For Christmas my loving children gave me a very nice covered wok in which we'll be doing stir-fry and other dinners.

Last night, however, we discovered an unanticipated use: popping real popcorn. We've been meaning to make "real" popcorn for some time now having grown somewhat tired of the taste of microwave popcorn.

As someone who grew up in a popcorn loving home, and having been taken regularly to the movie theater my dad managed on the weekends where I could have as much free popcorn as I wanted, popcorn has always been a favorite.

I've gone through all manners of preparation - with hot oil in a covered pan, air-popped, then microwave, and now I think I've found the perfect method.