Challenge 7: Food Glorious Food - Parker's Hulk Popcorn
Parker's Hulk Popcorn (fandom: Leverage)
(this recipe was adapted from the wikihow on how to make green-coloured popcorn: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Green-Popcorn)
A step-by-step guide, by Parker
Hardison likes popcorn and he likes superheroes, but since you can't make robot popcorn, we're making HULK popcorn. HULK SMASH! If you have no skills in the kitchen (or just don't want to do it yourself), grab your Eliot and make him do it.
One: Take your popcorn. It needs to be a lot because movies are best with lots of popcorn.
Two: Also take all the other stuff you need: sugar, light corn syrup, butter, salt, cream of tartar, vanilla, baking soda, lots and lots of green food colouring.
Three: Pop the popcorn! Take a large pot with a glass lid and watch as the popcorn goes pop! Watching popcorn pop is by far the best thing about making this yourself.(When it's done, just put the popcorn into a big bowl.)
Four: Melt two tablespoons of butter and add sugar (1 ½ cups), corn syrup (1/2 cup), ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar and a ½ tablespoon of salt. Make it boil and stir until everything has melted together.
Five: Stop stirring and add enough food colouring to get a good Hulk colour. Wait five minutes - maybe you can go and crack a couple of locks while you wait - and DON'T STIR. This is important. Don't stir. If you have an Eliot with a fancy kitchen, you'll have a food thermometer. The goo should be between 250 and 260 °F.
Six: Take the pot off the stove and add ½ teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon baking soda; stir. The goo should be foaming at this point (yay!), so pour it over your bowl of popcorn and stir until all the popcorn is green.
Seven: Put the green & gooey popcorn on a cookie sheet, using cooking spray or parchment paper to make sure it won't stick. Bake for one hour at 200 °F and stir every fifteen minutes or so. You can sit in front of the oven and watch it dry, so you'll know when it's perfect.
Eight: You're done! Take the popcorn out of the oven and put it in a bowl to present to your Hardison at your next date night! He'll love it!
Popcorn Triple-Drabble:
Parker took the bowl into the living room where Hardison had set up his wall of screens. The screens showed the Blu-Ray menu of one of the Star Wars films and Parker frowned a little. A superhero film would have been better. She shrugged; Hardison would love it anyways.
"I made popcorn!"
Hardison looked up from his laptop, already smiling. "Cool, that's great, we can--" He caught sight of the bowl and shot her a questioning look.
"It's Hulk Popcorn!"
Hardison's smile widened. "You made me green popcorn?"
Parker nodded. "Eliot helped," she admitted. "But it looks like we're watching Star Wars, so…"
"No, that's fine. We can switch to Marvel, no problem." Hardison was already up to switch discs, then turned back and dropped a kiss on her lips. "Thank you, babe, this is great! Really great."
Parker smiled happily and sat down, grabbing a handful of the Hulk popcorn. She hoped it would turn her teeth green, or maybe her tongue. That would be cool.
Off to the side, Hardison switched the discs and noticed Eliot lurking in the doorway. Hardison waved him closer, practically dragging him to the sofa and pushing him down next to Parker. "Mandatory team movie night," he said in a tone that wouldn't allow Eliot to skip out on them.
Eliot grumbled, but didn't try to escape. "I'm not watching that damn Star Trek movie again."
"It's Captain America; you'll like it." Hardison sat down and leaned closer, bumping Eliot's shoulder with his own. "Thanks for the popcorn, Eliot," he whispered. "I know you, uh, 'helped' Parker with this."
Eliot said nothing, but he grinned as he took a handful of popcorn.
Hardison reached over to grab his own handful, smiling contently as Eliot and Parker started bickering over the popcorn bowl.
