Friday, May 3, 2013

Preparation, Popcorn, and deParture!


You know the old adage: “You learn something new every day?” Well, today, I learned that my left eye is not my dominant eye.

You see, Morgan and I were packing up the RV, today, and we wanted to take along some homemade popcorn. We have a really simple, really awesome recipe for stove top popcorn (see below), and I wanted to serve my wife, so I offered to do the second batch.

In preparation for our trip, we were restricting our cooking implements, thus, I was left with a 5 quart Dutch Oven, as my popcorn pan, instead of the regular 12-inch covered skillet; this was not the issue. The issue was that, since the Dutch Oven was larger, I thought it would be more efficient to make a double recipe: first bad idea. The initial 10 kernels were having a hard time in all that oil, and, so, I lifted the lid to inspect the progress: second bad idea.

At that exact moment, the first kernel, with dreams of becoming an astronaut, took off straight for me, newly popped and laden with boiling oil. I managed to jerk my head back, in order to give myself time to blink, and I was able to divert the missile of cycloptic intention, barely.

Pain was immediate; regret followed quickly after. In the end, my right eye lid was burned , but slathered, externally, with honey, only half the kernels were popped, and I had half an hour of nothing to do, but sit, and try not to get honey everywhere.

Now, to my point: With only my left eye working, I tried to distract myself with Sudoku, only to find that my left eye didn’t like to read. Oh, it would tell me what character I was looking at, but if I tried to analyze too much of the grid at once, I found my head rotating left, and my right eye fighting to open, against my will and a generous dollop of honey. Needless to say, this made Sudoku challenging in a whole new way.

That little tale aside, I can now say: We left on our trip, today! We left later than we would have liked, due to a chameleon camera, but we are safely in a Walmart parking lot, happy to be on our way. J (Side note: Walmart has a standing policy that any RV can park over night in their lots. It is a genius plan, really, as it inspires shopping, and fosters good will.)

Aside from the popcorn missile crisis, Cal hurt his leg last night and was hobbling everywhere. It was both cute and really sad at the same time. He seems better today, but he can’t run very fast, which is good because he’s escaped three times (his new record). Naga followed twice, proving a far more agile challenge for us to recapture. Their training continues, but slowly…

Well, that’s all for now.

From the four of us, two legs and more, Good night to all, from near a Nevada Store. :-D



Popcorn Recipe:
1/3 cup canola oil in a covered skillet with 3-10 popcorn kernels on med-high heat. When all added kernels pop, add 1/3 cup kernels, recover skillet, and swirl, gently, for 30 seconds. Replace lid. When the popping reduces to once every 7-10 seconds, turn off heat, dump contents into large bowl, and season as desired. (We use garlic salt.) Cool and enjoy!

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