Too many

that is all.

Stove-Top Popcorn, like a boss

I have a long history of sucking at making popcorn on the stove. In college, my roommate Maggie and I could have contests involving the number of kernels left at the bottom of the bowl. If your batch had less than 6, you got a free beer. If you had zero kernels left, I think you got a six-pack. I'm not sure I ever finished paying off all the beer I owed her.
In grad school, my roommate Rachel and I would make popcorn and watch Sex and the City ... and study. Cause we were lame. But I still wasn't all that good at it.

Cue Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest. You never really failed me ... until now. Even pinterest couldn't fix my popcorn predicament.

And then I sort of solved it by accident.

Here we go. Forgive the lack of measurements ... I tend to wing it in the kitchen.

Perfect Stove-Top Popcorn

Ingredients:

Vegetable/Canola Oil

Pop Corn Kernels

Any toppings you want (butter, salt, etc.)

In a 1-1/2 qt sauce pan, pour enough oil to just cover the bottom. Throw in about 10 popcorn kernels. Cover and shake a few times so kernels are coated with oil. Place over medium heat and walk away for a minute. I mean, don't leave the house with the stove on, but you can do dishes or something. This part is going to take a few minutes. Ever minute or so go back and shake the kernels around. You'll notice that they'll start to turn golden. When they start to pop, keep shaking the pan above the heat so they don't burn. Once they all pop (you'll know because you won't hear any "clinking" in the pan from the kernels), dump them into a bowl. Put another layer of oil down and throw another handful of kernels in (about a Tbsp), and shake a few times until coated. Because the pan is already the right temperature, the oil will heat quickly and the kernels will pop fast! As soon as they start to pop, keep shaking until all popped. Repeat until you have as much popcorn as you want.

Why this works: I used to put in as many kernels as the amount of popcorn I wanted. This didn't work because there were too many kernels, they would get stuck in the middle of the popped popcorn and not pop. Doing it in small batches means all the kernels get oil and touch the bottom of the pan, so they'll all get hot enough to pop. Also, when there are only a few kernels, you'll hear when it's done and won't keep the pan on the stove too long (which prevents burning).

Enjoy!!!

Jeopardy Review Game

(Cross-Posted to my birthy blog, Crafted Birth)

When I was in high school I had a wonderful Anatomy teacher named Mr. Annand. He was famous for a strict no-swearing rule in his classroom (punishment was 10 push-ups), his Friday Talks (where he lectured us on smart choices like abstinence ("not until you're married and financially stable") and not drinking ("when you're TWENTY-ONE"), and the infamous STD slideshow ("This ... is a penis. This is a penis with herpes. Any questions?"). But more than that, he was an awesome teacher with a wonderful ability to make the material fun. Interpretive dances about Mitosis and Meiosis, 3D models of DNA, and my personal favorite, Jeopardy Review games before big tests (and there was always a Potpourri Trivia category about movies).

During my CBI training, I wrote up a fun activity to review class material and get students to relax and have fun. Thanks to Mr. Annand, I have a very good idea of how to run a Jeopardy class activity.

Of course we need a good title.

"THIS ... IS ... PREGNANCY!"

And some categories. Classes 1 and 2 cover different types of care providers, decision-making, maternal anatomy, fetal positions, stage 1 labor, and stage 2 labor. Before covering stage 3 labor and pain management, I want to make sure students remember he key points of the first two classes.

And questions/clues, of course. Many of them are actually written so they can be answered in the form of a question.

I had so much fun with this. And the internet is oh so helpful with things like this.

Question font ... the official font is call ITC Korinna bold
But this one, ScaKorinna, can be found here for free.
http://fonts101.com/fonts/view/Uncategorized/29108/ScaKorinna
White with a black shadow.

The Category font is Haettenschweiler, but I couldn't find a porn-free site to download, so I used Impact. Close enough.

This school had a fun PowerPoint template, including the Final Jeopardy music.
http://sctritonscience.com/Wilson/powerpoint_review_game_templates.htm

I ended up making my own, with hyperlinks so I could go back and forth between the clues and the game board while the presentation was in full-screen mode.
(adding hyperlinks within a presentation).
Note: you can change the color of the hyperlinks in the color themes, so they'll be the correct Jeopardy colors and not the default bright blue that doesn't match anything.

This should be fun!!!

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Like what you've read? Pregnant and looking for a class in Western/Central Massachusetts?
Check out Crafted Birth's current class schedule here.