Secret Recipe Club: NY Giants & Jets Popcorn Party Mix

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was filled with sleeping in, hitting the gym and hanging out with my sister who is home for Thanksgiving. I'm ready for a short holiday week ahead, how about you?!

This is my first month participating in the Secret Recipe Club and I was completely thrilled when I got The Yummy Life as my blog for this round. I love Monica's blog because her recipes look simply fantastic and she is extremely thorough with her recipe instructions. I love that when trying new dishes! When I saw her recipe for Red Hot Popcorn Party Mix, I knew I had to give it a try.

Not only does the recipe look fantastic, but Monica is clearly a girl after my own heart in that she creates food based on her favorite sports team! Though she created this popcorn in honor of the World Series-winning St. Louis Cardinals, I adapted it just a bit to follow my own favorite sports team...the New York Giants!

And since we're a two team household (with Shaun rooting for the Jets), I thought it was only fair to make a batch honoring the Jets as well.

I really only adapted a couple of things from the original recipe. First of all, I didn't use Red Hots because I am not really into the hot cinnamon flavor. Instead, I used pretzel M&M's for a more sweet & salty flavor. I also need more colors than just red, and the M&M's made this easy peasy.

NY Giants & Jets Popcorn Party Mix
*Adapted from The Yummy Life
8 cups popped corn (I use air-popped without oil or salt)
1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts
1 bag pretzel M&M's for your colors of choice (I used a holiday bag for red & green, and a regular bag for the blue)
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 tsp canola oil
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
decorating sprinkles (red/white/blue/green coarse sugar, nonpareils, or similar)

Pop your popcorn. I have a fresh popcorn machine, but you can easily make fresh popcorn on the stovetop or in the microwave. Lay out the popcorn on a large baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Pour on half of the peanuts, sprinkles and M&M's. (At this junction, I just did one half with the red and blue M&M's and sprinkles, and the other half with green and white to delineate Giants and Jets). Mix the white chocolate and oil together and melt in the microwave...but don't overmelt it!

Drizzle the white chocolate evenly over the popcorn and immediately top with the sea salt and remaining M&M's, peanuts and sprinkles. Let harden completely and break up. Serve in bowls or individual baking cups.

Don't you want to just eat that up?! We did!

So there you have it. My little twist on The Yummy Life's Red Hot Popcorn Party Mix. I love this whole idea and just think it's so fun! Thanks Monica for this great recipe!

Questions of the Day:

Have you ever made sports-themed food?

What did you do this weekend?

Jets Party + Green Velvet Cake Fail

On Saturday, Shaun and I had a little party to watching the Jets clinch it over the Colts. Nothing like good friends and good food on a Saturday night!

I love playing host to our friends. I go a little overboard with cooking and baking, but I don’t think they mind!

If you follow me on Twitter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook, you may have noticed that I attempted to make a Jets-themed cake to mark the occasion. And since I’m the farthest thing from a cake decorator, I came up with an idea to make a green cake. You know, to chicly say that we are rooting for the Jets, but without hanging football-theme crepe paper all over our apartment (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But this couldn’t be just any green cake. I’m talking bright, rich, deep, bold green that would have all of our guests (and most importantly my husband) ooohing and aaaahing at my creativity and baking prowess. You know, as I’d simply toss my hair over my shoulder and proclaim how it was nothing.

In hindsight, the smart thing to do would have been to simply make a vanilla cake and add a boatload of green food coloring. But because I had to be oh-so-fancy-schmancy, I decided that it was necessary to take it a step further. Plain ol’ vanilla cake wouldn’t do. It had to be green velvet.

Sounds simple enough, right? Take a red velvet cake recipe and substitute the red for green. Oh if only that were the case my friends.

Ingredients are mixed.

It’s bright, vibrant green; Jets green! {I do a happy dance in celebration that I have conquered this seemingly elusive cake}

I even completely ignore the fact that the 1.5 bottles of food coloring revolted and semi-permanently stained my fingers. Both hands. Front and back.

I had bright green cake! Who cares about my fingers?!

Unfortunately, I happy danced too soon. The moment the cakes came out of the oven, I knew that something went awry.

That vibrant green was nowhere to be found. Instead, I was left with a mossy exterior that couldn’t look more unappetizing. I iced it up anyway and served it to my guest with warnings.

 

Though I hoped that the inside was salvaged, no luck. I served my wonderful guests mossy green cake. Luckily I have great friends and they ate it with a smile. Luckily, the cake still tasted delicious. Even though it looked fairly hideous.

Don't judge this book by its cover. If it wasn't tinted green, I'd think this was a moist, flavorful and overall yumtastic cake. Unfortunately I'm too embarassed to send the leftovers with Shaun to work. I have a rep to protect.

And to further my plight, I still have green food coloring outlining my nail beds, despite a thick coat of nail polish.

So there you have it. One of my most disappointing kitchen fails to date. So what do you think? Have you ever had a fun idea that turned into a big fail?