Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Mother Goose Popcorn

Sunday Evenings during my childhood often included watching the Wonderful World of Disney. This was before the age of videos or DVDs and if you wanted to see a Disney movie you had to either go to the movie theater or watch The Wonderful World or Disney on TV. The movies were usually 2 hours long and we had to wait a whole week to see the second hour.

Our Sunday Disney viewing often included a delicious bowl of homemade Mother Goose Popcorn.

I have very fond memories of helping make this favorite treat. Mother Goose popcorn is made by combining 2 cups of sugar and 1/2 a cup of canned milk in a saucepan and then cooking it until it reaches the soft ball stage. It's readiness was always tested by filling a small measuring cup with cold water and then dropping a blob of the syrup off the spoon and into the water. The blob was then pushed with the finger and if it formed into a ball it was done. If it just disintegrated it had to cook longer. I didn't like it when that happened. Licking the tiny drop off my finger, after it was tested, was one of my favorite parts of the cooking process. It was also exciting when I was chosen to select the color of the popcorn for the evening and I loved to add the food coloring a drop at a time and watch my chosen hue appear.


When my kids were young we use to make Mother Goose Popcorn every now and then, but it has probably been years since I have made it. Recently the youngest son has been asking me to make him some and today while I was grocery shopping I received a text request from him with a please attached. Since I was at the store and could buy some popcorn and canned milk I was a nice mom and said OK.

He popped the popcorn and entertained while I made the syrup.


I even let him choose the color.


Which was supposed to be purple, but ended up more pink.

Unfortunately, after he watched me make it he deemed the stuff unhealthy and severely limited his intake. Unhealthy or not I thoroughly enjoyed my tasty trip down memory lane today.

1 comment:

Jessica said...

Be sure to invite me next time you make this. I was wanting some the other day, and when I tried to explain what it was to Trevor he looked at me like I was crazy or something.