Hope that this helps.

also (if in the mood for something a little sweet) mix about 1 tblespoon
of cinnamon with 1 tblspoon sugar and a few pinches of salt.  shake
through your batch of popcorn... (you'd be surprised at how little you
need for a light cinnamon-toastish taste!)

i'm a big fan of "nutritional yeast" on popcorn.  it's similar to brewer's
yeast, but has a nuttier, less "yeasty" flavor...

i'm sure i could think of gazillions of things to do with popcorn if i put
my mind to it....yum!

     Please tell us how.  My husband uses the wok to toast sesame
seed, to roast sunflower seeds, to roast coffee and buckwheat, but how
do you do popcorn in it?
                              --thelma

Are these things as incredibly difficult as they seem? I'm especially
interested in the blown sugar, although I'm sure I will destroy YET
ANOTHER pot when I attempt it. (My cooking experiences never result in
actual food. At best I wind up with 10 pounds of pistachio marzipan or a
cake coated in a solid inch of white chocolate, etc.)

    Blown Sugar, is very much like blowing glass, although the temps are
lower.  basically you cook sugar, water, and glucose with some acid (everything
must be *VERY* clean- no wooden spoons, shinning copper (unlined) pots,
it is generally recommended to use Evian water, and a precise thermometer.).
The sugar is then poured out, and pulled untill it is very shiny and silky.
Doing this type of work usually requires heat lamps, and marble slabs.  You
take a glob of sugar put it around a tube, and blow. forming and streching
as you go (or you can blow into a silicon mold).

    Pulled Sugar is made in the same way, but you pull the sugar to form
things, generally flowers, ropes for baskets, and of course the dreaded
ribbons (they that bad) you are right they are similar to the candy xmas
ribbons that do taste bad.  All colors added to the sugar must be clean,
usually liquid, although some nice effects can be created with powdered
colors.  

   Mostly the cleanliness is what is important, oh i forgot to mention,
that you generally work with the sugar wearing latex gloves (they keep
had oils and sweat out of the sugar and protect -- only some -- from
the heat.) and on silicon mats.  The reason for the fastidiously clean
environment is that any thing -- will cause the sugar to begin to
crystalize, making is impossible to use and forming weird lumps and
ugly bumps on your product.

   If you intend to keep these items you should spray them with eatable
lacquer or they will melt. And store with a eatable dessicant.

   Generally these items are what you would see on a buffet in a FANCY
place. they are time consuming and tedious to make, but beautiful and
very impressive.

   I dont know if it is difficult, it is like playdough but very hot.
and you really do need a lot of equipment.  I like it and I even learned
these techniques with a chef during the summer.  There are other similar
modelling things like chocolate, sort of like tootsie rolls but softer, that
are also formed into flowers and baskets.

   Gum Paste is something totally different, using a combination like you
state, flowers (usually) are formed using molds, dried, colored and assembled.
they last forever in a closed box.

Hope this helps.  There arent too many books out there on this, I am afraid
that it is a dying art unless you are a big-time pastry chef in a fancy hotel.