The Popcorn King

My dad makes the best popcorn. When I was younger, watching him make popcorn was an event. You know why non-microwave popcorn is so good? It never burns. And you can use real butter. When my dad made popcorn I loved to watch and participate in the following:

1. The popcorn exploding and then soaring out into our large aluminum mixing bowl was exciting enough. I also got to...

2. watch the butter mysteriously melt in the cup that sat atop the popcorn popper.

3. My dad then allowed me to spin the aluminum mixing bowl as he drizzled the butter onto the popcorn. He always achieved a perfect popcorn/butter ratio.

4. Then he quickly put salt in... never too much. You can't tell his popcorn is salty, but you would miss the salt if it wasn't there. He's that good.

5. The most thrilling part was when my dad picked up the bowl and tossed the popcorn so that the salt and butter would be distributed evenly. My dad is to popcorn tossing what great pizza chefs are to pizza dough tossing.

Then we sat on the couch and ate. Yummy.

So yesterday was a drizzly day and I had a hankering for popcorn. I called the boys over so they could participate in the popcorn making experience; perhaps we could even start a family tradition! I added the popcorn into our machine. I lost our little plastic butter cup (probably during the great move of 2008) so I perched a small Corelle bowl precariously atop the popcorn maker. I put my own large aluminum mixing bowl beneath the popcorn popper to catch the kernels and then turned the machine on. The kids watched with eager eyes and were startled when the popcorn began to, well, pop. When it was done, I had to nuke the rest of the butter because it hadn't quite melted. I allowed the two older boys to spin the bowl on the table while I put the butter atop the popcorn. Then I added the salt. Finally, I had the kids stand back so I could toss the popcorn, the final step before popcorn eating bliss!!!

We spent the next five minutes picking popcorn up off the floor.