The Taste of Home Cookbook Cooks Who Care Edition

Vanilla Popcorn
The Taste of Home Cookbook Cooks Who Care Edition Copyright 2009

3 quarts popped popcorn
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter/margarine
¼ cup light corn syrup
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. vanilla

1. Place popcorn in a large bowl; set aside. In a saucepan, combine sugar, butter and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat for 2 minutes; boil and stir until mixture is golden, about 2 minutes.

2. Remove from heat; stir in the baking soda and vanilla. Pour over popcorn and toss to coat. Cool slightly; break apart while warm.

1 cup has 206 calories, 11 g fat, 20mg chol, 209mg sodium, 28g crabs, 1g fiber, 1g protein
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This is a new edition of the Taste of Home Cookbook but with a little something extra added. They included stories of people who contribute to the community in some way that uses food. When I was first saw this book, I thought it was just the regular Taste of Home Cookbook with the stories added but I was pleased to see that they added more recipes to this edition and they varied the photography (some recipes that were not photographed in the regular edition are photographed in this one instead of some recipes that were photographed in the regular edition).

I'm a big fan of Taste of Home Cookbooks and this is the granddaddy of them all. There are almost 1,400 recipes and nearly as many photographs. The recipes are tried and true by the users who submit them. I always get the impression that almost every recipe is someone's 'special' recipe, not just some recipe that they threw together once or twice. Taste of Home cookbooks are always organized well and include lots of photos. This particular book is binder style which I love (the pages always lay flat).

It's not unusual for publishers to print special editions of cookbooks (the Betty Crocker pink plaid edition for breast cancer awareness for example). I think these special editions make wonderful gifts. You're not just giving a cookbook, you're sending a message. This particular book would be great for anyone who is generous with their time and talents or who works in a caring profession - not just people who use food to do that. It's under $20 on Amazon (at least as I'm writing this, it is $19.77 and shipping is free over $25). I think that's an affordable gift.

Or, just buy the book for yourself and make even more affordable food gifts from it. I was testing this recipe for Christmas. The way my oven is running I may need to do all candy treats this year. It's the first time I popped popcorn on the stove in years. It was faster and less smelly than microwave popcorn. Cheaper too.

My popcorn didn't look as perfectly coated as the picture in the book but it was delicious. I think nuts, peanuts or almonds would be great added to this too. Sorry I had to share the unfortunate nutritional information with you but they included it so I did too.

This recipe in in the regular edition too. You can also find it along with many more recipes on the Taste of Home website. They have a ton of content on their website, including some great contests. They are giving away 50 slow cookers right now.

Question of the Day: Have you started Christmas shopping yet?