Rosemary Popcorn

It's that rare sunny winter day in Seattle today, and Stuart and I celebrated with a walk around Woodland park, soaking in the good old outdoors! We had a great weekend that involved drinking lots of wine at Via Tribunali, a Naples-style pizza joint just a few blocks from our apartment, trying a new coffee shop in Fremont called Milstead & Co. for breakfast on Saturday, and seeing Silver Linings Playbook at the movie theater last night, which was a great film.

Recently every time we've gone to the movies, I've made my own popcorn at home at hidden it in my purse to bring to the theater, rather than buy the insanely expensive movie popcorn and candy. A few times I've just popped a bag of old packaged popcorn that expired over a year ago (we brought it with us from California in 2011, but hey, how bad can it really get??). But THEN I saw this post on my favorite blog, Cup of Jo, about making your own Rosemary Parmesan Popcorn. I had to give it a try - tasty results pictured below.

As a whole grain, popcorn is actually a very healthy snack, and I recently included it on my Healthiest Foods list in a previous blog post. If you add Parmesan and salt versus gobs of melted butter, you can enjoy multiple cups of popcorn almost guilt-free. Additionally, it's super cheap to buy a bag of plain popcorn kernels.

Ingredients:
To make a batch of rosemary olive oil, combine the below ingredients and let it sit in the fridge overnight (or for up to 3 weeks).
2 cups extra virgin olive oil
6 rosemary sprigs

For the popcorn:
1/4 cup rosemary oil
1 cup popcorn kernels
Grated Parmesan (to taste)
Sea salt (to taste)

Directions:
1. To make the popcorn, heat oil and 1 kernel of popcorn over medium-high heat in a large pot.
2. Once the kernel pops, add the rest of the kernels and cover. Listen closely; once popping subsides, remove from heat.
3. Add Parmesan and salt, and shake up the pot to stir. Taste, and add more cheese and salt as needed.