I just found out that today, January 19, is National Popcorn Day.  Huzzah!  What a great activity to celebrate with grandchildren.

Did you know that Americans consume 16 billion quarts a year?  That equals about 51 quarts per person.  (I know that I eat my fair share. It’s a rough job but somebody’s got to do it . . . )

When our daughter was in grade school, she did a science project about which popped better — popcorn kept in the fridge or popcorn at room temperature.  In her highly scientific research, she found that popcorn kept in the fridge popped best.  Since, then, we have kept our popcorn in the fridge.

I have since learned that popcorn needs about 14% moisture to pop.  Maybe condensation in the fridge gave it more moisture than just sitting on the pantry shelf.

Popcorn.org has some terrific popcorn recipes:

• English Toffee Popcorn Bars
• Nutty Chocolate Caramel Corn Clusters
• Poppy Chow
• Popcorn S’mores
• Peanut Butter Popcorn Squares
• Caramel Almond Popcorn Clusters
• Caramel Nut Popcorn Crunch
• Sweet and Smokey Almond Popcorn

In fact, they have a 142-page recipe book stuffed with wonderful recipes.  You might want to download it.

So, grab a grandchild. Make some yummy popcorn. And watch a movie — even if it is a school night!

Quick, quick, quick. Grab a pen and mark your calendar!

January 23 is National Pie Day. Whoop, whoop!

I want to give you a wee bit of background before I get to my post for today. My family prefers pies over cakes.  (I’m not sure if they don’t like the recipe or they don’t like the way I made the cake . . .)

For years, I’ve told my husband that making a pumpkin pie for him is a sign of true love.  I think pumpkin pies are pukey pies so I never eat any.  I don’t even lick the bowl when I make them.  So, I get absolutely nothing out of making pumpkin pies.  It’s all for him.

Now. For today’s post.

When I found out that January 23 was National Pie Day, I knew that I had to share some ideas of activities that you can do with your grandchildren to celebrate this wonderful national day. Here they are.

Make a pie. First and foremost, spend time making pies with your grandchildren.  This is a good opportunity to teach them how.  You might want to start with a simple pie like my Cream Cheese Pie or the variation on the Cream Cheese Pie that I’ve shared before with you. Both are simple to make and yummy to eat.  Grandchildren will feel like a successful pie maker when you make these pies with them.

Here are some other easy pies that you might want to try with your grandchildren:

• No Bake Peanut Butter Pie
• Fluffy Orange Pie
• Oreo Pie
• S’more Pie
• Chocolate Crunch Mud Pie
• Frosty Freezer Pie
• Mississippi Mud Pie

Here’s a really easy ice cream pie recipe.  Soften ½ gallon of vanilla ice cream and mix in ¼ cup of your favorite frozen drink concentrate like orange juice, limeade, or pink lemonade. Pour into a graham cracker crust and freeze for a couple of hours.

Share a pie. Make a pie with your grandchildren and then share it with another family.

Have a pie night. If you have several grandchildren that live nearby, have them each make a pie. Then, on January 23, they take their pie to your house and share it.  You could even have a ‘taste off’ and vote which one tastes the best.

Have a pie eating contest. With your grandchildren, make mini cream pies. Then have a contest and see who can eat one the fastest.  Give a prize to the winner.

If your grandchildren live far away, mail them the ingredients for a pie (or send them the money to get the ingredients). Have them make the pie. Then, get on Skype so you can see how successful their pie turned out.

Whatever you do, just be sure that you do SOMETHING.  This is too good of a national day to miss celebrating with your grandchildren.

Treats.

Isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?  Making and eating and eating and eating treats and goodies?  I thought so.

And, I’m all for easy — treats that are easy to make and easy to eat. (Is there any treat that ISN’T easy to eat? Mmmm?)

Dipped pretzels fits the easy category — especially the easy eating one.  When I stumbled upon the caramel covered pretzel sticks, I knew immediately that this was a keeper.

Here’s the link to the caramel dipped pretzel rods. This site has a step-by-step tutorial and great pictures so you know exactly how to make them.

This are easy to make with grandchildren.  They would be a fun treat for them to make and give to their friends.

If your grandchildren live far away, this would be something that would be light-weight to mail and survive the jostling.  (It might be a tad late to get them in the mail for this Christmas.  But you can tuck this idea away for next year, can’t you?)

Making some of these could be part of your family activities when they get together on Christmas Eve.

Enjoy!

My husband and I spent the weekend in Salt Lake City. We did quite a bit of walking and it was chilly.

Chilly? Chilly? Who am I kidding? It was downright freezing cold.

It made me wish that we had some wassail to drink when we got back to the condo.

I have a wassail recipe that I want to share with you.  It is way easy to make — especially with grandchildren.

Wassail

2 cups Tang
1 3-oz. package pre-sweetened powdered lemonade Kool-Aid
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.  Mix well. Store in an airtight container.  When you want a drink, simply mix 2-3 teaspoons of the mix in one cup of hot water.

See?  I told you it was easy.

Your grandchild could give some of the wassail mix to a friend along with a fun mug.  Put the mix in a Ziplock bag and put the bag in the mug and wrap the mug in clear cellophane paper and add a bow.

Maybe you ought to double the recipe so that you can mix up some and drink with your grandchild when you are finished.

Yum!  Warm, cozy, and tasty.