Kristin gave me this idea and I have wanted to try it for the longest time, OH, oh, oh for the longest time- oops got off track, anyways, I am going to post recipes that I have found and tried and liked. I will probably tweak them, as I normally do and as I did with this first one. Hope you enjoy. Love you all.
One of the many things that Ally and I like to do together is to go to the Noblesville Farmer's Market. Sometimes we even get Dad to go. It starts in May and ends the end of October.

All the wonderful fresh produce- the best corn on the cob, state produced honey(where you can even see the bees working and the queen bee just lazin' around)- plants, crafts and our favorite----- KETTLE CORN- fresh and hot. The booth is near the end of the line (though there is still a whole other side to go by) and we make sure each week that we are able to go to the Market we buy our bag of KETTLE CORN- now those of you who have never tasted fresh, hot, right off the whatever it is they make it in- oh right out of the kettle, you don't know what Kettle Corn is suppose to taste like. So one day as I was looking at a food blog that Anna introduced me to I found a recipe for: you guessed it, KETTLE CORN- I found it several weeks ago, but last week decided to give it a try- can we say Ummmmmm, Ummmmmm, Ummmmmm. So far, Ally has made it at least once a day except on Monday, when I made monkey bread. So I just knew that this had to be my first recipe entry. So give it a try, I promise you it is good and is easy to make.

STOVE TOP KETTLE CORN

3 TBLS. canola or vegetable oil

1/3 cup popcorn kernels

3 TBLS. granulated sugar

salt

The recipe for kettle corn isn't complicated-- it's the little tricks that matter. So I'm going to teach you all the little tricks!

1. Place a large stock pot on the stove top. Set heat to medium-high. Add oil. While your oil is heating (it won't take long) measure out your popcorn into a small bowl. Add sugar to the kernels. When it's time to cook, everything moves very quickly, so it's important to have it all ready to go.

2. Wait until you see your oil smoke. This is one little trick that a lot of people overlook, but it's important. The smoke is very faint, but if you just stare at the pot (it helps to get down parallel to it), you'll see little billows of smoke coming up. That's your cue!

3. Pour popcorn kernels and sugar into the pot. Immediately stir using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, scraping sugar from bottom of pan. This step should only take about 10 seconds because I don't want a lawsuit from someone who got pooped in the eye with a popping kernel. That is your first disclaimer. ONLY 10 SECONDS!

4. Cover the pot with the lid. You will need to shake the pot with your hands and you'll want to make sure the lid stays on, so get a dish towel and drape it over the top of the pot and the two handles.

5. Hold the pot by the handles in a way that you're securing the lid on as well and shake the pan side to side in all directions and up and down a few times. (Ally takes the pot away from the stove as not to break the stove top) Then place the pot back on the burner. Do this every 20 seconds or so. It will keep the sugar from burning on the bottom and help the kernels to be evenly coated.

6. After a few minutes you should start hearing the pops. (if it doesn't start popping after a few minutes, crack the lid to let some of the pressure out. Chances are when you put the lid back on, it will pop away). Continue the shaking every 20 seconds or so until you can tell almost everything is popped. Remove from the heat, remove the lid and stir immediately.

7. Sprinkle salt to taste and then keep stirring. You can eat it warm right out of the pan (Disclaimer #2 caramelized sugar is HOT so don't eat it right away.) or let it cool completely. It's great either way!

We use our largest pot, the first two times we made the recipe as is- but found that if we halved the recipe and added it to the first amount that it made more and was a good amount for that size of pot, I haven't tried doubling it yet, but since so far it's just Ally and me eating it, we really don't need any more- so here is the amount so you don't have to think:

1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tsp. canola or vegetable oil

1/3 cup plus 3 TBLS. popcorn kernels

1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar

salt to taste

ENJOY!!!!!!

It's fall, though these pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago before peak and now that they say it's peak, we have no leaves. But I had to show this picture it is one of my favorites. I woke up one saturday morning (one of two days I can sleep in and wake up to daylight. As the sun was coming up, it shined through the trees and created this. A thing a beauty. Now that the trees are bare it's another kind of beauty, I will try one day to capture that.

This is one of two trees in our yard that we have with leaves, it is one of my favorite trees because of the color. Two bad it can't be that way all season long.

Before the leaves were blown out of the gardens and the hammocks were taken down.

That touch of red in this picture is a Japanese Maple. A friend of mine is remodeling her house and she had two of these trees that needed to go. I took the smaller of the two. (The other one bit the dust as the workmen didn't know how to transplant a tree, let alone even dig one up.)Never did I realize that it would turn red in the fall. Sure hope it grows a lot next year and fills up that space. (I can dream can't I?)