North Pole Gift Basket & Gingerbread Popcorn

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With the holidays approaching, it’s time to think about easy gifts that you can make!  I love a themed basket, bucket or box of goodies.  It’s a great way to incorporate things that people love and a theme can tie it all together in a festive way.  Using Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix, Orville Redenbacher’s Naturals Simply Salted popcorn and Slim Jims, we’ll create an edible and fun North Pole Gift Basket with Gingerbread Popcorn!

I bought all the food items that I needed for my gift basket at Target.  While I was there, I was able to find some stockings stuffers way in advance of the big day!  I always feel like I’m a genius when I remember to do that early.  I also got seven more strands of lights for DH to put on our Christmas tree, so now you can see it from the Moon.  LOL!

I’m making this gift basket for my daughter who’s away at college.  This is a great gift for her during her exams.  It’s from the heart and the kitchen, a great combo!  I thought the perfect addition to this gift basket would be holiday themed popcorn!  Gingerbread is one of her favorite cookies so I chose that flavor for the popcorn.  It is so delicious and makes enough for her to share with her roommate (even after I eat a bunch of it).

The Recipe

Gingerbread Popcorn

JoysLife.com

Awesome, delicious flavored popcorn that will making you wish you'd quadrupled the recipe! Adapted from Taste of Home October/November 2010

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Ingredients

  

• 2 bags Orville Redenbacher’s Naturals Simply Salted popcorn
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 tbsp butter sliced
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

 

• Microwave pop two bags of Orville Redenbacher’s Naturals Simply Salted popcorn. Pour into a large metal bowl. Remove any unpopped kernels. Butter the sides of a medium sized pot. Add everything except baking soda and vanilla. Bring ingredients to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. After the ingredients are boiling, let it continue to boil for 5 minutes without stirring.
• After boiling for 5 minutes, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda. The baking soda will cause the mixture to foam up a bit. After it gets foamy, pour it over the popcorn and mix until the popcorn is covered with the mixture.
• Spread popcorn into to large greased baking pans. Bake at 250° for 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from pans and place on parchment paper to cool. If you can keep from eating it all right away, store what’s left in an airtight container or tightly closed plastic bag.

The Holiday Print and Cuts

What goes with gingerbread popcorn?  A gingerbread man!  I created the gingerbread man and the snowman using Lettering Delights Holiday Hugs graphics and cut set files.  The North Pole comes from the Christmas Express graphics and cut files.  I imported those into my Silhouette software sizing the snowman at: 10″ x 10.1″ the gingerbread man at: 8.6″ x 10.1″ and the North Pole at: 8″ x 4″.

These can be printed on your printer and then cut out by hand or by using a die cut machine.  I’m using the Silhouette Cameo.  After I had everything printed and cut, I used a hot glue gun to attach craft sticks to the backs of my printed cuts.  The sticks gave them stability in the bucket.  I used Craft Glue Dots to attach Slim Jims around the base of the bucket.

Awww, the gingerbread man is so proud of his popcorn!  I added a few buttons to the outside of the package using Craft Glue Dots.

The snowman loves his Swiss Miss!  Isn’t it nice how it says, “Create the Moment” on it?  I really like that.

The North Pole is complete with a Slim Jim!  I added small bags of the Gingerbread Popcorn so they could be shared.  Each bag is tied with red and white striped twine.  Stuff the base of your container with more popcorn, hot cocoa and beef jerky and use crinkled paper to fill in any gaps!  I bought my crinkly paper in the dollar area of Target.

Let me know if you can stop eating that yummy popcorn long enough to give some away!  By the way, this was my first time to try the Orville Redenbacher’s Naturals Simply Salted popcorn.  It’s now my very favorite microwave popcorn.  If you haven’t tried it, you should!

Happy Holidays!