Stove-Top Popcorn

Anyone who knows me knows that I love stove-top popcorn. Just love it. I feel that it's almost a lost art that needs to be preserved and passed down to the generations to follow. My Papa died when I was only 4-5 and one of the very few memories that I have of him is him shaking away the popcorn pot at the stove - sparks flying from the friction on the electric burner! So why should you make popcorn on the stove-top and not just throw in a package of the microwave variety? Well, there's a couple of reasons:

1) With homemade popcorn, you can control the amount of butter and salt. 

2) You don't get that icky film on the roof of your mouth from the artificial flavourings in microwave popcorn. 

3) Stove top popcorn has a much richer taste and you end up with significantly less left-over non-popped kernels

4) Making your own popcorn is much, MUCH cheaper than buying the microwave packs. For less than the price of a box of 3 microwave popcorn packs, you can buy a bag of popcorn and get 33 batches out of it. Yes, 33. You just can't beat that. Bon appétit!

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp vegetable oil (essentially, just enough to cover the bottom of your pot)
1/4 cup popcorn kernels
3 Tbsp butter, melted
Salt to taste

Directions:
On medium high heat, add the oil and 1-2 kernels to a large pot. Once the kernels pop, add the remaining kernels and immediately cover the pan. Shake the pot constantly (and I mean SHAKE IT!) until you don't hear any more popping, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour popcorn into a large bowl. Drizzle the melted butter over the popcorn and season with salt.

ps - if you'd like a video tutorial, click here :)