Popcorn

I've loved popcorn as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, there was nothing like a batch of popcorn cooked on the stovetop, then doused with my mother's homemade butter.

Thank heavens I was later to marry a man who likes popcorn. Had a discovered he didn't care for it, our marriage surely wouldn't have survived these 45+ years. We've made popcorn on the stovetop, we've made it over an open fire in a cage-like basket, we've made it almost every way imaginable.

A few years ago Ken and I fell into the habit of making popcorn in those microwaveable bags. We loved the popcorn; it was full of flavor and it popped well.

 I began to suspect that all of the additives in the bag were not particularly healthy, though, so I switched us over to the brown-paper-bag-with-a-smidge-of-oil method. Ken perfected this method, but I found it a tad messy. In the mornings I'd have to wipe up from the counter the oiliness from the paper bag. Inevitably there was messy oil in the microwave, too.

I was willing to continue with this method of making popcorn, until I read about the Chef'n Poptop microwave popcorn maker.

I didn't rush out and purchase it, though. I was a bit skeptical that the popcorn made in it was all that good.

But then a week ago, while reading someone's blog, I found that she had received one of these popcorn-maker bowls for Christmas, and she raved about the popcorn it produced.

I ran it past Ken; he was open to the idea of giving it a try. I sat right down and ordered one from Amazon (at less than $20).

We've had it about a week now, and we're hooked. Each batch is a little better than the previous one. The maker does take some getting acquainted with: the amount of popcorn, the amount of oil, the length of time to microwave it and at what power,...all of this takes refining. But now we're enjoying a big bowl of popcorn with much less effort than with any of our previous cooking methods. Last night I even topped the popcorn with some real butter. It wasn't as good as my mother's butter, but it was good just the same.