junk food

i've been a junk food junkie for my whole life. pretzels, chips, popcorn. it's all good. i haven't found a "new" way to fix popcorn since the days of the hair drier/air popper days. oh sure, there were the discovery days of season salts (i really like cajun season salt on popcorn. really good stuff), of molly mcbutter fake butter stuff, and seasoned popping oil. but those discoveries are behind me, and with the exception of season salts, it's back to the good old couple of tablespoons of oil, heat until one kernel pops, cover the pan bottom with popcorn kernels, drop the lid on, and shake like crazy. all of this goes into a big bowl, or paper bag, and melted butter is drizzled over the corn, season salt gets added, then toss, shake, and eat. classic, simple, yet damned good.

well kids, let me pass on a really cool thing i learned this weekend. as you may have guessed if you've read any of the latest posts, i'm helping out on my father-in-law's farm during pumpkin season. a couple of buyers for the veggie company that he sells a bunch of his organic produce to were at the farm, checking out what pops had that was ripening, and what he had to sell. now if you are a bay area resident, and you are in any way hooked into the food scene, you know of veritable vegetable distributers. they are a women's collective (well, kind of). and one of the common things these san franciscan women have is that they know veggies. most of them are vegans, so they don't do steak and eggs for breakfast. more's the pity. anyway, i was talking to the melon buyer, trying like hell to sell her on some of pop's killer charlyn melons. mmmmmm, the very best melon i've ever eaten in my life. no joke. the very best melon i've ever eaten in my life, and i eat a lot of melons. where was i?
oh yeah. we were talking about vegan alternatives to a lot of my favorites. it was becoming something of a game. i figured i had the show stopper, though. you just can't improve on buttered popcorn, home made, fresh popped, salted and delicious.

wrong

so here's to the lassies at veritable vegetable, and my new favorite vegan version of hot buttered popcorn.
ready?
pop corn. place in bowl. sprinkle favorite season salt lightly on corn. measure and drizzle as much extra virgin olive oil as you used to use in melted butter. toss or shake to coat the corn.

living here in the napa valley, i have access to some incredible olive oils, and i'm definitely going to experiment. but for this, my inaugural batch, i just used the extra virgin olive oil that is in my pantry.

i am in foodie heaven. this stuff is so good, i may never make buttered popcorn again. seriously. it's that good.