my first use of the "whirley pop"

This is a whirley pop.

It's a stovetop popcorn maker.  

So, why use this?  Why not just use a plain old pot?

The whirley pop has a crank, that you turn while cooking, so that the oil and salt is evenly distributed all over the corn, and also keeps the corn on the bottom from burning.

Believe me, it's a lot easier to turn the crank, than to continuously shake the pot while you cook.

They sell "kits" to use with the whirley pop, but you don't have to use a kit.

Just use 1/2 cup of popcorn, 3 tbsp of oil, and 1 tsp of salt.

I was very happy with the results.  It didn't take very long to pop at all, there were very few unpopped kernels, and NO scorched kernels.  Which is my pet peeve!

I'm not fond of microwave popcorn, because it usually results in either half the kernels being unpopped, or, it's all scorched.  Yuck.