Popcorn Poppin' - Caramel Corn and Popcorn Nut Crunch

It's Thanksgiving week and so I'm gearing up! What does popcorn have to do with Thanksgiving, you might ask. Well, you have to have caramel popcorn to munch on in the even while you play games. It's just tradition around here. I'm including two recipes here, with possibly more to follow. This first recipe calls for peanuts, which I didn't have. So I added cashews. Even better! This is a crunchy, dark popcorn. You have to work fast while stirring and spreading it out because the caramel hardens quickly.

CARAMEL CORN
2 quarts popped corn
1 lb. brown sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 cup Planters peanuts
Keep popped corn in oven at warm. Combine all ingredients except vanilla, peanuts and popcorn. Cook over moderate heat to hard crack stage. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, mix nuts and popcorn. Pour syrup over mixture in a fine stream. Work in quickly. Mix well until all kernels are coated. Spread on cookie sheet and break into pieces at once.

I also made Popcorn Nut Crunch. Yum! This seems a lot like Poppy Cock, a light coating with lots of nuts. I used slivered almonds, not shredded (whatever that is). I didn't use a candy thermometer on this one because I wanted to be true to the recipe. It took just about 10 minutes to start to turn light brown, so I gave it a minute or two more. You have to work fast with this one too - a lot of the nuts ended up at the bottom of the bowl.

POPCORN NUT CRUNCH
2 quarts popcorn
1-1/3 cup pecans
1 cup shredded almonds
1-1/3 cup sugar
1 cup margarine
1/2 cup white Karo
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix popcorn & nuts on a cookie sheet. Combine margarine, sugar & syrup in saucepan. Bring to boil 10 to 15 minutes. Stirring often until mixture turns a light brown. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour over popped corn & nuts & mix to coat well. Spread out to dry & break apart. Store in tightly covered container.