Caramel Popcorn

Because I'm sure you need another sweet treat to help with your New Year's Resolutions and because I needed to move another recipe over from WordPress, here's my post for today! :)

It doesn't actually taste like caramel, just so you know.  It's sweet and delicious, though!  Scott found this recipe on ehow.com.

Ingredients

• 3 Quarts Popped Popcorn
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup Karo light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• Large mixing bowl
• Sauce pan

1. Pop the popcorn.  Seperate popped kernels from any unpopped ones.  Salt lightly. (I just realized as I was typing this, that I didn't salt my popped popcorn.  It's still good.  So we can say that the salt here is optional.  Also, we have a popcorn popper that is just a hot air popper.  I used 8 tablespoons of unpopped kernels to make approximately 3 quarts of popcorn.)
2. Prepare an area to receive the hot coated popcorn.  Layout approximately 24" x 24" area of wax paper.  Butter thoroughly to prevent the caramel from sticking.  (I sprayed my wax paper liberally with Pam.  That worked well.)
3. In a medium sauce pan, combine brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly.  Stop stirring.  Boil for 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.  The mixture will become foamy.  Stirl until the baking soda is completely dissolved.  (Medium heat was taking too long for me.  The dial on my oven is low, 2, 3, 4, medium, 6, 7, 8, high.  I moved my dial to 7 because it was taking a life time to boil on medium.)
4. Pour mixture over popcorn.  Stir until popcorn is completely coated.  Pour the caramel corn onto the waxed paper.  Allow to cool completely before packing.  (But feel free to sample while it cools because it's really yummy warm!)