Old-Fashioned Brown Sugar Kettle Corn Recipe

"Photo: Madeleine Ignon I associate the smell and taste of old-fashioned kettle corn more with farmer’s markets than I do with fairs or circuses, particularly the Hollywood Farmer’s Market that has made itself as much a landmark as Musso & Frank’s and Capitol Records. Hollywood itself can be a circus. Besides kettle corn to snack on, produce to sample and examine, and the always-welcomed latte truck, there are always people to watch there, people that to me are more interesting than anything a performance under a tent could conjure up. I used to go to the farmer’s market nearly every Sunday with my mom and sister to stroll and people watch, and I remember thinking the people manning the kettle corn stand looked like they were stirring a gigantic potion together, creating clouds of sugar air all around them. This recipe, although I did my research to make sure I had my ratio of sugar to popcorn to oil right, is sort of what just happened when I tried to make sugar-coated popcorn. I find that olive oil gives it a nicer flavor than the typical canola oil, and brown sugar creates richer sugar syrup than white. Photo: Madeleine Ignon..."