Piggy Pop

Not sure what to do with the leftover bacon grease? Don't waste it! Leave the pan on the stove after breakfast until the afternoon when you're ready for a snack.

Melt some butter in with the grease. Meanwhile, pop some popcorn.

Put popcorn and greasy goodness (plus salt) in a paper bag and shake-shake-shake! I usually drizzle butter a couple cups of popped corn at a time, but you do whatever you like. It's not an exact science. It's popcorn!

Use whatever proportions seem good to you. This is how I did it today: I had the greasy leftovers from 5 pieces of thick-cut bacon. I added a half a tablespoon of butter. I popped 1.5 cups of kernels. It would have been even baconyer if I had done only one cup, I think.

Popping at home

On Sunday, because it was dreary and we had nowhere we needed to be, we caught up on movies from Netflix and TiVo'd shows.

For the viewing of Caprica, I made us a big bowl of popcorn. I do not need a movie as an excuse to make popcorn at home. But it's nice to have popcorn while watching a movie in any location.

I do not require a fancy apparatus to make popcorn. I used to own a contraption for making popcorn on the stove that would stir the kernels around inside the pot. The best part about that contraption is that it had a little dish underneath the lid where I put butter to melt.

That contraption was a royal pain to clean. After leaving it uncleaned on top of the stove for a week one time (due to not wanting to deal with it), I decided to throw it away.

I don't need no fancy popcorn machine. All I need is a non-stick pot with a lid. Depending on my mood, I add a little olive oil or a little butter to the bottom of the pan, let that heat up a bit, and then add enough kernels to cover the bottom of the pot. I put on the lid and shake the pot vigorously back and forth every 30 seconds or so. It's certainly not an exact science. I keep shaking it periodically until the kernels have stopped popping.

Then I add salt and freshly grated parmesan. Sometimes I add some spicy red pepper powder. On Sunday I was feeling mellow, not spicy, so I kept it simple.

Of course it was perfectly popped, so there is no need to list those details this time.