Caramel Corn

When I was growing up, there were several nights when my mom didn't want to cook. Sometimes as a mom or dad, dinner is just too much after a long day at work or dealing with tantrums: That's when you deem it Dumb Dinner Night. Some weeks were full of dumb dinner nights more than others, but regardless of how often we had them, dumb dinner nights saved us sometimes. While it sounds—well, dumb—dumb dinner nights give you a great chance to kick back a bit and spend some laid back quality time with your family. You should have several dumb dinner night ideas in your dumb dinner arsenal, and they don't necessarily need to be healthy.

Something that should be in your dumb dinner recipe stash is caramel corn. Here are the ingredients that you will need:

• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 stick of butter
• 2-1/4 cups of brown sugar
• 1 cup of corn syrup
• Dash of salt

Caramel corn is one of the easiest and most tasty things you could make. All you have to do bring all of the ingredients, except the condensed milk, to a boil in a medium sized saucepan. After the mixture has boiled, then slowly pour in the sweetened condensed milk. And I need to re-emphasize that the condensed milk needs to be poured in slowly, gradually, without haste. While you're pouring the sweetened condensed milk into the brown sugar mixture, keep stirring the contents of the saucepan. The caramel needs to cook for a few more minutes, but how do you know it is finished? In order for you to check and see if the caramel is finished cooking, then you need to take the spoon or spatula and drip some of the caramel into some ice water (that you put together beforehand, of course). If the caramel solidifies quickly and forms a ball in the ice water, then the caramel is ready!

Pop some corn, and don't use microwave popcorn. Pop real popcorn in a popper and put it into a large bowl. Make enough corn to fill a large Tupperware bowl. Once your caramel is done, pour it slowly and evenly over the popcorn, stirring the caramel in with a large spoon as you go. Make sure that the caramel is evenly distributed over all the popcorn. Now you're ready to enjoy!

So, go downstairs, turn on a movie, and dish out the popcorn. Dumb dinner night is another success!