Taraweeh Wknd #3

Topic of the Day: Caramel Marshmallow Popcorn!

I wanted to try to make 4 different desserts this Ramadan but alas I've only ended up with 3 sweet treats. The first weekend I had made cupcakes, the second sugar cookies, the third weekend I went out of state to visit my sister in PA, sooo this past weekend was the last time I could make sweets for Taraweeh! I decided to make Caramel Marshmallow Popcorn, with a step by step recipe I grabbed from Pinterest. Sigh, I love that website. *daydreams* It was quite a trip getting all the ingredients though because we had to get halal (similar to kosher) marshmallows and I only know of one place that sells them.. down in Silver Spring at a store called Indus Food. It's the best. My mother has been taking me there since I was a small child.

I took my sister and my three youngest cousins with me as sort of a day trip to pass the time. :)

Of course I can never bake or cook without SOMETHING going wrong. This time I burned the second batch of popcorn I was making. I got so distracted wrapping up the first batch in the goodie bags by the time I realized the popcorn was way past popping the room had filled with smoke and that icky burnt stench. My mother took the pot outside onto the driveway.. We opened all the windows and doors and sprayed air freshener but the house still smells stinky. My mother decided SHE'LL make the second (actually third) batch of popcorn. We accidentally put in two cups of kernel popcorn and this is what happened:

 
"It's a'splodin!" As my nephew would say. :)

While the popcorn was a poppin' we moved onto making the syrup. I used half a cup brown sugar and a full stick of butter for each batch that I made. My little cousin Hopscotch was the stirrer! She did a great job mixing it together. We popped the bowl into the microwave and heated it up in 2 minute intervals. Then we added 10-11 marshmallows. Lemme just say it's very hard not licking your finger, smelling the wondrous delicious aroma wafting in the kitchen as we baked/cooked whilst fasting.

The syrup looked super dark brown and we kept mixing and staring at it wondering why the syrup in the picture on pinterest looked to be so light colored and the one we had going looked like poo. Then we realized oh hey, we need to add marshmallows, lol.

The End Result:

This prayer is called Khutmai Quran. When they finish the last few pages of reading the Quran that night. They have a dua (a prayer to God in which the imam [muslim version of priest] wishes for peace and the forgiveness of everyone's sins, etc.). The prayer does tend to be long but this year it was very long! I looked at the time before we started and when we finished. Twenty-seven minutes of standing! Whew. It's all good though and most definitely worth it in the end of course!

After prayer we shuffled outside and I began to hand out the popcorn treats. Side note - one huge pet peeve of mine are greedy people. I see this happening everywhere but I guess I expected it to be less at a holy place of worship. As I handed out the treats many people (children and adults) grabbed multiple bags without even a word of thankyou or a smiling glance. I mean that's not why I make these treats, I make them for fun and enjoyment but it is slightly off-putting to see greedy people snatching them right before someone else is calmly reaching for one. It's called manners. Set a good example for your children! :)