Happy Birthday, Baby!

This is a sort of reverse ag.gray.gate post wherein I created a cake pop collage for the blog, forgot to post it here, and this past week posted it to Pinterest instead! Sacrilege, I know. What can I say? Pinterest has swept me away...for the moment at least!

For Jack's birthday we made Ice Cream Cake Pops as per his request. They turned out fantastic and were really simple. The poppets were thrilled!

A little about the pops...
-The pics don't show us mixing the buttercream icing into the crumbled cake. The texture should be that of raw cookie dough. Roll and chill.
-Having access to american style Almond candy bark makes all the difference in the world. Anything else will ruin your day. Trust me.
-Melt the bark in a double boiler. Dip cones and place on chilled balls. Chill again before final coating.
-I was lucky enough to find mini cones with flat bottoms, which meant I didn't have to fashion or find some sort of mini ice cream cone holder.
-Sophie Wong took the gorgeous inset photo. Mad skillz, that woman.

Ta da. Birthday magic.

A Poultry Life…

My family and I are part of a growing trend. We have backyard chickens. It all started as a good idea last spring as we took part in Rossland’s 2^nd annual ‘Chicken Crawl’. At every house along the Walk chicken owners professed how easy and inexpensive constructing coops and runs with found goods could be. They all built their structures in a weekend. The Poppets really dug the hens and I was surprised just how much Mike seemed to like the idea as well.

Then a girlfriend called with actual chicks to give and suddenly there was a very real deadline looming in front of us. We began to gather ‘inexpensive found material’. Insert reality check #1 here. Not cheap. Even with a free metal roof and free siding.

We had ourselves a good old-fashioned Amish style barn building. Check #2 - it took more way more than a weekend to finish. Family came in from Ontario one week. We sent them out to the yard and didn’t let them in till the ground was cleared, foundation level, run framed in and a roof went up. Jack’s God Parents visited the next week and together we stained, sided, and put up the hardware cloth. It really looked like a real chicken coop now! In fact so much so, that we had never seen a raccoon in our yard before and that night two came to inspect the coop that now resembled a coop! Smart little buggars. The bandits found it empty though as chicks were still inside our house. Whew!

Then there was Velma. Who quickly decided, despite her Terrier-ness, she was the mamma. Thank goodness, I thought for sure she was going to eat the little yellow fluff balls.

Last, but not least, Mike’s dad dropped by and gave the coop a once over…and a few more cross supports. Then it was time for the chick–e–boos to move on in!

They love their coop! All it needs is a chandelier  :)

The Truth About Peas and Carrots

I make a lot of food from scratch for this little family. For lots of different reasons - mostly because I want my kids to adore my cooking above all others enjoy healthy food. But there are also times when I crumple under the pressure of requests for "Cheesy Noodles", a catchall phrase used in my house to describe any pasta with cheese. This phrase saves me in restaurants where a variation might be offered. They mean macaroni and cheese. 

Recently I have found a shortcut. A way to make Cheesy Noodles a little healthier, and give already great food a little boost. Frozen peas and carrots. In everything. Instead of ice in hot soup I throw in a handful of the frozen veg. In the final minutes of boiling pasta I throw a cup or two into the pot. When I make hearty fall and winter dishes, like stews and pot pies and I have slaved over a handmade crust the ease of carrots and peas thrills me!

The perfect crime. They are organic, inexpensive, washed, cut, raw, and FULL of all things good.

 

Appalachian Mojito

This is the first time I have ever blogged from the iPad. Michael took the Mac to Vancouver out of necessity so I am left to be judged by autocorrect. Sometimes super helpful but most of the time not. I also find myself sans streaming video and switching to the web version of everything. I am too much of a luddite to store my photos offsite so this will be a pretty bland week in terms of delicious photos. Perhaps I will cheat and add them later :)


Anyhoo, I recently came across an article in my April 2011 subscription of Style at Home magazine with a mouthwatering recipe that I immediately tore out and instructed the husband to make for me. Fast forward a few days to when we had the actual ingredients and make it he did! Soooooo delicious! A little bourbon, mint, Limonata, sugar and crushed ice felt like heaven after the week we had and it has turned my thoughts to spring. 


The drink itself had some blasé name that I cannot remember and when I dig out the recipe I'll add it along with pics so we have dubbed it the "Appalachian Mojito". Much better. I think I'll go have one now and try to forget how lackluster this post is versus how offing long it took to write. 


Pucker Up from Style at Home : 
Crushed ice, 1 1/2 oz Bourbon, 
1tsp granulated sugar (I also used simple syrup), 
2tsp Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice, 
2 Sprigs Fresh Mint, Pinch Orange Zest, 
3oz San Pellegrino Limonata 
Half fill a tall glass with crushed ice. Pour in bourbon, sugar and lemon juice; add mint and orange zest. Use a muddled or a honey dripper to mash ingredients together to blend. Fill the glass with more crushed ice and top with Limonata. Stir gently before serving.

Happy Birthday

Today is my Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Woman!!!!! I wanted to take this time to share just how incredibly blessed I am to have this wonderful woman in my life. My mother is strong beyond compare, hysterically funny, humble, gorgeous, amazingly personable, spicy, selfless and brilliant.
Now as many things as I could say I found the following quotes, all of which made me a little verkelpt,  to be so accurate and succinct I could do no better. These excerpts are so true about my Mom I think they really must have been written as an homage to her alone.

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~Rajneesh  


A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.  ~Washington Irving 



One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.  ~George Herbert


Who fed me from her gentle breast
And hushed me in her arms to rest,
And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
My Mother.
~Anne Taylor


A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of her self.  And mothers are their daughters' role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships.  ~Victoria Secunda


A mom reads you like a book, and wherever she goes, people read you like a glowing book review.  ~Robert Brault


Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds.  Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, comrades and friends - but only one mother in the whole world.  ~Kate Douglas Wiggin
I love you Mom - Happy Birthday xoxo.

Wordless Wednesday - Heaven

Home Exchange

One of the many HomeExchange sites.

I first heard about Home Exchange a few years ago and thought that it sounded like an incredibly fabulous idea! At the time though, we were living in Burnaby. Still Vancouver, but no one on the exchange boards was exactly chomping at the bit to head into the burbs. Or so I thought. In retrospect it might have been the exact place someone wanted and needed to be for a visit to the Lower Mainland for all kinds of reasons. I should not have put our little townhouse in a box.

Anyhoo. The time is here. I finally finished making a photo tour of our home and we are going to take the plunge into an international home exchange site. I have no idea which one. I am thinking the ones that you have to pay for are best after overhearing a girlfriend talking about her online dating experience. She described paying as being an incentive not to dick people around. Good advice.

One of the many reasons we love this little town is that living here affords us the ability to travel. We want to travel once a year. And, bonus, Rossland is the kind of place that other people will come around the globe to visit. I meet them on our streets everyday! What with worldclass skiing in the winter and being the mountain biking capitol of Canada in the summer, amongst other things. Huzzah :)

There are some pretty incredible destinations available in the exchange and it cuts the cost of travelling in half. Great, because we have two tiny bums that get charged full price for plane/train seats everywhere we go. Rossland is two hours from the Spokane airport and or we would drive to Vancouver to find the best - read cheapest - flights (leaving one car for the exchange family). Now enrolling does not mean we will find a match immediately but many of the sites do guarantee that you find an exchange within the first year, or the next years listing is free. Sounds good to me.

Have you tried a home exchange? Which one?

THAT Child...

http://bit.ly/hXtgii

Jack pushed his best friend through a glass window the other day. There, I said it. And it could have been much worse...because the stairs were half a foot to the left. Every now and then I find I am the parent of THAT child and it is so embarrassing.

Now a few things that I know to be true about Jack; he is very intelligent and way handsome. He is kind, compassionate, patient and encourages those around him. He is empathetic to a fault, sometimes skiing away from us so he can check on that random guy who just fell over. Jack is the child who plays so inclusively I have to remind myself that he is four.

Crime Scene

But he IS four. And sometimes he looses his shit.

On this night, loosing a game of Mario Party proved too much, and he pushed the boy who won. Unfortunately they were on a pull out bed in our television room which sent his best friend flying (thank the lord above that it was not down the flight of stairs) off the bed and through the 75-year-old-original-to-the-house-glass-door.

First things first. He should NOT have pushed his bestie. Obvious. But why, when he loose his cool so rarely, does everything seem to conspire to make the event soooo epic?! I mean when Jack gets pushed, or bitten, or some brat pulls his hair I seem to be the only witness and life goes on. But when Jack pushes his friend it happens to be the day we let them play on the pull-out (usually they sit on the green table above), sending said friend off into the air, AND through a GLASS DOOR!!!!! What the what?! Seriously?!

When Gramma asked Jack why he had done it he answered through tears, "I just don't know what happened...I never do stuff like that.". Jack has apologized, and all has been forgiven. He does not really grasp what could have happened (killing your bff is a pretty heavy concept) but he is paying for the glass with money from his piggybank. THAT has made a huge impact with him.

And my girlfriend still lets her baby play with mine. So there's that. Oh, and the Wii has been moved back to the playroom.

Cuppy Cups...

I rip all sorts of stuff out of magazines, but I think that this is actually one of the very first things I have ever actually followed through with. When I was racking my brain as to how best serve Aly's Vegetarian Chilli (from Aly Dahl Designs) at my and my husbands 8th Annual Oscar Party I thought I would give these a go. Of course by then I had lost the torn out page when I was cleaning. So this is what I best imagine the recipe would have gone like...and the best part was not having to wash or toss 24 dirty bowls!

1. I sprayed 24 Medium-sized flour Tortillas with Olive Oil. Next time I would also sprinkle with Garlic Salt at this point. Or Chipotle.
2. Put them into a warm frying pan on uber low and covered them briefly (so they would be more pliable)
3. Then I placed the warm and slimy rounds into large muffin tins and baked at 375 F till they became golden Cuppy Cups.
4. Fill with something delicious!
5. Enjoy your accolades :)

Teevee or Not Teevee ...Netflix and Cable

Ughhhhh... so Netflix turned out to be a bust. Boo. Terrible selection at a great price. In Canada at least. And then there was that threatened bandwidth cap. Good gravy. If the selection improves on Netflix though, I am not entirely opposed to give it another go.

When our little family moved to Rossland last summer we made the big decision to get rid of our cable . It was only at the time the choice seemed so monumental. In retrospect it hasn't really been missed, really everything that we would watch on cable is available online. Even CBC Kids.

We ended up getting cable back though, so that we might host our annual Oscar Party. This Deal-with-the-Devil includes a 3 month promotion and HD channels at a low, low price. Which ends up still being ridiculously expensive. Ridiculously expensive. I thought, "man, it will be H to the ARD prying the PVR from my daily life schedule once again.". However, I find myself checking the calendar regularly to see if our cable promotion is over yet so we can get rid of it. I am frugal not stupid.

Shocking, I know. I never thought I would prefer a life sans television, but I do. I am amazed at how quickly it has turned the poppets into tiny marketing machines. Isla, who has never been to, or even seen, a Red Lobster, now professes her undying love for the company. Egads. Jack begs for all manner of toys and is quickly developing an unhealthy perspective about germs.

Just the other day I caught myself singing the five dollar footlong jingle.  Isla shouts "skunk" whenever someone farts. Classy. Incorporating as always, and this might have been the straw that broke the cable's back, Isla called me a "five-dollar-skunk". A tidy, albeit unfortunate, amalgamation of pop culture.

The love affair is over.

Wordless Wednesday - Does This Count?

A Cake for Isla

I have not a clue as to how a little girl who has virtually no exposure to the Wonderful World of Disney has such an enormous affection for all things Tinkerbell, but she does. Isla's heart on for the tiny beast appeared one day out of the blue and here it has stayed.

So, of course, for Isla's birthday I endeavoured to make a Tinkerbell cake. I had seen the photos online. I might have shown them to Isla, and now her mind was made up. It looked really difficult. The combined potential brutal honesty of two preschoolers sent shivers up my spine. It was gonna have to not suck. I was scared.

Now being cable-less has left me at a disadvantage. As far as gleaning useless information from TLC to be recalled at convenient moments I am now at a loss. Internet to the rescue! I Googled how-to videos on 5 different kinds of fondant and how to apply it. The term 'crumb coat' kept coming up...so I Googled that too. Down the rabbit hole I went.

I really wanted to make marshmallow fondant from scratch. It tastes better and doesn't have as much crap in it...then went and bought Wilton pre-made and added food colouring. The Wilton site itself was a wealth of information and I used their butter cake recipe in the end. And despite cautionary cries in chat rooms everywhere, I used my Kitchen Aid mixing bowl as a cake pan. It worked like a chizzarm!!!!

Ice Cream Cake Pops by Bakerella

Long story short, the cake did not suck...it was all kinds of awesome, nowhere near as difficult as it looks, but every bit as pretentious! Fondant is absolutely my new favourite thing! Oh, and my three year old :)

For Jack's Birthday I plan on successfully trying my hand at these Cake Pops...

Ummm...awkward.

So, it was has been a while. A few weeks ago (6 weeks ago to be exact) I received the following message on Facebook from a friend and avid ag.gray.gate reader:

 "it's been 20 days since the last ag.gray.gate post... and 40+ days since the post before that! This trend cannot continue.".


But my absence has persisted. I feel as though I have fallen off the face of the planet. I am not sure exactly how it happened. I had no intention of my new endeavour into the small business realm completely kiboshing this blog. This blog that I love, and that I miss terribly. Truth be told, I would rather write here.


When I bumbled my way back to ag.gray.gate last night I realized I missed a couple important events.

Firstly, the designs I had used from Shabby Blogs was gone. They had sent out numerous messages, helpful hints and finally changed servers. Oops.

Secondly, ag.gray.gate passed the 10, 000 visitor mark. Wow. Thank you. I am humbled...and I am back.

I am excited - I have so much to tell you!

See you tomorrow. xo.

Toby goes for a Ride

Well, that was quite a hiatus! Thank you for all the kind words and support over these past few weeks as I worked, studied and researched. I loved hearing that ag.gray.gate's daily offerings were missed. For those of you who have been waiting...I handed in my completed business plan for the Boomtown Brewing Company last Monday and by Friday I had the news. It was accepted. Yay, for this Mompreneur and for this little family!!!! 2011 is gonna be a BIG year. I am equal parts excited and scared.
Other than me being fully engrossed in the brewing world, it has been life as usual. Since moving to Rossland six months ago my husband Mike commutes quite a bit back to Vancouver. On a good trip he goes to film something, on all the other trips he goes so that there is food on the table. Sometimes he crashes with friends and at other times he sleeps in the Cavallac. When he is able to take Toby (the Chihuahua) with him I am so grateful. Toby, our first baby, gets some serious one on one time with Mike, and I have only three beasts to take care of here at home.

One of Mike's most recent trips was for the explicit purpose of an audition. The audition was at 3pm. It takes roughly 7 and a half hours to get to Vancouver. Afterward, he would turn around and drive back to Rossland. He wore his costume in the car and didn't think to bring a change of clothing. Why would he? The trip was there and back again in 16 hours.

One of the things we have most enjoyed about life here in Rossland is the lack of traffic. Life here is super chill despite Forbes Magazine repeatedly giving us a spot on their top ten ski resort list. In fact, an article was written about our sleepy little town, labelling us the most laid back ski town in North America. Oh, and the Lonely Planet warns visitors about our erratic jaywalkers. Like I said, there is no traffic.

Anyhoo, 7 hours and 25 minutes into Mike's Vancouver trip, he was stopped in traffic two blocks from the studio. Suddenly, Toby begins to panic. Like, PANIC! He runs in tiny panicky circles in Mike's lap, pausing only briefly to put his paws on the window ledge and peer longingly outside, then resuming this frantic cycle. Michael barely has time to process that all three pounds of dog is in the throes of a man sized emergency. He says, "Just a sec Tobes and I'll find a place to pull over". Apparently Michael's reassurance was too little too late, for it was then that Toby placed his paws on the window ledge once more and shat helplessly all down the front of the only outfit Mike had.

Gagging, he found an ever elusive parking spot, and he struggled to figure out how to make this shituation better all the while managing to not strangle Toby. Mike went straight for the washroom inside. He washed out as much as he could which left little time for his still rank clothing to dry. Now he was wet and smelled like poop. Upon entering the audition room he says to the director, "Now, I know what this looks like, but it isn't pee. It's shit...but it's not mine". What an ice breaker.

Homage Monday - Nicole Maas

Nickie is a certain kinda someone - like a legend. She works and plays fields traditionally dominated by men and, well, dominates :) She is pretty awesome! Usually I will use selected portions of what an artist sends for this article but with Nickie there is sooooo much and it is all soooo good! Inside industry information, espionage, babies, passion...it's all here for the reading, thanks Nickie:

Ok, so... bio. Present to past? Past to present?

Past to present...

 I slogged away in design school at Emily Carr for 5 years and graduated from the Graphic Design dept. Took a co-op role with Electronic Arts in 1996 and fell in love with the video game industry. After a year at EA I went back to Emily Carr and finished my program in 1997, and then took at job at Radical Entertainment. Worked as the studio front end (interface design) lead for 3 years and left in 2000 to delve into the up and coming world of web design in Austin, TX. In 2001 the dot com crash hit hard and I found myself pining away for games again. Headed back to Vancouver and fell back into a spot as the interface design lead for NHL on the PC. Worked on the NHL franchise from 2002 to 2006 before moving over to work on a little known console called the Nintendo Revolution. The Revolution is now commonly know as the Wii and I helped to create Madden 07, a launch title for the Wii. It was the number three rated Wii game that year.

During Madden Wii I was hungry to move into art direction, territory previously un-touched by interface designers within EA. I worked my way through the position of Art Lead (which was overseeing and directing all aspects of game art; concept, animation, environments, characters, effects and front end) for a couple of Nintendo DS titles, and got a shot at art directing a short-cycle title called FIFA Street 3 for the Nintendo DS. After FS3 I led Celebrity Sports Showdown for the Wii, which was a fantastic but little known title that fell victim to poor timing and no marketing dollars for launch, so we found ourselves prey to the dust bunnies on the bottom shelves of the game stores :( . Coincidentally Nintendo - who gets a behind the scenes look at all the Wii games in production across the globe - came out with a game called Wii Sports Resort which was virtually identical to our game, but much better marketed and featured the Nintendo Miis (instead of obscure celebrities like Keith Urban and Kristy Yamaguchi) canoeing and flying little jet planes on an island sports resort. Hmmm... coincidence? Anyway, I left near the end of that title to have my brilliant baby. After a year I came back from mat leave to mixed titles including EA Sports Active and FIFA Online. I'm now currently art directing two undisclosed FIFA titles that will ship in late 2011.

Amidst all that I purchased a small dog daycare business in 2004 which I worked with my husband to turn into Pup Culture Dog Daycare, which he proudly continues to operate.

Over the past 5 years I have worked with my vizsla, Zuzu, in competition obedience and agility as well as tracking, field and conformation. This past summer we competed at the 2010 Canadian National Agility Championships and she recently earned her Master Agility Dog of Canada title. I also have a beagle whom I trial at Masters level in agility. In addition I have been providing obedience training through the daycare in my (ha ha) spare time. I've played Ultimate (frisbee) recreationally and competitively for the past 14 years (US Regionals 2001, World Ultimate Club Championships 2002, Canadian Nationals 2004) and continue to captain and participate in rec leagues to get my weekly cardio. 

I am a mother (now single) who also bakes, draws, reads, writes, cooks, and most of all... LEARNS. I love to be challenged and I'm inspired by passion. Passion for pretty much anything turns my crank. I am addicted to "busy", and I am fired by gorgeous and innovative design.

My role models have been many, but most importantly, my mother who always said "Only boring people are bored." and taught me that we are responsible for our own happiness, and when we feel our spark burning out we need to "do something constructive!" And so, I go, I do, I love, I learn. That's me. :)

Doggy in the Window

The other day my Facebook status read as follows:

ag.gray.gate ‎(Alicia) wishes I didn't wear my slippers outside and step in dookie. In other news... Free: one Velma. I'd say to a good home but we're not picky.

No offers. Not one.

Later that afternoon Jack and Isla were commiserating about their strong desire for a cat. Previous conversations with me about this impending arrival have alluded to the demise of one of the dogs. As in another animal entering our home requires the exit of a current resident beast, either Velma the Griffon or Tobias the Chihuahua.

"But I will be so sad if Velma goes away," says Jack. Then he continues "and Mommy and Daddy will be so sad if Toby dies.".

Burn. It's gonna be a long time till we get that cat.

Again with the Hair?

I have this little precious vial of cream. As you may remember I am having an ongoing facial acne crisis where my zits think I am 16 and my wrinkles think I am 70. Awesomesauce. A fugly, humiliating combination. But there are people starving so get some perspective right?! Ughhhhhhhh....

Just so you know who we are dealing with here.

Anyhoo this precious little vial has silver in it. Whatever that means. So every night I have been putting the concoction onto my face and it seems to be helping. Or I respond well to sugar pills. I am easily persuaded and have a penchant for carpet baggers and psychosomatic tendencies.

I digress, the silver potion is working. That is, it was working until my almost three year old daughter found it and squeezed the entire contents of the precious little vial into her hair. My only precious little vial. That was a gift. So its not like I can just run out and grab another. It has to be shipped from Never-Never Land.

After having a ridiculous ugly-cry overreaction to the situation I snuggled my gross, cream-covered, sticky-headed little Bean till she slept. And in the morning I brushed her dry, matted little mess. I could have washed it out I suppose, but I brushed it anyway. And it felt good.

Wordless Wednesday - First Real Skiff

Photo by www.tourismrossland.com

Somethings Gotta Give...

I have some fantastic news...wait for it...wait for it... I am officially enrolled in the Self-Employment Program here in Rossland (well, Greater Trail I guess)! Now I have kept fairly mum on this whole subject but with this latest development the cat is out of the bag. This is the news we have been waiting for!

Both my husband and myself have long dreamt of owning our own business, we just never knew what that was going to look like. Then just over six months ago, in the few days between putting an offer on a house here in town, but before listing/selling our Vancouver home, we decided to start a brewery in Rossland. Then we packed up our old life in Vancouver and began our new life here.

Here is how the idyllic dream looks: We (me funded through Community Futures and Michael as my unpaid man servant) establish Rossland's first brewery since prohibition put the Le Roi Brewery out of business at the turn of the century. Then we are on our own. We have a smallish store-front, on-site craft-brewing, retail and tasting room on Columbia (Main Street). Our little Company begins to support and sponsor all the fabulous events that the wonderful people of Rossland create, host and attend. Investors come out of the woodwork to throw money at such a fabulous idea enabling us to grow and prosper. We build an entirely green, zero waste, incredibly efficient brewery which truly reflects Rossland and our communal values. We even employ some local farmers to grow our hops which is mutually beneficial. The Brewery garnishes heaps of local support, and because it is easily one of the best beers anyone has tasted word spreads like wildfire and our Brewery becomes a tourist attraction as well. From there it is all up.

Currently I find myself writing, researching and developing a business plan under the tutelage of the Program. Michael is in Vancouver again this week, (hopefully he'll have and audition and book a another part before Christmas!) which means in addition to business planning I am the sole parent here for a week. YAY! Sarcasm, that was sarcasm. Which brings me to the point where I ask your understanding and allegiance. Please bear with me if I miss a day here and there over the next few months, keep coming back - I will not be going anywhere!

Thank you all so much for your love and support, for your readership and comments. Oh, and if you have a half million kicking around, I know just the place for you to invest it :)

Kettle Corn...Sort of.

It has been four years since there was a microwave in our home and surprisingly it really was not a very difficult adjustment to make. In fact the only thing I found myself missing was the popcorn.

I dug out the air popper that we had been given for our wedding. Air popped corn can be delicious, it is low in fat, has a fraction of the salt and none of the chemicals that are put into microwave popcorn. But it lacks that je ne sais quoi of its microwavable cousin.
It was only recently that I discovered just how remarkable popcorn over the stove can be. I have two wonderful girlfriends whose wonderful husbands make incredible popcorn over the stove. It is far quieter than air popped (which is important after putting poppets to bed)and I find it is in fact easier as well. And my house smells like a movie theatre.

Here is my recipe for Kettle Corn...sort of:

-In a large pot over high-ish heat melt 3-4 Tbls. Coconut Oil (high flashpoint and heaps of good for you stuff). 

-After a minute or two add 1/2 cup kernels. 

-K, so here for an optional treat, I will add 1/4 cup of sugar for more of a "kettle corn" kinda feel. 

-Stir well and cover. 

-Lower heat a titch. 

-Shake often until popping stops. 

-Dump into a large bowl, or leave it in the pot and just protect the surface where the pot will sit. 

-If sugar has been added, salt to taste.  If no sugar has been added I will add 1tsp. now as well as a few Tbls. melted butter. Sometimes.