During the reunion weekend, one of my cousins introduced me to a miraculous invention that I must own. It is a device that makes popcorn. Now perhaps you are thinking that I am talking about the microwave, but oh no, I am not talking about the microwave. Though the microwave is a miraculous invention in its own right as it allows me to stand firm in my decision to not cook.
What I am talking about, though, is a hot air popcorn popper, which my cousin Mary showed me. I had never seen one of these things before, though when I got home from the cousin reunion my parents swore they had one. They couldn't find it though. Suspicious.
Anyways, the thing I liked about the hot air popcorn popper, besides eating the popcorn, was watching all the popcorn explode from the lid to the bowl. It's kind of like a waterfall of popcorn, which, I'm not going to lie, is something that I've dreamed about. Is there a children's book where popcorn rains from the sky? If not, I should start working on that.
And you know, it's not unheard of that popcorn would fall from the sky, because do you know what the magic ingredient in popcorn is? WATER. When the water heats up inside the popcorn, it causes the shell to explode into bubbles of air that coalesce quickly to form that delicious treat that we all enjoy at movie theaters. In the olden days, the water was heated up with oil, but then in 1978, the hot air popper was developed for health reasons. If you heat up the water inside a popcorn kernel with air instead of oil, popcorn has significantly less calories.
BUT WHAT'S THE FUN IN THAT? None. There is no fun in that. Which is why that powdered buttery goop was invented, and also why Mary's hot air popper had this little dish on top where you could melt butter. So butter was melted and salt was added and spells were cast and we had a delicious popcorn treat. The result was so delicious in fact that I helped eat about four bowls of popcorn. Three bowls before dinner and one bowl after. And as I have revealed, meals at Kanuga was nothing to sneeze at.
Other snacks that we ate while at Kanuga included:
--Chips and onion dip
--Pop rocks (it made Grant's eyelids itch)
--Poppycock nutty clusters or something to that effect (the marketing copy made Grant uncomfortable)
--ugly chocolates (that's actually what they were called.)
--M&M's
Also I had a bite or two from a stick of butter that was sitting around after we made popcorn. I'm not proud of it, but it was delicious. I think that the butter just reminded me too much of the popcorn, and there wasn't any popcorn right at that very minute. Maybe some other things as well but mainly I remember that popcorn. In remembrance, here are some interesting facts about popcorn that I got from the internet:
--The earliest popcorn popper ever found was discovered in Peru. 300 A.D. It pre-dates even the Incans. But it was kind of primitive.
--Charles Cretors developed the first true popcorn machine in 1885.
--Orville Redenbacher's middle name was Clarence. He died in a Jacuzzi.
--Popcorn can cause lung disease.
--Popcorn is delicious.
--I got tired of looking up facts about popcorn.
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2 comments:
I still can't believe Molly, George and William had never seen a hot air popper. Glad we older cousins could introduce you to a little of our history. I think there may have to be three of them under the Edmonds Christmas tree this December 25! Remember to add butter, lots of salt, and always serve WARM!!
I hear ya'! And I was so impressed that the generational span included in the weekend didn't really play into the shenanigans. Now it's clear that some of us are much, much older than some of the rest of us.
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