classy but trashy

Happy Earth Day!
Here’s a fun way to put your recycling to use:

Très Frugal Microwave Popcorn Popper

Popcorn is the greatest snack on the planet. As a little girl I can remember sitting on our kitchen counter as my mom air popped white fluffy goodness into a big paper bag. The little dish on top of the noisy 80’s era popper held a pat of butter which melted as the hot air hit it and then got poured over the freshly popped kernels. Some salt, a little sugar and a thorough shaking of the paper bag, she’d pour the contents into a giant mixing bowl and then, I was in heaven.

Pop Stir

Nowadays I remain non discriminatory in my popcorn love—stove popped, microwave, movie theater, store bought, Jiffy Pop, old fashioned stand up popper, Christmas tin, ball park and SmartFood. You name it, I crunch it. If I had to pick a favorite, though, I’d have to turn back to my roots and the comfort of good ole home popped corn from raw kernels. Not having an electric air popper at my disposal, I’ve employed a number of methods to get my fix. There was the classic kernels in a pan method, but it’s very labor intensive and there’s something very grating about dragging a pan back and forth over the stove top. Then one day at Ross I stumbled upon a metal “Pop Stir,” which brought the use of a crank into the stovetop equation, and for a couple years this was a pretty viable solution. The only problems were that the metal would heat up like a motorcycle exhaust, it needed a full cup of kernels to stir and my frequent use caused the plastic stirring wheel to crack, rendering it frustratingly useless. After wearing out THREE of these devices, I was ready for a new solution.

One afternoon I was hoping to make a little snack for my equally popcorn loving bunny, Trickzie. Not wanting to bust out the Pop Stir for a single little handful, I thought to put a few kernels in a small lidded yogurt container that was waiting to be recycled. I snapped the lid back on and put my experiment in the microwave. In my first attempt I saw the lid get popped off and kernels go popping everywhere-- but after a little engineering, I got the concept just right… and the resulting popcorn was perfectly popped! Now that I had bunny sized single serving snacks perfected, it was time to make a people portion popper too!

Here’s how to do it:

1. Wash out a 32oz lidded yogurt or cottage cheese container.

2. With a sharp knife, carefully cut (or if you’re in Santa Cruz, shank) X’s into the lid.

3. Use only as many kernels as will fully cover the bottom of the container… then add a few more for good measure :)

4. Now put the lid back on and stick in the microwave for 2min 30sec. Since microwaves will vary it’s important to pay attention on your container’s maiden poppage. Somewhere between 2 and 2.5 minutes you’ll hit the sweet spot… you’ll know the popcorn is done when it slows to 2 seconds between pops.

5. Take the popper out once it hits it’s sweet spot and note the time for later uses. Keep in mind to always keep one ear on your corn (haha), as you don’t want it to burn. 

(Note: popper will be a bit hot… make sure you have a surface to put it down on quickly.)

Now you have two perfect servings of popcorn-- or, if you’re like me, ONE perfect serving of popcorn!

And now to classhily dress your nekkid corn:

1. Spray a few spritzes of butter spray or a light mist of water from a spray bottle

2. Sprinkle your desired amount of popcorn salt

3. Lightly shake corn, repeat spray and sprinkle cycle until satisfactorily covered.

Enjoy!!

To easily make your own flavored popcorn salts:

1. Choose your favorite dried herb(s) or seasonings

2. Combine with sea salt at about 1:1 ratio

3. Grind into a very fine powder with the use of a mortar and pestle or even an electric grinder (like for coffee)

Voila!

The finer your salt, the better it will stick to your popcorn

Last time I was at the grocery store I saw a great range of seasonings that would be great—BBQ flavored rubs, lemon pepper, chipotle and sundried tomato… get creative!