Everything Popcorn

Decisiveness is not a quality that is regularly ever attributed to me. I just don’t have it. I’m always the last person to order at a restaurant. After the 45 minutes it takes me to decide on a restaurant, albeit with the caveat, “Ok we’ll try there, but if there is a wait we’re going here, there, or over-there instead”. Clearly, patience is a virtue I also lack.

Indecisiveness applies to more than just restaurants. Ask me where I’m transferring to school next fall and you’ll get some variation of this:

“Well, I really want to go to University of Texas, Austin, but I won’t get in, so I’ll probably go to University of Arizona or the University of New Mexico, unless I get into OSU or ASU.”

I've had three different majors, not including culinary school.

I wear the same thing everyday (jeans, t-shirt, flip flops), yet it takes me three tries before I’m content with an outfit...and I almost always change my clothes later in the day. To be fair, I’m usually covered in flour* or formaldehyde** and need to change.

Then there is the always epic bagel debate. I love bagels. I love all manner of bagels. Onion. Garlic. Cinnamon. Jalapeno Cheddar. (Do these flavor variations exist elsewhere, or are Jalapeno Cheddar bagels indigenous to the West coast like tri-tip?)

Anyways, my local bagel place has the perfect bagel for people like me. The Cheese Everything bagel. Caraway, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion, garlic and salt all on one bagel? Yes please. And let’s talk about the cheese for just a second. You know when you make a grilled cheese and some of the cheese oozes out and gets crispy and kind of sticks to the pan? Yeah, that’s what the cheese on the bagel tastes like. In other words, heaven.

But, alas, it is January. And since beach season apparently started a week ago (seriously, its been in the 80s), bagels are off the menu. I had my last hurrah with them (for awhile) on Christmas morning. So what’s a girl to do when she needs an everything bagel fix?

Make popcorn. Which I already do 3-4 times per week. I have a special popcorn bowl and everything. I’ve made dozens of flavors of popcorn, some amazing (sprinkle some BBQ rub on popcorn and tell me its not amazing), some not so much (miso butter, good in theory, but needs work). Everything popcorn may just be one of my favorite popcorn flavors to date. It hits all the same notes as the bagel. Everything Popcorn is equally at home for movie night with a glass of wine and some sliced cheddar, or as a snack when you’re studying for physiology and ready to pull your hair out in an effort to make room for more information***.

*I always end up with flour everywhere.
**Cat dissections last semester, sure I could have worn a lab coat...but I didn’t.
***Foreshadowing for this semester

Everything Popcorn (Printable)

You can use bagged popcorn for this, but I always pop mine on the stove (I always burn popcorn in the microwave, I have yet to burn it on the stove). I would include directions, but my stove makes for ridiculously easy popcorn and I don’t think my method would work on other stoves. If you need directions, I would try these. Lastly, if you use microwave popcorn, you might consider cutting down the salt in the spice mix. I made the mix based on stove top popcorn

2 quarts popped popcorn
2 tablespoon melted butter (Optional if you use microwave popcorn. Its definitely not needed with “Movie Theater Butter” popcorn)
1 recipe Everything Spice Mix

Put popcorn in a large bowl. Drizzle the butter over the popcorn. Sprinkle everything spice mix over the top. Toss the popcorn so the popcorn is evenly coated. Devour.

Everything Spice Mix
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt

In a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind the caraway, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds to a fine powder. The first time I made this I left everything whole and big surprise, none of it stuck to the popcorn. Now it all gets ground.Transfer to a small bowl. Add the garlic powder, onion powder, and salt to the caraway mix. Stir to combine. Devour while marveling at similarities to bagel.

Comments

[Sydney @ The Crepes of Wrath]

This is right up my alley - I should have done this last night instead of my usual boring popcorn.

[Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake]

I love popcorn, although I've never tried so many different flavours! My usual butter and salt sounds so boring now. :P

[Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella]

Ahh bagels-love them when they're fresh and real boiled bagels :) And this variation of popcorn sounds delicious!

[Deanna]

Jenny- I eat a ridiculous amount of popcorn, I'm always trying new flavors. Another one I tried recently was based off of salt and pepper calamari with cilantro, jalapenos, and garlic. The flavors were great, but the popcorn got soggy.

[Kat]

I don't think it's ever even crossed my mind to put something on pop corn. Yeah, I know, I'm a genius over here. This looks awesome.

[Deanna]

Kat-I basically treat popcorn like its a cracker. Or a chip. Whatever I'm craving really. Which lately has been a bagel.

[kyleen]

I'm pretty indecisive too. The hardest thing to decide? Which sushi place to go to. This popcorn looks so yummy and I love that there are so many different flavours going on.

[Jennie (the gf-gf)]

OK, this is genius - I can't eat wheat, and I really, really miss cheesy everything bagels. I'm so excited to try this!

My favorite popcorn toppings that I tried lately was tahini and maple syrup - it was a little salty, a little sweet, a little bitter. Super tasty!

Loving your blog, lady! You are such a clever cook :-)

[Kim Bee]

This is a wonderful idea. I tend to just eat mine the old fashioned way. I've been missing out.

[Reham]

I believe the Absolute Bagels folks are Thai, aatlculy. Do a search on nytimes.com; they talk about the founder's path from Bangkok to Ess-a-Bagel, where he learned the trade.I just tried Absolute a few days ago, and I think they're pretty good. Definitely competitive with and certainly a bit less dense than, not necessarily a bad thing H H or Ess-a-Bagel.