--Team Popcorn Chef
We will be taking an indefinite hiatus as of December 31, 2013. All scheduled parties and holiday orders will be processed through that date. Thanks to each one of you for the brilliant ride we've enjoyed over the past 8+ years!
--Team Popcorn Chef
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First we tried a contest, but our team couldn't agree on a submission that popped (had to do that!). We ended up using the prize money to contract a redesign, then placed the options on our Facebook page for fan feedback. The end result is shown, and was chosen because we felt it best conveyed our upscale gourmet offerings while maintaining a crisp, clean, and approachable feel. What say you? We asked our team to come up with some new recipes for the 2014 year. They're still working it and will produce at least three (each) savoury and sweet options from which to choose. On our Facebook page, we decided to cheekily tweak them a bit with a recipe sent to us a while back by a customer requesting a special order. It's Snickers Caramel Popcorn, and originally showed up at Sweet Pea's Kitchen.
Popcorn Chef is looking for their next great logo, and we want to include you! Winner will receive:
All you have to do to enter is: -Design a Popcorn Chef logo which effectively captures the nature of our gourmet popcorn business. Submit as many designs as you’d like, and use whatever colors you’d like, but please keep the colors to a minimum. Get creative! -Be sure to include your signature within your logo, so everyone knows it’s your design! -Submit your work to info(at)popcornchef.com -Follow @thepopcornchef on Twitter and tweet “I just entered to win a free t-shirt with my logo design for @thepopcornchef OR -”Like” us on Facebook and write “I just entered to win a free t-shirt with my logo design for Popcorn Chef! Good luck, and happy designing! Contest ends at midnight September 1. Winner will be notified via email and/or our social networks by September 4. Chosen design(s) become the property of Popcorn Chef LLC to be used in various promotional material, website, social sites, etc. We had a great time at this year's event. Enjoy some of the photos... 5-6 slices of bacon Nonstick cooking spray 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1/2 cup popcorn kernels 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 3 cups white granulated sugar 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 teaspoons fine sea salt 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and lay bacon side-by-side. Transfer baking sheet to hot oven and cook bacon for 15 minutes, and until crispy and brown. Remove and place on paper towels to drain. When cool, cut into dice-sized pieces. 2. Lightly coat two large heatproof rubber spatulas and a large mixing bowl with nonstick cooking spray. In a large saucepan or pot with a lid, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the popcorn kernels, cover, and keep the saucepan moving until all of the kernels have popped, about 4 minutes. Transfer the popped popcorn to the large prepared bowl, removing any unpopped kernels. 3. In a small bowl, whisk together the baking soda and cayenne pepper. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, salt, and 1/2 cup water. Cook over high heat, without stirring, until the mixture becomes a light golden-yellow caramel, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully whisk in the baking soda mixture (the mixture will bubble up). Quickly fold in bacon bits. Pour the caramel over the popcorn and toss, like a salad, until all of the popcorn is evenly coated with the caramel. 4. Pour the popcorn onto a large baking pan and quickly flatten and separate it into small pieces while it is still warm. Cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Once it is cool, store it in a well-sealed airtight container. 5. Caramel popcorn will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Sourced from A Cozy Kitchen Adapted from The Craft of Baking Butterscotch Heaven: butterscotch, salted nuts, and popcorn. A last minute thing, I know...but *tonight* is the first time we've been able to take Sound Brewery friends up on their invitation to participate in Artisan Night. From 6PM to 9 PM, you can purchase jewelry from BeachBooty Jewelry and Marti Gwaltney will have her awesome jewelry boxes - all whilst chasing down our yummy popcorn with a microbrew. Rumour has it there may also be woodfired pizza. So we'll see you tonight at Sound Brewery in Poulsbo! Meanwhile, check out the shot of Butterscotch Heaven coming straight from the ovens earlier. We're still here! Making fantastic popcorn, hosting really fun private events, and finishing up some fundraisers. Meanwhile, our busiest time of the year - the holiday season - is gearing up early. If you haven't gotten your orders in the queue yet, do it soon! Want to pick up something quick at one of our public events? Stop in at Christmas in the Country on November 30, December 1 & 2. We will be at the Island Music Center stop on Friday & Saturday 10am~5pm, and Sunday 11am ~ 5pm. Grab some stocking stuffers, or great deals on our gift tins and other yummy products like Turtle Corn Bars. We took some time off from the blog to focus on business, but also because we had a consuming issue we were attempting to resolve. Many of you wrote asking about our Emmy experience last year. As we recently passed the one year anniversary of that experience, we are now ready to share our thoughts about it. When originally contacted by Off The Wall Promotions, many representations were made via phone, email, and of course, there was a basic contract. We were excited for being found and asked to have our products in the Emmy bags, and the news of this coup (per our pre-event press releases) led to increased interest and orders. Much as it does with every promotion we’ve run since opening our business in 2005. The odd thing about this one, though, was there was no interest, no spike in traffic, no calls – nothing – which occurred from the night of the actual Emmys and going forward. This has never happened to us. Like other vendours who’d participated in the Emmy event, we sent emails and pinged OTW’s Facebook page when photos from the event weren’t forthcoming in a reasonable period of time. Those Facebook posts were deleted or hidden, and responses via email started to describe how busy principals were with other shows and they would ‘get back to us’. When the photos finally arrived, they were comparatively minimal as compared to other OTW published events, and gave little indication that our popcorn actually made it into the swag bags or were delivered to celebrities. We ended up speaking with several other vendour participants who shared the same experience as ours. To boot, we later learned OTW had decided to include similar products from vendours within the same celebrity swag bag. In other words, out of thirty vendours chosen across the country and a wide range of options, OTW included more than one popcorn and whoopie pie vendour in the same Emmys bag. To make a really long story short, we ended up filing a complaint with Better Business Bureau and opening a dispute with our credit card company. OTW made several false claims, and attempted to fall back on its contract as an excuse versus the spirit of the law. Inundated with paperwork, our credit card company eventually threw its hands up in the air and issued us a partial goodwill credit to simply accept that we were bilked of several thousand dollars by OTW. Though we had also been promised a certificate and sample tote bag once the above matter was resolved, we still never received this from OTW, either. If you have free time on your hands and feel like doing a Google search, you will find many companies which have written press releases about their selection to participate in an Emmys event. You may even find a mention on their website. However, what you will rarely see is a post-event follow up or photos on their site about the experience. It’s embarrassing to be taken for a ride when you’re intelligent and savvy, and I suspect many other participants don’t want their customers and friends to know they were had. Also, since it is exciting and flattering to be selected for inclusion in an Emmys gift bag, some business owners have decided to take the press and run with it – even if they never received post-event interest or orders. Fair enough. However, we also have a duty to warn others so they are not taken advantage of, particularly small business owners who have the most to lose with very personal investments of time and money. |
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