How Sweet It Is {Carina @ A Punk, A Pumpkin & A Peanut}

Happy Thursday my friends!
What do you think of the new banner up top?
(Be honest because I'm not that great at design & I can easily go back to the old one... it's just that I widened the blog and the banner didn't fit anymore. So I'm seriously looking for some feedback here. I asked Hunter and he said: "uh...yeah. I like it.")
Aaaaaaaanyway.
It's LOVE story time!!
Ya'll entered the giveaway yesterday right? If didn't, GO! Carina is giving away store credit to her fab shop!
Then come straight back and fall in love with Carina.
She is darling and genuine and so funny. You will love her blog.
Now I will let her get to it and tell us about her sweet mama.

When Ashley asked me to share a story about someone I love and a dessert we share,

so many people came to mind.
I could tell you about my husband, but we don't discriminate when it comes to sweets.
We eat it all.
With my dad, it's chocolate peanut butter ice cream.
My sister: a skillet cookie warm from the oven.
My grandparents: vanilla ice cream with strawberries on top.
My kids: currently, lollipops. Or donuts.

But none of those involve recipes in my arsenal or even require one, in fact.
No, the person I thought of, someone dear to my heart: my mom.

My mom is an amazing lady: filled with love for her family, a giver, super crafty, smart,

a good listener, an encourager, a fellow night owl and reality tv extraordinaire, and one of my favorite people on earth.

Some of my favorite memories growing up include fun nights at home with my mom.

She made everything special - birthdays and skipping school and staying up late to watch movies.

And when we watched movies, we had to have her caramel popcorn.

I remember watching her pull out the air popper, mix up the ingredients and cover the popcorn in caramel.

And then the torture of waiting for it to cool before filling our bowls.

Maybe sneaking a bite or two while it was still hot and gooey.

And now, every time I make caramel corn (which is way too often), I think of those super fun nights at home with her.
The recipe is as easy as it gets, and simple to make gluten free and vegan with the right margarine.

Microwave Caramel Corn

8 cups popped popcorn
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine butter, corn syrup, sugar and salt in a glass bowl.
Microwave for 90 seconds and stir.
Microwave for another two minutes.
Add in baking soda and vanilla, stir well and pour over popcorn.
Stir to coat, microwave for one minute, stir again, microwave for another minute.
Turn out onto wax paper to cool.

Pop in a movie, fill up a bowl or two, and enjoy.

Happy month of love to you all! Hope you can find someone special - a kid, a spouse, a parent or grandparent, a dear friend, a sibling - to share a sweet treat and a sweet moment with.

Thanks for having me, Ashley!

No, thank you Carina!

Ps- all you have to do is use Earth Balance or another vegan butter and this fab caramel corn is gluten free & vegan :) Yuuuuuuuum!