Easy (and cheap) Wine Punch

So on Friday night, I hosted Bunco for a great group of girls.  Once a month we get together and throw the dice in hopes for winning some money at the end of the night.  More often than not, I go home in the hole.  But that's OK...  I have fun...  Our group has been playing for 3 years now and we have a great time each month.  The hostess provides the drinks, so I made hot chocolate (see other post) and wine punch.  The wine punch is easy to make and everyone likes it...besides it's cheap, too!

Doesn't get much cheaper than Strawberry Hill!

Easy Wine Punch

1 bottle Boone's Farm Wine (OK, I know it's not really wine, but it makes it sound classy)
1 container frozen juice concentrate, thawed
7-Up or Sprite

Mix the "wine" and the juice concentrate together.  Pour into a gallon Ziploc type bag and place in the freezer. 

When ready to serve, fill a cup with the "wine" slush (about 3/4 full) and top with 7-Up.  Enjoy~

You can use any kind of flavor combinations.  Boone's Farm comes in lots of flavors, as does juice concentrate.  I usually use 5-Alive, but be creative and enjoy!  This is really good on a hot day...or on a cold day...or a warm day...or... well, you get the picture!  :)

For Denise: Caramel Popcorn

Last month, I took a double batch of Caramel Popcorn to share with my Bunco group.  At the end of the night, there was still a lot of Caramel Popcorn left, so I sent the leftovers home with my friend Denise.  Her children were coming home from college and I knew the popcorn would be gone in a flash!

Denise and her beautiful family



 

Over the holiday's, I made 3 or 4 double batches of Caramel Popcorn...and it was all gone in a flash.  It's great to snack on, and fairly easy to make.  One thing you do need is a good candy thermometer.  The recipe that I use is out of my tried and true, red plaid cookbook, "Better Homes and Gardens:  New Cookbook."  I've altered the recipe just a bit (some of you are NOT surprised...I alter most recipes!)









This is what my cookbook looks like



The alteration that I made to the recipe was to add more popcorn.  I didn't want each piece of popcorn covered in caramel, so with more popcorn, a lot of the pieces just get a drizzle of the caramel instead of a bath.  If you like more caramel, feel free to decrease the amount of popped corn!  This is a double recipe and makes a lot.  Feel free to half it if you'd like!  You can also add dry roasted peanuts to the popcorn before drizzling on the hot caramel.

Carmel Popcorn

16-18 cups popped popcorn



1-1/2 c. packed brown sugar

2/3 c. butter

6 T. light corn syrup

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. vanilla

Remove all unpopped kernels from popped corn (or else you'll break a tooth!)  Place popcorn in 2 greased 9x14 inch pans.



In a heavy 3 quart sauce pan,   (You can use a smaller pan, but I like a bigger one because I'm afraid the hot caramel is going to slop out on me in a smaller pan...so use what you'd like!)  melt the butter and combine the corn syrup and brown sugar.  Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture starts to boil.  clip a candy thermometer on the side of the saucepan.  Cook and stir until 255*, hard-ball stage.  The cookbook says that it takes 4 minutes, but it ALWAYS takes me longer.



After the caramel reaches 255*, remove the saucepan from the heat.  Stir in baking soda and vanilla.  This will foam and bubble a bit.  Stir until well combined.  Pour half of the caramel into each of the pans with the popcorn.  I pour the caramel slowly for 2 reasons:  1 I don't want to burn myself...it's HOT! and 2, I've found it's easier to drizzle the caramel on the popcorn...more popcorn gets covered!  Stir the popcorn to coat. 



Bake in a 300* oven for 5 minutes.  Stir and bake 5 minutes longer.  Remove and let cool.  You can break the popcorn into small chunks or leave it in larger chunks...whatever and however you like it!



This is what my mum's cookbook looks like



Enjoy~





Pepperoni Dip

This past Friday was Bunco Night.  I play Bunco once a month with 11 other friends.  We get together, laugh, talk, de-stress, gossip, eat great food and even play Bunco!  I was lucky on Friday and walked away with $15 at the end of the night!  If you don't know what Bunco is, don't check out the Wikipedia site.  We are NOT middle-aged suburban women playing a dice game!  Instead, check out this site.  Here's another Bunco site with a lot of items for sale. 

On Friday, I brought Pepperoni Dip to share with my friends.  It's my sister-in-law, Kelly's recipe.  And of course, I changed the recipe up a little bit. 


Pepperoni Dip

2 packages of pepperoni slices, finely diced (I used Turkey pepperoni)
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature (I used neufchatel cheese)
1/3 c. mayonnaise (I used reduced fat)
1/3 c. plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 onion, finely diced
1/2 green pepper, finely diced
1/2 red pepper, finely diced


 Mix the cream cheese, mayonnaise and yogurt together.  Add the diced pepperoni, garlic, onion, green and red pepper.  Mix well.  Spoon into a 9x9 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 305 for 20-30 minutes until it's bubbly.  


Serve with chips, cocktail bread, crackers, pretzels, etc.  I used Stacy's Pita Chips. 

I used my Cuisinart Food Processor to dice the ingredients.  It worked like a charm.  The only thing was I diced the green pepper a little too fine.  It was almost mush, but it still worked.  Next time, I'll decrease the time in the food processor for the green pepper. 

Here is my friend Linda.  She was looking at one of Mandy's cookbooks.  Linda had this cookbook when she was growing up.  She was telling us about "Candle Salad," a recipe found in the book.  Mandy swears she'll make Candle Salad for our next Bunco night.  You'll have to make sure you check back for the recipe and pictures.  It'll knock your socks off.  :)