As we head into holiday entertaining and craziness, don't forget about popcorn! I am NOT talking about microwave popcorn, I'm talking about the real deal, popped in a pan, which takes about 5 minutes to make and tastes 50 million times - maybe 100 million times - better. When you're done, you have a bowlful of fragrant crunchiness ready to be tarted up for a party (or plopped in front of the TV with a glass of wine aka dinner).
When I was a kid, we were butter-and-salt purists, preferring plenty of both. Don't get me wrong - browned butter with sea salt to this day makes up 80% of my popcorn consumption. I make it for my son's friends, I set it out at our pool for swim parties, I make a batch after a night out with the girls. But it's great fun, and almost as easy, to play around a bit with creative flavor combinations, which are both addictive and gorgeous, and tend to blow guests away for very little effort.
Recipe(s) for Pumpkin Seed/Brown Butter/Crispy Sage, Bacon/Caraway Seed/Bay Leaf, and Curry Powder/Honey/Lime Zest popcorn (and other ideas too) at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.
