SITTING DOWN TO WATCH a good show with a bucket of popcorn is a special time—whether at a theater or in the comfort of our living rooms. Our imaginations are captured. We suspend reality for a time and—just for a moment—anything is possible.
Perfectly Popped Popcorn
Some of us have tried to make popcorn at home with varying degrees of success. A few years ago during a summer holiday, I observed Joe Distephano demonstrating his method for perfectly popping popcorn. When we were talking about making popcorn the center of our holiday gift program this year, I thought of Joe. He is Amherst Label owner Nick Calvetti’s cousin by marriage and lives in nearby Hampton, NH.
Watch the 3-minute video to see Joe’s tricks:
- Start with a 8-quart covered pan and set your stove to high heat.
- Cover the bottom of the pan with saute olive oil, just one kernel deep. Joe uses Filippo Berio saute/frying oil.
- Place three kernels in the pan and cover. When they pop, the oil is hot.
- Add about 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels, enough to cover the bottom of the pan one kernel deep.
- Shake the pan as needed to let unpopped kernels drop to the bottom.
- When the popping stops, transfer to a paper bag and add salt to taste
Reach for the stars
There is a special theater program near Amherst Label where a child named Angela spent some of her summer days. Standing on the stage with the other kids at Andy’s Summer Playhouse, she developed confidence and a sense of self. Now, thirty five years later, her children are experiencing the magical transformative power of Andy’s.
That little girl is Angela Calvetti Hornor, Amherst Label’s very special Special Projects Manager.
For the holidays this year, we are making a donation in our customers’ and employees’ honor to Andy’s. We’re hoping to inspire new generations to reach for the stars, enjoy the show and be their best.
At Amherst Label, we try every day to do our best for our customers, to help you tell your story, reach your goals and achieve your dreams.
This holiday season and throughout the new year, we hope you’ll reach for the stars and enjoy the show.
Enjoy the show!
Production Notes
Our pretty popcorn custom labels breezed through the Amherst Label shop after the order was placed by sales coordinator Jessica Ackerman. But there was an interesting snag, solved by our art department wizards. The illustration of popcorn, movie and stars we used was purchased from Shutterstock as an RGB vector. To print, we needed to convert it to CMYK. But when we tried to do this in the marketing department, the emerald green faded to a dismal swamp-like black. Our artist Mary Moore solved the problem by suggesting that we open the eps file in Photoshop and export it as a pdf back to Illustrator. The eps opened perfectly in Photoshop CMYK with no loss of color. And presto! The show went on.
