WITCHES HATS, FALL ACORNS, AND POPCORN BALLS

I love making popcorn balls and other treats that kids are not expecting!  See below for the instructions to make WITCHES HATS, Carla Hall's recipe for FALL ACORNS and my mother's recipe for POPCORN BALLS.

WITCHES HATS::   take fudge striped cookies; turn upside down;  add orange icing;  top with a Hershey's Kiss.

How cute is this?

Fall Acorns Recipe by Carla Hall - The Chew
These adorable acorns are a perfect Halloween snack!
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Popcorn ball making was a big family event when we were kids.  My brother Kenny was certainly the most creative:  for the Halloween popcorn balls he added M &  M candies, candy corn, and food colors to the recipe.  For Christmas, he added red and green food colors.  The recipe calls for "wrapping";  ours seldom needed wrapping!  My mother's recipe:

GLADYS SHIRKEY'S POPCORN BALLS:

3 quarts popped corn
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light Karo (You can use ONLY KARO, folks!)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Pop the popcorn;  spread on baking sheet.
Combine sugar, Karo, butter, and salt in heavy saucepan.  Over medium heat and stirring constantly, bring to a boil.  Boil 2 minutes while continuing to stir constantly.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla and baking soda (this bubbling will shock first-time makers!)  Pour syrup over popcorn.  Butter your hands (or put on plastic gloves which you spray with cooking spray, we learned years later after many burns!).  Shape into balls.  Wrap in plastic.  This recipe makes about 12 3-inch balls.