Alton Brown in a genius

I love popcorn, lovely buttery popcorn. I HATE microwave popcorn. No matter what brand I have bought it is always too salty, and then my fingers swell up like sausages and I need to drink gallons of water and you get the picture. So, for the last several years, whenever I wanted popcorn I did it the old fashioned way, on the stove top in a pan with oil. It takes a while but the result is good and I have total control over how much butter and salt I put on.

But now, thanks to that genius Alton Brown, I can go back to quickly doing my popcorn in the microwave. I never would have known about this except for the lovely ladies in the Frugal Homemakers forum on Ravelry. So, this is what you do. You will need a brown paper bag (about lunch bag size), regular popcorn kernels and a stapler (yes a stapler). You put the popcorn kernels in the paper bag (a 1/3 cup makes a GOOD sized portion), fold the top down twice and close it with ONE staple. Put the bag in the microwave, hit the popcorn button and then start. That is all there is to it. I did have to do one and a half popcorn cycles, turning the microwave off when the popping slowed way down. Take it out, open the bag (be careful of the steam) and voila! Popcorn. Add melted butter, salt and whatever other seasonings you want and you are in business. No muss, no fuss, no oil. Delicious.