I bought a popcorn maker in a pinch because I needed to make five gallons of our smoky-spicy-sweet-salty-sour popcorn (we make a caramel corn with maple syrup, butter and smoke and fire hot sauce--a hot sauce made with smoked habanero peppers and pickled ramps--) for an event. I was shopping for a particular air popper because I know it works well and efficiently. I was shopping late in the game for I needed to make the popcorn and ship it out to Colorado...ironic being from Colorado, on vacation in New York, shipping popcorn back to Colorado.
So what did I do, I bought a popcorn maker, not the one I wanted or trusted or new, just a popcorn maker because I had to get the job done and ship the popcorn. Bad idea, stupid idea, dumb idea. I settled for second when I should have spent the time looking for the right popcorn maker and I should have gone shopping sooner. Instead, I spent four hours popping corn and picking unpopped kernels out of the corn before glazing and toasting the finished product. The popcorn maker I bought was to short and the column where the hot air emerges and popcorn pops was so short that when kernels began popping and the air was circulating both popped and unpopped kernels shot out of the machine.
Why did I settle? I did not want to look at other stores and certainly did not want to deal with rush hour traffic. Instead I had the pleasure of picking unpopped corn kernels out of popcorn for four hours. I guess an extra half an hour locating the best popcorn maker would not have been that bad.
Every once in awhile I seem to fail miserably in order to be reminded of what all the work and searching and testing and examining is all about.
Here is the finished product.
