Stove-Top Popcorn with Parmesan, Black Pepper and Rosemary

Its been a bit of a rough week around here. First off, "fall" seems to mean "rain" this year, and the sun has been hiding on us for weeks now, and on top of that? Agata has about five weeks to go before defending her Master's thesis (yay!). All of this calls for snacks, in a big way.

I think there is a conspiracy afoot, and it has to do with popcorn. Have you been to a theater lately? They sell you popcorn for like, $7 a bag! Even worse are those little bags of microwave popcorn they sell you, so you can make your own crappy MSG-filled popcorn at home. Also, specialty popcorn machines. The whole world is trying to convince you that you need their help to make popcorn. Not true!

The truth is, making popcorn is the simplest, cheapest, fastest snack out there. Popping corn, even the organic kind, is incredibly cheap at the grocery store, and all you need to make it is a pot with a lid. It's not hard, it's not messy, and it takes about 1 minute. And even better, once it's made, you can cover it in all kinds of delicious things. Here is my favorite fancy popcorn recipe to make me feel gourmet on a rainy day.

You need:
1 cup corn kernels
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan (or more, to taste)
1 tbsp of butter or olive oil (or more, to taste)
11/2 tsp sea salt (more or less, to taste)
1 tsp freshly grated black pepper (again, to taste)
2 tbsp fresh, finely diced rosemary (...)

Making stove top popcorn:
1. Heat up a tablespoon of butter or olive oil in the bottom of a medium sized pot on medium heat.
2. Once the butter has melted (or the oil is hot), toss in 1 cup of corn kernels and put the lid on. Shake the pot back and forth on the burner, holding the lid on tight. You should hear popping - this means you're doing it right. Keep shaking!
3. When the popping slows down, take the pot off the heat. Popcorn! At this point, you can really do whatever you want to it.
4. Add 1/4 of a cup of fine, freshly grated Parmesan, a pat of butter, sea salt, freshly grated black pepper (and I like it chunky, if possible), and fresh, finely diced rosemary.

Even with all these nice ingredients, this whole snack is still significantly cheaper then a box of Oreos, and tastes better, too. How do you all like your popcorn? Any tricks I should try?