcorn. Never mind the kids and I have been making popcorn at least once or a twice a day week and we may or may not have had it for dinner as well (one more, thing bacon salt tastes a-maz-ing on!). With all this popcorn making going on I started thinking… what else can I do with this new found popcorn awesomeness?

First up, Dr. Seuss’ birthday, I wanted to send the first grader to school with something fun in honor of Dr. Seuss’ big day and since I am “room mom” and all I feel like it is a cool perk to get to send things to school for the hell of it.

So, what could I send to school, that was a fun, clever and (mildly) healthy snack? What could I send that would be perfect to honor Dr. Seuss and all his kookiness on his birthday? Why popcorn of course and not just any popcorn but, wait for it, candied popcorn!

I made bookmarks with Dr. Seuss quotes on them and tied them to each bag.

Yep, candied popcorn made from kool-aid no less. Looking at the recipe, I was a little daunted – who uses light corn syrup in their home? Apparently, I do! Alongside the popcorn maker and the Cuisinart I did not know I had, was a long forgotten bottle of corn syrup. All thought not that long ago, you see last summer I thought why buy bubble solution when I can make it? And one of the main ingredients in homemade bubble solution happens to be a key ingredient to candied popcorn – corn syrup! I did not have to run to the store to buy it! Score!

Turns out that not only is this recipe ridiculously easy but it actually tastes like cherry. I opted to go with cherry (red) and then mix it with plain (white) popcorn. I had this fantasy of layering white popcorn and red popcorn for a cat in the hat affect but after the third bag I just started throwing popcorn in the bag. Like the kids will care. They are eating red popcorn that tastes like cherry kool-aid for goodness sakes. On a side note, part of the reason for mixing plain with candied was to stretch the recipe but the bonus was that it was not overly sweet if it was just candied corn. They are in school after all.

Top left: corn syrup, butter and sugar, Top right: Adding the mixture, Bottom left: freshly popped popcorn and Bottom right, the mixing process

Tip: Use a deep (disposable) foil pan and in between “baking” stir, stir, stir and then stir once more. By the third ten minute block it will make sense.

Feel free to print!  Click to enlarge or from Google Drive.

Next up, Snickerdoodle Chex Mix! My new favorite thing to make for PTA bake sales are chex mixes. As it happens, our PTA hosts them during Election Day(s). Vote, buy and you do your part for the red, white and blue. I personally, I hate going to a bake sale at the crack ass of dawn to be offered a brownie so I made pumpkin pie chex mix for the first bake sale this year and for this one I made snickerdoodle.

Overheard: Apparently, during the first Election Day bake sale the PTA kept running out of items so the mom in charge got tired of running home and baking she bought chex mix and put it in baggies.

Back to snickerdoodle chex mix, there are two reasons I went with this recipe, first and foremost, I burnt the caramel batch I had originally intended on making and was worried I would do it again and waste the rest of the ingredients. Mind you, I still ate the burnt chex mix because it really wasn't so bad, but bad enough that I could not ask people to buy it, even for fifty cents. Somehow I thought it would be poor taste to say, really just eat around the black parts. Secondly, since I burnt a batch I needed to make up for what I burnt and the most logical choice – popcorn!

Hooray for popcorn!

What do you do with popcorn?  Microwave, air popped, dripping in butter...?

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