Instructions

1. Determine whether you want to pop your own corn the old-fashioned way. If you do, decide if you want your popcorn air-popped or oil-popped. Oil-popped is recommended, as it provides more rich flavoring. If you want to pop your own kernels, you must purchase unpopped kernels, corn popping oil and a popper. Follow the directions to pop the kernels. If you do not want to pop your own kernels, purchase a bag of microwaveable popcorn. Buy the most plain popcorn you can find, with no butter flavorings.

2. Pop the corn kernels, then place the popped corn in a large bowl that you can easily sift the popcorn in to distribute a gourmet flavoring. Have napkins handy for spills or for sopping up excessive flavoring. Clean up the mess from popping corn yourself if you used oil, to avoid fire and burns.

3. Drizzle your popcorn with hot melted butter as a base. Buttered popcorn is popular, butter works well as a neutral base. Melt the butter in a saucepan or microwave until it's all liquid, then drizzle half over kernels. Flip the bowl around until the bottom unbuttered half of the popcorn is on top, then drizzle the rest of the butter on top of the kernels. To make a more gourmet base, melt slices of garlic in the melting butter while it's in the pan. Hot sauce, salt and pepper; and fresh herbs such as rosemary, sage, chives or basil are other options. This will be the base flavoring. Remember, you do not need to use butter; it all depends on the richness of the flavor you'd like (for example, if you are using chocolate, do not add butter).

4. Choose from various gourmet flavors to add to the popcorn after you establish your base flavors. The sky is the limit when it comes to popcorn flavors. Consider bold flavor combinations such as spicy mustard, taco seasoning, bacon and cheddar, Italian seasoning, spicy BBQ, lemon dill, pizza flavors, ultra-cheesy, cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce, a combination of basil, chervil and thyme, or poultry seasoning with buffalo sauce. The opposite flavor combination of sweet and savory can be just as satisfying. Consider the combinations of chocolate chips with pecans and melted marshmallows, cinnamon vanilla, butterscotch almond, chocolate toffee, or cocoa powder and coconut flakes. Try different spice combinations, such as 1/2 tsp. each of curry, ginger, cayenne pepper, cumin and sugar with butter; or three-cheese popcorn by melting together blue cheese, Parmesan and Cheddar.

5. Accent the gourmet flavored popcorn with one last layer of flavoring. For example, if you used herbs in the popcorn flavoring, sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the popcorn. If you used sweet flavorings, sprinkle the popcorn with a dusting of sugar or cocoa powder. Grated cheese is always a good way to accent popcorn for a last layer. Sometimes, it also a good idea to reheat the popcorn again after layering on the flavors for more melting.