Pumpkin-Spiced Kettlecorn

Fall is one of my favorite seasons mostly for the cooler temperatures and colorful changing leaves, and turkey on Thanksgiving.  My fall memories mainly consist of apple-picking with my family as a child, driving through scenic upstate New York as a college student, and baking a pumpkin cheesecake for a few Thanksgivings in a row in recent years.

I've been having a hard time lately trying to figure out what to bake this fall.  Recipes for pumpkin and cinnamon everything have been circulating the blogosphere since early September... and to be honest, I wasn't ready for it.  I'm still not.  I think my brain and body is still wondering where summer went.  It'll probably be Christmas by the time I'm ready for fall!

Certainly, I could just go with the trend, like I have done in the past but I'm realizing more and more that I want (and should) bake/cook food that I (and my family) like to eat and not just because it's popular to do so.  So, I compromised - I made popcorn.  Popcorn is supposed to be a snack but I could eat a huge bowl of it all by myself on any given night instead of having dinner.  Especially since I started popping my own on the stove top this summer, experimenting with different flavor combinations.  My favorite has always been kettlecorn - love the sweet and salty but I've also made cheese-y popcorn as well as spicy popcorn... the possibilities are endless!

This kettlecorn is lightly coated with pumpkin spice (not pumpkin) and sweetened with brown sugar - just a touch of fall in my favorite anytime snack.

Source: Adapted from Food Network's Spiced Kettlecorn - instead of cinnamon and cayenne pepper, use pumpkin spice; instead of sugar, use brown sugar.