Tag Archives: hot-pockets
Childhood Memory Snack Time
We had a great family day this past weekend.
It was a beautiful day for a walk.
We also had fun at Kenley’s favorite park. She screams ”THE CASTLE PARK!” when we get to go.
I played hide-and-seek with her. She kept telling me where I should hide. When I would say “Ready or not, here I come” she would say “I’m over here” haha This was her reaction when I found her in the slide 
Daddy took the kids down the slide.
Kenley was playing around and she decided to play in the replica “Iowa Falls Popcorn Stand”
Marcus and I looked at each other and I knew we both had the same idea: “Let’s go to the REAL popcorn stand!” (they have a FB page!)
We hadn’t been there yet this year so we packed up the kids and off we went!
On the way to Estes Park I wondered if our town is the only town that has one left. But then I wondered if any other small towns even have Popcorn Stands or if it is something original to Iowa Falls.
Here is a cute blog post about The Popcorn Stand. And according to one of the comments left on this post I found out some great history of the popcorn stand. No real way to verify if this is true….. but here is what Mike Cleavenger says:
“My name is Mike Cleavenger of Seattle Washington. It was my grandfather Louis Knudesen who brought the popcorn stand to Iowa Falls during the 1930′s. During the depression, my grandparents, Mom and Uncle Jack would travel the carnival circut working the concession stands, and then during the off season would come back to Iowa Falls Iowa where Grandpa and Grandma worked the popcorn stand. When times were slow, Grandpa would work as a carpenter in town and Grandma would work the stand. My mom Jo Ann Knudesen Cleavenger, said that the popcorn stand was built in Texas and Grandpa had it shipped to Iowa Falls. We still have pictures of the stand and a picture of Grandpa holding me as an infant in the stand. Mom said that Grandpas’ favorite memory was when he made caramel corn during world war 2 and shipped it oversees to the G.I’s and all the thankyou letters that he recieved from the troups.”Kenley loved getting some popcorn! Her and daddy love to eat this as a night-time snack.
Which reminds me…..Kenley surprised us both when she was a little over 18 months old and she started saying “popcorn” for the first time. Only it came out a little backwards. She would say “Daddy I wan Cop Porn!” My husband and I died laughing
But we had such a nice family day and it brought back memories of when my husband and I were both little and we would run over to the Popcorn Stand to get a snack!
Speaking of snacks and childhood memories. I have a recipe for a great kid’s snack. (It’s a mommy and daddy snack too…ok everyone will enjoy this one) It is another one from my Grandma. She use to make this for us when we were little.
Snack Mix Munchies
Cracker Mix Ingredients
1/2 bag of small oyster crackers
1/2 bag of pretzel sticks
1/2 box Cheez Its
6 cups Rice Chex
1 small package of Original or Saltine Goldfish
Dressing Ingredients
1 cup Mazola Oil (Corn Oil)
1 pkg dry Ranch Dressing Mix
1/2 t. Garlic Salt
3/4 t. Dillweed
1/2 t. Lemon Pepper
Directions
Put cracker mix ingredients into a brown grocery bag and shake well to mix them all up.
Put the dressing ingredients in a blender and mix well. Mixture turns an odd color.
Pour the dressing ingredients all over the cracker mix and SHAKE VERY WELL! I use a large wooden spoon to make sure it gets all over the cracker mix.
The outside of the paper bag will get VERY OILY! So once you are done mixing you want to put it into an air tight container.
I let it set overnight so that the Munchies aren’t so oily.
NOTE: I actually double this recipe so that we have LOTS on hand. This lasts our family about a month! I double all of the ingredients except for the Mazola Oil. I use about 1.5 cups. A little bit of this oil goes A LONG WAY, so I don’t really feel like I need to double that.
