E is for Eats

Craig likes his popcorn with butter, sriracha and nutritional yeast Popcorn used to be one of my most favorite snacks. When I was a little kid in the 80's, everyone had one of those air popping machines at their house (do you remember those? They were always yellow and white, and they had a little compartment to melt the butter). I loved watching the popcorn pour out of the spout and then pouring melted butter over the whole bowl. Then, of course, came microwave popcorn. No cubicle filled office is complete without the smell of artificial butter wafting from the kitchen area. Unfortunately, we haven't had a microwave for years, so no popcorn for us. But! Did you know that you can make popcorn on the stove top, with just a big pan and a lid? Yeah, you probably did. I think everyone knew about this but me. We made it last night and I was giddy with excitement. Craig looked at me like I came from another planet. Just in case you are the only other person who didn't ...

Granola bars. As far as prepackaged, convenience foods go, I figured that would be the easiest to start with. While I wasn’t entirely wrong, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Last weekend I made my first batch, using Alton Brown's recipe  (with just a few tweaks to account for what I had on hand).  They weren’t terrible, but they were way too sweet and the bars fell apart when we tried to eat them. So, I gave it another go yesterday.  The result is pretty darn delicious (if I do say so myself), but again, they fall apart when we eat them. I will happily gobble this batch up, but I am determined to find the perfect bar. Anyone have any advice? In the meantime, here’s the recipe. Delicious, but crumbly , Granola Bars Adapted from  Alton Brown's Granola Bars After I put these in the oven, I realized I should have included cinnamon.  So, add some if you are so inclined.  This makes 12-16 bars, depending on how wide you cut them. Ingredients: 2 ...