Garfield as popcorn. We love this photo found on My Food Looks Funny. This gives us an idea to look at each popcorn we pop in our stove top popcorn maker to find other famous figures in literature. It would be a shame to eat Snoopy or Opus. Instead of unusual cloud spotting spotting, we could set up an unusual popcorn shape spotting trend here at Popcorn Popper Shop.

This is a very cute and endearing animation on an alternative history of popcorn created by Tiny Circus. Apparently, in their version of history, aliens had a "hand" in the evolution of popcorn. We like the hovering popcorn popper machine.

Tiny Circus creates stop-motion animated art projects through a collaborative, community-based process. They travel to schools, universities, art and film festivals, museums and galleries. You can view a number of their creative animations on the Tiny Circus You Tube Channel.

4,000 year old popcorn was found in a bat cave in New Mexico. Did Batman and Robin pop popcorn in their cave? Maybe that power generator in the back of the cave doubled as a giant popcorn machine.

The actual history of popcorn is pretty exciting without alien intervention. The oldest ears of popcorn, about 4,000 years old, was found in a Bat Cave in New Mexico. Apparently, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson might have been early fans of popcorn.

An early description of popcorn popping comes from the Spanish in their descriptions of Aztec Indian ceremonies around the 15th century. Heated sand in fire were ancient popcorn poppers. We think science of popping popcorn has improved over the ages.  You can find detailed popcorn history at Popcorn.org.

Popcorn isn't just for eating. Over the ages, popcorn has been used in a variety of ways other than filling the belly during a movie. One that comes quick to mind is stringing popcorn together for decorative garland to go on the Christmas tree. Fun popcorn ideas are just limited by the imagination.

The ideas  below work best with hot air popped popcorn.

Create 3D popcorn art

With Elmer's glue and colorful markers, you and your kids can create wonderful 3 dimensional art. Pour popped popcorn on a table and have your kids pick through them. Ask them if they see parts of animals, like a head, body, legs and feets. This is a great imagination builder similar to seeing shapes in the clouds. Your kids will get excited as the shapes come to life. Glue the shapes together and apply colorful eyes with the markers.

Make a popcorn tree

When outside, have your kids pick up a twig with "branches." With glue, apply popped popcorn to the joints of the twig. Once dried, you can "plant" the popcorn tree in a small planter for a decorative display in your home.

Create a popcorn wreath

At a craft store, you can purchase wooden rings of varying width.  You can also purchase actual wreaths made of vines and twigs. Either will do. One way to easily create a popcorn wreath is to spray an adhesive on the wreath and pour popped popcorn over it. Once dried, the wreath will be covered with popcorn. Or, if you want to give the kids a craft they can spend time on, pull out the elmers glue and have them apply the popcorn all over the wreath (the wooden rings work best here). When finished and dry put on a colorful bow.

Do you have any fun popcorn ideas you'd like to share? We'd love to hear them.

For many popcorn connoisseurs, popcorn has escaped its traditional buttery landscape. Today, popcorn can easily compete with the most sophisticated snack flavor. Just a quick search on the internet will reveal creative flavors, from cheesy to spicy. We’ve highlighted a few sites with intriguing popcorn recipes that caught our attention.

Popcorn Cereal recipe featured on TammysRecipes.com

A delicious sounding sweet breakfast treat that’s popped in an air popper. Milk and popcorn along with a sweetener like honey is something any child (or adult) would love to wake up to in the morning. And given the whole grain aspect of popcorn, this could be a great healthy (and inexpensive) alternative to regular sweet cereal.

Chile Lime Tequila Popcorn Recipe featured at 101CookBooks.com

Okay, this recipe is for later in the day and sounds absolutely wonderful. Fresh popcorn popped in an oil popcorn popper tossed with melted butter, lime juice jalapeno and tequila. How original. You’ll have to visit this site for the whole recipe, which comes from a book of popcorn recipes called Popcorn, written by Patrick Evans-Hylton.

Popcorn Con Pesto from Popcorn.org

Popcorn.org features a range of popcorn recipes that can expand your thinking on the potential of popcorn. We love pesto sauce with our pasta and pizza. But Popcorn? Well, it works. And the recipe is quite simple.

5 quarts of popped popcorn
½ cup of melted butter
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves, crushed
1 teaspoon dried parsley, crushed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
½ cup pine nuts (optional)

Place popped popcorn (we recommend popped from a hot air popper) in a large bowl and keep warm. In a small saucepan, melt the butter, add the basil, parsley, garlic, Parmesan cheese and nuts. Stir to blend. Then just pour over the popped corn, stirring or shaking well.

What are your favorite out of the ordinary popcorn recipes?

When we received this photo we couldn't stop laughing. What an interesting use of a stovetop Jiffy Pop Popcorn.

In the heartland of America in a state famous for corn, the people in the little town of Sac City, Iowa showed what they are made of. Or, what they can make as a community. A 5,000 pound popcorn ball. Twice before, this town has been in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest popcorn ball. First time in 1995 and again in 2004.

The video below shows the making of the popcorn ball:

So, what's the recipe for the world’s largest popcorn ball?

• 1,500 pounds of popcorn
• 2,400 pounds of sugar
• 11 pounds of corn syrup
• 100% passion

We’re curious if they used a stove-top popcorn popper or a hot air popcorn maker to pop all that popcorn.

Popcorn pops when the moisture in the kernel heats up. Each kernel requires 13.5 to 14 percent of moisture to pop. On a warm day, one percent of that moisture can evaporate, and that can have an impact on the quality of the pop in a popcorn popper. When three percent vanishes, the kernel can be rendered unpoppable. So to keep popcorn poppable, properly store your popcorn in an airtight container and in a cool cupboard. While any quality container will do, we’ve discovered that a good airtight coffee container works great to keep popcorn fresh.

Share how you keep your popcorn fresh?

It’s amazing how such a little popcorn kernel can explode into something as fluffy and tasty as, well, popcorn. So, how does this delicious tranformation take place? Here’s the simple explanation:

Each kernel of popcorn has an amount of moisture and oil in it. As the oil and moisture heat inside a popcorn popper machine beyond the boiling point, the moisture turns into a superheated pressurized stem. The heated and softened kernel hull becomes pliable. Once the hull ruptures, the steam expands the starch and proteins inside the kernel into airy and crispy and delicious foam. POP!

Now just add butter and salt or another favorite seasoning and you’ve got a delicous snack.

Watch our favorite slow motion popcorn popping videos

This is a montage of popping kernels set to transcendent music.

Shot at 5,400 fps, this video captures the beautiful instance of a kernel popping.

Before our family of six switched to popcorn poppers, the microwave popcorn bag was an easy family night ritual. Rip open a box, tear the cellophane, unfold and toss in the microwave for three minutes or until the sound of popping slowed. Carefully rip open the steaming bag, pour in bowl and we’re done.

Sure, the microwave provided us convenience (or so we thought), but at what cost?

Certainly, not at the cost of calories. Microwave popcorn bags can contain enormous amount of calories per serving. According to the Calorie Count website, Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater Butter Mini Bags (yes, mini bags) contains 213 calories per serving. Their Smart Pop Butter Mini Bags  contain 110 calories per serving.

Air popped popcorn contains about 30 calories per serving (about a cup). Oil popped popcorn contains 55 calories and lightly buttered 90 to 120 calories per serving. Yes, adding flavor to popcorn does increase calories; however, by popping the corn yourself, you gain control on the amount and type of popcorn seasoning you use. With microwave popcorn, you’re eating what the manufacturer chose to put in them.

And really, we weren’t saving much time with the microwave popcorn bags. Typically, our popcorn poppers will pop corn within five minutes.

After switching away from microwave popcorn bags, we gained another unexpected benefit. The magic of popping popcorn. Quite honestly, there’s enchantment watching that first popcorn pop in a popper, followed by another, then another until finally an eruption of all the corn bursting into fluffy crispy white. This is a performance we miss when the corn pops anonymously in the microwave bag.

It's easy to pop popcorn. Just heat sand in a fire, stir in the popcorn kernels, and there you go. How simple.

Of course we have much easier popcorn popping methods than ancient Native Americans did. From theater style popcorn popper machines to microwaves, we have a wide range of popping methods at our disposal.  

However, as this YouTube video shows, popping popcorn in sand is still a method used in India.

Popping Popcorn in the Old Days

A popcorn breakfast recipe that appeared in a 1916 recipe book by Mary Hamilton Talbott.

In the colonial days, the method of popping popcorn took a huge pop from from the sand to a cylinder of thin sheet-iron that revolved on an axle in front of the fire. Popcorn was a popular breakfast dish served with sugar and cream. 

 Charles Cretors of Chicago, Illinois is credited with inventing the first popcorn machine in 1885. Popcorn street vendors became popular through following decades.

Popping Popcorn Today

The most popular method of popping popcorn today is, of course, with the microwave. A visit to the grocery store popcorn aisle will show rows of microwave popcorn. While this is an improvement to the hot sand method, many are questioning the health issues of microwave popcorn. Quite simply, those microwave popcorn bags have got a lot of calories plus an assortment of chemicals.

Step back a couple of decades and you've got a range of popcorn poppers. For the health conscience, hot air popcorn poppers, with only about 30 calories per serving. Oil popcorn poppers for those wanting a bit more taste. Most stores don't carry a good selection of popcorn poppers (not with everyone purchasing microwave popcorn), but that changes online. And the popcorn poppers today are much more sophisticated that those used in the 70's.

For people wanting to duplicate the movie theater popcorn experience, there are several popcorn popper machines that can bring it home. Ranging in prices from the low hundreds to thousands, these popcorn machines can be a great addition to a home theater or game room. And with the right seasoning, you can easily duplicate the movie theater popcorn taste.

So, we've improved the popcorn popping experience from what the ancient Native Americans had. However, they did have something called popcorn beer. We'll save that for another article.