Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Magic of the Arclight's Caramel Popcorn

Hot damn, I love me a good movie time snack!

One of my favorite parties of the year is when my buddy Molnar celebrates his birthday with a backyard movie night, complete with acres of concession stand treats for you to double fist...

That's why, a few months ago, when the Arclight, aka: The Best Movie Theater Ever, asked their patrons to submit fill-in-the-blank quotes that began "The Arclight is their theater of choice..." that said why they're the bomb dot com, I wrote: "The Arclight is my theater of choice because when you mix their caramel corn with a handful of Junior Mints, it tastes exactly like a candy cane. It's Christmas year round, baby."

If selected, you had a portrait taken to grace the walls of their new Bay Cities location, along with your quote and a tag of your favorite film.

And they choose me! Check out my portrait...

Nothing is better than fresh, hot caramel corn, except eating it while you watch a great movie, like my personal favorite (as noted in the corner of the shot), Dirty Dancing.

Since not everyone has an Arclight to pillage, here's how to make your own awesome caramel corn at home...

Caramel Corn

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 quarts popped popcorn

Preheat oven to 250 degrees and grease several baking sheets.

Place popcorn in several large bowls.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook until it reaches a light amber color (about 3-5 minutes).

Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla.

Pour over popcorn, stirring to coat.

Pour popcorn onto baking sheets and bake, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

Serve with Junior Mints and a bucket sized, super icy half-Diet Coke, half-Dr. Pepper and you've got my favorite movietime treat.

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