Caramel Apple Dip

Image from Food.com

I had half a can of sweetened condensed milk left over and thought I could make some caramel apple dip with it.  I found this recipe on Food.com.  Holy cow.  This stuff is good!!!

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt

Directions:

1. Place butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk in a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar, about 5 minutes.**
2. Stir un the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Pour into a serving bowl.
4. Serve with sliced, cored apples.

**I boiled mine for 2-5 minutes (I wasn't really paying attention), stirring occasionally, to make it thicker.

Our son didn't like the cinnamon in it, but ha! more for us!!  I'm terrible at carameled apples, but now I'm a pro at caramel apple dip!

The Best Caramel Corn

3 qt popped popcorn

1 c firmly packed brown sugar

½ c butter

½ c light corn syrup

½ t salt

½ t vanilla

½ t baking soda

Pour the popcorn into a large roasting pan (don't forget to take out the unpopped kernals) and place in 250º F oven. In heavy 2 qt saucepan stir next 4 ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Without stirring, boil 5 min. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and baking soda. Pour over warm pop corn and stir to coat. Bake in 250º F oven, stirring occasionally (I stir every 15 min.) , for 1 hr. Cool, break apart. Make 4 qt. or more (see below).

I pop two batches of air popped corn and it turns out to be just the right amount for us.

White Bean Hummus

This is the hummus mom brought to the family reunion in Rupert.

2 cloves garlic
1 t chopped fresh rosemary
2 cans great Northern beans, rinsed and drained (3 C cooked or 1 C dry, then cooked)
3 T lemon juice
3 T tahini (I just grind up sesame seeds in my blender to make a paste)
3/4 t salt
1/4 t ground red pepper (I just used black pepper)
1/4 C olive oil

You can make this in a food processor, but I lost the blade to mine (!), so I did it this time in the blender.  First I blended up the sesame seeds, added the rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper, then added the lemon juice, beans, and oil.  I just blended it until it was all smooth. Delicious with those multi-grain Food Should Taste Good chips from Costco.

Chewy Granola Bars

These are sooo good! (and easy!)

1 C brown sugar
2/3 C peanut butter, crunchy
1/2 C corn syrup
1/3 C butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 C oatmeal
1 1/4 C oat bran
1 1/4 C wheat bran
2 T sesame seeds
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, peanut butter, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla; blend well. Stir in oatmeal, oat bran, wheat bran, sesame seeds, and salt. Press mixture evenly in prepared pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely before cutting into bars. Makes 24 bars.

I got this recipe from the back of my Hodgson Mill Wheat Bran box. I added 1 C mini chocolate chips. I'm not a sesame seed fan, so I think next time I'll either replace them with flax seeds or just omit the seeds all together. I pressed the bars flat into the pan using a piece of waxed paper. I wonder if you could replace the melted butter with olive oil and the corn syrup with honey?

I've e-mailed the company to see if I can get the nutrition info (can you guess, I want to know how much fiber is in them!).

They are soooo good!