The Making of Popcorn

Whenever our Saturday night Family Movie Night comes up, the first thing the kids ask is, "Mom, can you make popcorn?" Well, the making of popcorn in our home is a bit of a ritual.

We don't have a microwave. So, these little packaged bags that most people seem to buy, that you just pull the wrapper off of, put it in a microwave, and click-click, beep-beep-beep, it's done, aren't things that work in our house. It's a bit more involved.

As soon as I agree that, yes, we can make popcorn, the kids start popping around as if they were the popcorn. One runs for the cupboard where the kernels are kept, the other nearly plows over whoever is in her path to get to the stainless steel cooking pot, and there's a great deal of excited, loud, calling back-and-forth as to who gets to do what part of making popcorn.

Once everyone settles down a bit, and all the necessary pieces for making popcorn are on the counter (kernels, butter, small stainless pot, salt, big stainless pot, coconut oil and a glass lid), the actual making process begins.

My son carefully measures 2 tablespoons of coconut oil into the big stainless pot, places the pot on the stove top, and looks at me with big blue eyes and a helpless look, and says "Mommy, I can't reach!." "Take your stool out and use it," I suggest. "Oh. That works," comes the response, with smiles and pattering feet as he runs to get his stool.

When that is settled, my daughter shakes in enough popcorn kernels into the pot to make two, full layers at the bottom of the warmed pot, in the pooling oil. Finishing that to her satisfaction, she places the glass lid on the pot, picks it up and shakes it so every kernel is coated in oil, and places it back on the burner.

At this point, everyone huddles around the stove; anxiously watching the kernels at the bottom of the pot for that first kernel to pop into a white, fragrant, puffy cloud.

One minute passes.

Two minutes pass.

Little feet shuffle back and forth with small shoves against each others' shoulders and warnings from me to "settle down."

Finally. That first little 'pop.'

"Squeeeeeaaaal!" I'm not sure which one starts it first, but happy squealing and excited shrieks and bouncy hops burst out of both of them as they watch the popcorn 'pop-pop-pop' in the pot.

My daughter turns to me, wreathed in smiles, blue eyes and long black lashes blinking at me happily. "Mom! Mom! The butter! We forgot the butter!"

We hadn't forgotten the butter, but we pretended we had and she measures it out into the smaller pot we had set aside for just that purpose, sets it on the burner, and cranks the heat so it melts faster.

The excitement starts to wind down a bit at this point. Now, it's more exciting to decide what family movie is going to be watched and who gets to sit on mom or dad's lap. But, we finish up with our popcorn; the hot pot having finally allowed the last kernel to pop. So full now that the glass lid is trying to push off the top of the pot and the fluffy white popcorns fill the house with their fragrant smell.

After all the energy expended on making popcorn has dwindled, the popcorn is placed in a big, glass bowl, smothered in butter and salt and places are jostled for on the living room couch.

It isn't every Saturday Family Movie Night that we do this. Sometimes it's only once a month, but this is our family's "making of popcorn" home ritual, that I look forward to each time one of my kids asks, "Mom, can we make popcorn?"