Leprechaun Popcorn Treat

My favorite treat as of late is popcorn, sweet or salty, it does not matter. A little something to snack on while working on chores or watching a movie, it is just perfect.

Today I am sharing our Leprechaun Popcorn. It requires three ingredients but you can add anything you would like to help sweeten the pot.

Yum!

Items needed:

Cookie sheet

Tin foil {heavy duty would be best}

Cooking spray or butter

Small pot

Whisk

12 Cups popped popcorn {about 1/2 unpopped}

3 oz Lime Jell-o

14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1/2 bag of Mini M&M's

Place the tin foil on the cookie sheet being sure to cover the entire sheet and even fold over the edges. This will help keep the tin foil in place. Spray the entire sheet with a generous amount of cooking spray. You will be thankful you did later on when it is time to remove the popcorn. Trust me!

Pop the popcorn. Measure out 12 Cups making sure to leave behind any kernels that did not pop. No body likes to bit into a yummy treat and chomp down on a kernel. Ouch.

Place on the cookie sheet, put it in the oven and heat to 300˚. This will help keep the popcorn warm so when it is time to add the Jell-o mix, it will spread easier over the warm popcorn.

Mix the Jell-o and sweetened condensed milk on medium heat 4-5 minutes, stirring with a whisk. Stir the whole time because it has a tendency to burn on the bottom. My mix never boils but it does become a little thicker as it heats on the stove.

Remove the cookie sheet of popcorn from the oven and pour the Jell-o mix over it. Use a plastic spatula {I even put some cooking spray on that to help keep the mixture from sticking} to evenly mix. 

Bake at 300˚ for 20 minutes, stirring ever 5 minutes. This helps to keep the stuff on top from burning since it will all be rotated. Also make sure that you do not have high peaks of popcorn from stirring, those will burn pretty fast.

Remove from the oven after 20 minutes and let it cool. After it has cooled add the mini M&M's or bite size candy of choice. Then break apart into individual servings or place the whole thing in a bowl and enjoy! Store extra in an air tight container.

A couple for movie night

Tip: If you want a little salty mixed in with your treat you could try using lightly butter and salted microwave popcorn.

Hint: I like my Leprechaun Popcorn to be a bit chewy so cooking at a medium temperature and baking for only 20 minutes will help keep it soft. If you would like it to be more crunchy try cooking the Jell-o mix at a little higher temp or baking it an extra five minutes.

Some for the neighbors

Download a pdf of the recipe here.

Do not forget to enter the Spring Birthday Wish Giveaway. Ends midnight {est} the March 20th.

Hunter's Fight

Digital Download Fundraiser!

My husbands cousin, Hunter, is a young man {14 years old} who loves his family and being a brother to an older and younger sister and one younger brother. He is very spirited and enjoys to play games and play jokes on people. At eighteen months old his Dr.'s diagnosed him with Cystic Fibrosis Pancreatitis, that causes him daily pain. He had to have a Total Pancreatectomy with Auto Islet Transplant, in short, that means a full day of surgeries. Check out his page on FaceBook to read more about his story.

Hunter and his mom have been in Minnesota for over a month while Hunter had surgery and has been recovering. It has been a long road to recover, others have come and gone for the same surgery, meanwhile, he has had multiple other surgeries do to complications. The surgery takes a year to recover and the family needs to raise money for medical expenses.

Hunters' family is at home in Utah doing what they can to help lift some of the financial burden for Hunters parents. Because we are in Connecticut we haven't been able to participate in the fundraiser dinners, benefit concerts or other activities so I have come up with another way for us to help. For St. Patrick's Day I have designed cupcake toppers that you can purchase, and the money from this will go toward Hunters medical bills. I love these little tags because they can be used for so many different things: cupcakes, party favors, cards, scrapbook/memory albums, etc, the list goes on.

Just go to my Donations tab, choose which set of tags you want, enter your donation amount then checkout. You will be emailed the tags as an instant download. Come back to check out the Easter tags that will be available for Hunters fight.

St. Paddy's Day Pillow

The truth: the pillow form tutorial came about because I already had a purpose for it, my St. Paddy's Day Pillow. NOW I can create as many covers as I want and just switch them out.

This Tutorial is two-fold today. First is the pillow cover design and tutorial and second is the image transfer. 

Pillow cover

Items needed:

Material of your choice

Flannel

Felt: Green and Fuchsia {one of each}

Text and Shamrock transferred onto material {transfer using nail polish remover}

Thread to match material {or felt}

Pins

First thing is first, everything needs to be cut out.

Material for pillow cover: One {1} piece: 15 1/2" {inches} x 10 1/2" {inches}

Two {2} pieces: 10 1/2" x 10 1/2"

Fuchsia Felt: One {1} piece: 2" x 9"

Image Transfers and Flannel: Place the transfer imaged material on top of flannel then cut out, this will help ensure that the pieces are cut to the same size. For mine I cut the material to leave 1/2" around the text and image. Making my pieces approx.:

'Lucky' 2 5/8" x 7 1/2",

'IN' 2 5/8" x 1 3/4",

Shamrock 4 1/2" x 4 7/8"

L V E letters: You can find a font you like, print them out then use that as a stancil to cut the letters out of the felt. I wanted very simple letters and it was faster for me to come up with my own then look through a bunch of fonts. Each letter is approx.: 2 1/2" x 4"

On the front piece of the pillow cover lay down the cut outs how you would best like.

*Remember that you will loose 1/4" on each side for seem allowance.

Pin down 'Lucky,' the fuchsia felt piece, 'IN' and the shamrock. I wanted the thread to match my pillow case colour and like how it stands out against the felt pieces. Sew approx 1/8" from the edges. Go around 'Lucky' and the shamrock. Sew a square on the top and bottom of the fuchsia felt and then around 'IN.'

*When the edges of the material start to fray, the flannel placed under the material with the transfers will fray as well and make it look more full instead of scraggly.

Now place and pin the L, V and E.

*Remember that when you need to pivot on a corner, leave the needle down before you lift the foot, this will help keep everything in place and lined up.

{Can you spot my mistake? I hate having to redo something because of simple mistakes. Argh! However, because of the mistake I figured a better order to attach the pieces on the cover, so the pictures are just a smidgen off of the tutorial.}

For the two back pieces, along one edge fold a crease at 3/4" and then at 1 3/4" so the material will fold in on the wrong side {just like your pant hem}. Fold twice on the creases and sew hem down. I sewed mine at 7/8" so it would be close to the fold on the inside.

Lay the front piece of the pillow case cover right side up. Place the back pieces right side down so that the hems are in the center and over lap while the edges match up with the front piece. Pin all the pieces together and sew with a 1/4' seem. When you get all the way back to where you started, lift the sewing foot and move the pillow case over slightly so that you can go around the pillow case using the zig-zag stitch.

*With the pieces over lapping in the back and the pillow being a bit longer for how short it is, there is no need for ties or buttons in the back. It will stay closed really well on it's own.

With the opening in the back be sure to sew all the way around the pillow case. Turn the pillow case right side out and make sure the corners are pushed out. Now stuff your pillow in there and watch your own handy work bring a bit of seasonal cheer to your room

My little girl loves it too! It's just the perfect size for her.

Get Creating!

~Mindy