26) Make Popcorn

When I was a kid my dad used to make popcorn on Thursday nights and we would watch the Cosby Show. It was by far one of my favorite nights of the week! The thought of this memory from my own childhood combined with a present day craving for popcorn made me suggest the idea to the Bee. She hasn't eaten a lot of popcorn because there are all kinds of rules and pediatric guidelines these days against young children eating popcorn but at 3.5 I thought she was probably big enough that we would give it a shot. We made the popcorn the old fashioned and way more exciting way. We begin by taking out a large soup pot and lid. We poured in some popcorn kernels, I am sure there are some measurement guidelines but we just eyeballed it, pouring enough to cover the bottom of the pan. We also poured in a little oil. I turned the burner on medium-high and put the lid on top of the pan. Every so often I gave the pot a little shake so the kernels wouldn't burn. The Bee stood on her step stool and we watched. I couldn't help but think of the old saying " a watched pot never boils" because it did seem like we stood there a long time waiting for something to happen. I'm sure you can imagine the "is it popping yet?" on repeat, but in reality it was just a few minutes. The Bee and I watched through the glass lid and once the first kernel popped they all started popping. The Bee was delighted as the pot begin to fill up with big, fluffy white pieces of popcorn. I sprinkled a little salt (because really popcorn without salt is just not worth eating) onto the warm popcorn and tossed it into a bowl. The Bee and I then sat down for a little popcorn and chocolate milk party and discussed how amazing it was that these soft pieces of popcorn started out as such hard kernels!