Camo Corn

Today was my son’s first day of 5th grade! It is hard to believe that I have a 10-year old and he’s only a couple of years away from Jr. High!!!  Where does the time go? So, last night we went to school orientation and saw his homeroom.  The theme this year is: “Soldiers in the Lord’s Army”.  His teacher did a cute job of decorating with green army men and each class was given a “company name”.  My T is in Bravo Company.  Fun, right?

I wanted to send in a treat for the class’ first day.  In keeping with the theme, I decided to do: Camo Corn…..popcorn in camouflage colors!I searched the internet and found several ways to dye popcorn, but the way that sounded tastiest was using butter, sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin to make a candy coating.
Here is the recipe I used:

Gelatin Popcorn

1 microwave bag (3.3oz) popcorn, popped 
1/4 cup butter 
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar 
1 small box of flavored gelatin

Set aside popcorn in a large bowl.  Cover a big cookie sheet or baking pan with wax or parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F). Melt the butter in a saucepan over med-high heat.  Add corn syrup, sugar, and gelatin and stir constantly while bringing to a boil.  Turn heat down and simmer for 5 minutes while continuing to stir.  Pour the hot gelatin mixture over the popcorn and toss to coat (use a big spoon or spatula…it’s hot!).  Spread the popcorn over the cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  Break the popcorn apart and serve!

I used microwave popcorn…..natural and unsalted.  One bag I flavored using Lime gelatin and another using Lemon.  They both came out tasting a lot like Fruit Loops cereal!  The Lime one turned more brownish-green, which is fine for camouflage, but I also wanted a more green green.  For the green, I used the same recipe as above except I substituted a few drops of food coloring for the gelatin…it worked just fine and tasted like kettle corn.

Using “Stencil” font in Microsoft Word, I printed out a large tag. Unfortunately, since this was a last minute plan, I did not have time to get a cool bowl.  I think it would have been fun to serve it in one of those plastic army helmets (you can usually find them in the toy section at the Dollar Tree)!These are some of the popcorn recipes I looked at while hatching this plan:
http://howtomakestuff.com/2009/08/24/how-to-make-colored-popcorn/
http://www.ehow.com/how_5135507_make-colored-popcorn.html
http://baking.about.com/od/sweetpopcorns/ss/sbscoloredpopcorn.htm

My son loved it and I think his class will too! Enjoy your popcorn…whatever flavor and color you decide on.







This post is linked to:
http://thediydreamer.blogspot.com/2012/08/from-dream-to-reality-linky-party-29.html
http://www.sweetlittlegals.com/2012/08/trendy-tuesday-12.html
http://www.notjustahousewife.net/2012/08/show-me-what-ya-got.html
http://todayscreativeblog.net/diy-lantern/
http://www.claimingourspace.com/2012/08/tout-it-tuesday-19.html
http://singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/2012/08/inspire-me-monday-its-still-monday.html
http://www.uncommondesignsonline.com/2012/08/uncommonly-yours-link-party-41.html
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/2012/08/wow-me-wednesday-64.html
http://trophyw.blogspot.com/2012/08/will-craft-for-fun-52.html
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/2012/08/whatever-goes-wednesday-130.html
http://igottacreate.blogspot.com/2012/08/wildly-original-linky-party-13-features.html
http://staceyembracingchange.blogspot.com/2012/08/creative-inspirations-linky-party-27.html
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2012/08/think-pink-sunday-no-74/
http://www.niftythriftythings.com/2012/08/nifty-thrifty-sunday-71.html
http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/2012/08/show-and-tell-saturday-081812.html
http://youngancrafty.blogspot.com/2012/08/free-for-all_17.html
http://tatertotsandjello.com/2012/08/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-nokia-lumia-900-windows-phone-giveaway.html
http://www.shakentogetherlife.com/2012/08/whats-shakin-link-party-22.html
http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2012/08/linky_party_101/
http://whipperberry.com/2012/08/friday-flair-link-party-blueberry-truffle-tartlet-edition.html
http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/2012/08/catch-as-catch-can-85.html
http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/2012/08/party-time-craft-o-maniac-monday_19.html
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2012/08/just-something-i-whipped-up-is-backfor.html
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/2012/08/creative-bloggers-party-hop-73.html