Microwave Popcorn

So, I learned from Alton Brown's book, I'm Just Here for the Food, that you can make microwave popcorn from scratch. (Buy the book; it's got magnets!)

It's quick, cheap, and good if you are worried about weird chemicals, salt, fat, or yellow coloring in those microwavable bags.

All you need is popcorn kernels, a brown paper lunch bag, and a stapler.

1. Put 1/2 cup of the kernels in the lunch bag.

2. Fold the end and staple it shut. Use only 2 staples and make sure they are far apart. It the staples are close you might cause a spark and start a fire. Not only is that dangerous, burnt popcorn smells awful.

3. Microwave the bag like you would any other bag of microwave popcorn. Put it in for about 3 minutes, and stop the microwave when there are a few seconds between pops. (The popcorn button on my microwave works fine for even the homemade stuff, so I don't need to listen to it. Just pay attention the first time, at least.)

Now you've got some nice, low calorie popcorn. Feel free to melt some butter to fix that.

Restaurants and movie theaters use something called "popcorn salt". You can pick this up at any number of grocery stores. What it is is a finer grain of salt that better pairs well with delicious greasy things like french fries and buttery popcorn . Kosher and sea salts are bigger, regular old Morton's is normal, and popcorn salt is teeny tiny.

You can get bigger salt and take it to the mortar and pestle to get a substitute for popcorn salt, but popcorn salt isn't particularly expensive.