Small Appliances

My Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper Review: The pictures speak for themselves!

I’ve always loved popcorn – not only is it delicious, let’s face it, popcorn’s crazy fun to eat.  However, popping it, with all the pan shaking and grease splattering, isn’t even remotely fun.  I don’t know about you, but if I do have any muscles in my body, they certainly aren’t in my arms.  Popeye might enjoy the pan shaking, but I can do without it.

The last time I made popcorn the old fashioned way, it took more time than I wanted to spend and made a bigger mess than I wanted to clean.  I decided, then and there, that my next trip to Target would include buying a popcorn maker.  Since I never tease myself about anything as serious as shopping at Target, I did joyfully add to my kitchen’s small appliances collection.  I chose the West Bend Stir Crazy 6-Quart Electric Popcorn Popper and we’ve been getting along famously.

Whrrrr… it spins one way, then the other way for even distribution and popping.

The West Bend Stir Crazy Electric Popcorn Popper is Very, Very, Very Easy to Use

As I said, I don’t want to spend a lot of time when it comes to popping popcorn.  Usually, if we’re having popcorn, it means something is on television that’s SO important it calls for snacks. If this is the case, the last thing I want to do is to be in the kitchen and away from the fun for very long.  I certainly don’t want a huge mess to have to clean up.  The Stir Crazy Popcorn Maker is a dream come true.  You simply put three tablespoons of oil into the base, add a cup of popcorn, spread it out, put the lid on, plug it in… then watch the fun.

Look, Ma!  No arms!

The Stir Crazy takes care of the kernel rotation, and likety split, you have a heaping bowl full of deliciously and perfectly popped popcorn.  You simply unplug and turn the Stir Crazy upside down, filling the clear bowl (which can double as a serving bowl) with delicious hot popcorn.

There’s even a butter dispenser on top. You can putt a few pats of butter into the “well” before popping and watch as the butter deliciously melts over the popcorn as it pops.  I didn’t use butter in the batch of popcorn you see here because I had other plans.  I am WILD about adding M & M’s to popcorn – a habit I first tried at the movie theater.  I had popcorn, a box of M & M’s, and a Coke. I didn’t have a third hand, so before I left the concession stand, I dumped my M & M’s into my popcorn.  Snacker’s ingenuity.  When I got to my seat, I reached in and grabbed a few pieces of popcorn, accompanied by a few M & M’s…

Boom! It was so delicious, I wouldn’t dream of having movie popcorn without M & M’s ever again. It’s equally great with Peanut M & M’s as it is with regular.

I also add M & M’s to my popcorn at home about half the time.  Sometimes I buy peanut, sometimes regular.  This time, I bought M & M Minis because they were so gosh darn cute.

Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper, M&M’s Minis, and Amish Popcorn… Good things are about to happen.

You can use your favorite popcorn from the store in the West Bend Stir Crazy 6-Quart Electric Popcorn Popper.  My husband regularly picks up bags of AMAZING Amish Country Popcorn when he’s in Rural King.  For this particular batch, I used their Baby White (Extra Small and Tender) variety – a favorite. The small and tender popcorn is a perfect match for the M&M’s Minis.  And, again, so gosh darn cute.

The West Bend Stir Crazy Electric Popcorn Popper is Fast and Clean Up is a BREEZE

Popping time in the Stir Crazy is about 5 minutes – and it seems even quicker than that. Maybe it’s because I enjoy the show so much.

As for clean up, the Nonstick-coated popping surface makes it so easy it’s ridiculous.  It’s almost as if it cleans itself.  If I could only get the rest of my kitchen appliances to master  this trick.

I absolutely positively recommend the West Bend Stir Crazy 6-Quart Electric Popcorn Popper – 100 percent.  If you (like I did) microwave popcorn, you might want to rethink the habit.  Researchers say this practice is actually very unhealthy.  It isn’t the popcorn that poses the danger, but the bags, themselves.

Besides, the Stir Crazy makes popcorn that tastes so fantastic, it puts microwaveable popcorn to shame.

You will use this guy year round…

• Wintertime with NFL games, NCAA football and basketball.
• Summertime – Baseball and popcorn are one of my personal favorite combinations.
• Movie night – what’s a movie without popcorn??!
• During your favorite shows (Swamp People, Survivor, Justified, Food Network…).
• Halloween – popcorn balls just became a cinch.
• Christmas – popcorn for stringing is faster than ever.

Grab a Stir Crazy at your nearest Target or order one on Amazon today by clicking the following link – West Bend Stir Crazy 6-Quart Electric Popcorn Popper.  It actually costs the same both places.  If you’ll notice, on Amazon, there are a lot of different seasonings and special popcorn popping oils to buy along with your Stir Crazy.

Whatever you do, give M & M’s in your popcorn a try.  If you WANT them to melt a little, add them right away – if you want the candies to stay firm, let the popcorn cool off just a little.  Either way, you’ll be blown away!

As delicious as it is pretty.