Fresh Corn for this Winter

Aug 22 2016

Yesterday I had cooked down what tomatoes I got from the garden and set them in the fridge. I filled a quart jar for the freezer and had enough to use for my supper meal.

As soon as Suter’s Produce Wagon opened at 10:00 AM with fresh picked sweet corn I went up and got a dozen. That would make me 4 one pound bags to freeze for this winter. There is nothing better than opening a vacuum sealed bag of it this winter for some fresh corn taste.

I got the pot of boiling water on my Camp Chef and the wife helped me shuck it. I do a half doz. 2 to 3 minute blanch then take inside and run cold water over to stop the cooking. When the wife had the second batch shucked I said run up and get another dozen. It’s only about 3 minutes away. It was such a nice 74 deg. day I might as well do another doz. And it would give me 8 bags of corn.

I cut the kernels off with a serrated boning knife in a large pie dish, and I scrape the ears to get all the goodies. I do 3 ears then spoon into a sandwich zip lock bag. The 3 ears make just about a pound and lays out flat to freeze. In the morning I will just cut the zip off the bag and vacuum seal all on my Food Saver.

Sure glad the weather turned cooler; not sure I would have done the corn and this is the last week for Suter’s to be here in Wapakoneta. They won’t be out of corn but out of help to pick and man all the wagons they have open. The college kids they hire are starting to return to school. They keep open what they can and I can always drive to Lima, 18 miles away, if I want some bad enough.

Set up to par boil

Cutting off the cob

4 bags for the freezer

BLT's and Old Fashioned Potato Salad

Aug 19 2016

Looks like my big beefsteak tomatoes are near their end so BLT’s for supper tonight! I should call them BTBLB’s that’s how I stack them bacon, a slice of tomato, bacon, some lettuce, more bacon and I have mustard on the bottom bun and mayo on the top one. Tonight’s were on toasted white bread and sure tasted good.

I made some of my old fashioned potato salad early to have with the sandwiches. I bought Instant Pot’s glass lid that fits my pot. I wanted to be able to use it without the locking lid for some things. I steamed some eggs and that didn’t work out the way I expected. I put in 1 ½ cups of water and the eggs on the steam rack. I set the pot on steam and for 15 minutes. It never went to the timed mode until they were about done and the water was almost all gone. I guess the timed mode in Steam relies on pressure to activate it. My eggs did turn out good though.

I used the regular lid to steam my potatoes for 7 minutes and let cool down before opening.

I did a pound of bacon on my Traeger at 300 deg. grill level and took just over an hour. If I am lucky I should get one more BLT before all my garden tomatoes are gone.

Click Here for printable potato salad recipe

Steaming the eggs

Potatoes steamed

All mixed up

Bacon on the Traeger

Ready to serve

My supper

PC Beef, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Aug 15 2016

I had just used my new Instant Pot 6 in 1 pressure cooker to steam corn twice. I used it today to do a beef chuck roast and steam potatoes and carrots to mash.

If you have an Instant Pot you need a different steamer basket for small things. The insert that came with it is just for large chunks. The collapsible one I already had worked perfectly; you can see it in the first 2 photos.

The roast was from my butcher; 2 ½ pounds part of a 7 bone roast.  I steamed 4 large red potatoes and some carrots for 8 minutes. The potatoes were peeled and cut into large chunks. They were plenty done and mashed up easily. I added 4 large pats of butter and a couple large spoonfuls of sour cream and some salt. They went in the fridge and would heat up at supper time.

For the roast I used a package of Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix and some Pioneer Brown Gravy Mix stirred together and a cup of beef stock. I had 2 slices of sweet onion for the bottom of the pot.

I lightly salted and peppered the roast and cut it in half. I turned the pot to sauté and added some olive oil spray. When it said Hot I seared it on both sides about 3 minutes. I removed it from the pot added the onion slices to the bottom and coated both sides of the meat with the dry soup and gravy mix as I placed it back in. I poured the cup of beef stock over then placed the lid on and locked it. I went to “Meat Stew” setting and set the timer on 60 minutes. Within 10 minutes I was getting a nice beefy smell in the kitchen.

After it went to warm hold I let it set for 6 minutes then vented the steam. Be careful because after an hour it releases a lot of steam compared to a 4 minute steam. After it quite for a while I opened the lid and removed the meat to remove any fat and shred. It was pull apart tender. I let the gravy on warm hold. I nuked some green peas and heated up our mashed potatoes.

We had the beef and potatoes with gravy over, peas on the side and some buttered toasted English muffins. The wife and I thought it was very tender, melt in your mouth beef; some of the best I have had. My dog approved too; he got a few bites of the beef and a little of the gravy. I don’t feed him much table food but he is happy if he gets one bite!

I am going to enjoy having the Instant Pot this winter.

Steamer basket

In the pot

Potatoes and carrots done up early

For the roast

Roast seared and all in the pot

After one hour

The beef shredded

My supper

Ham & Tomato Open Face w/Cheese Sauce and Corn on the Cob

Aug 14 2016

Wow looks like a few days below 80 ahead. Between yesterday and this AM we got over 2 inches of much needed rain. It cooled down after the front went through and was nice to set out. Would have been a good evening to cook out but already had the meal planned.

Tonight’s supper I had planned for Sat. evening. Our son was to play in an afternoon and an evening High School Alumni soccer game so wanted something simple to fix. Then he called and said he was picking up some Erb’s chicken at noon and wanted to know if we wanted some. The chicken is done over charcoal and good so had him get us some; we ate that for our supper. They ended up canceling the soccer games due to rain.

I had 3 ears of Suter’s corn to steam and got some of my butcher’s shaved smoked ham. I had tomatoes so I had open faced ham and tomatoes with a cheese sauce over. The cheese sauce was from what I had on hand, a can of Rico’s white cheddar, a handful of shredded sharp cheddar, some gorgonzola, a couple splashes of Worcestershire, and Cholula hot sauce all melted together.

I toasted the buns and sautéed the ham; I had about a ¼ lb. of ham for each sandwich topped with tomato and the cheese sauce.

The corn I did in my Instant Pot, 1 ½ cups of water with the steam insert in place. It took 9 minutes to heat and get to pressure and start the 4 minute timer. As soon as the timer went off I shut the pot off and vented the steam. I made up the sandwiches and served the corn.

The sandwich was great and so was the corn. Even though the corn was two days old it tasted fresh. It was tender sweet and came off the cob easily. Steaming is my favorite way to do corn on the cob and the Instant Pot does it easily and I think exceptionally well.

Corn in the pot

Heating the cheese sauce

Making the sandwich

My ear of corn

My supper

Brats, Apple Slaw and Corn On the Cob

Aug 12 2016

I am getting tired of this hot humid weather! It is interfering with my outdoor cooking and my appetite too! With my COPD I get sapped pretty quickly when outdoors in this weather.

I had some tomato garlic fresh brats from my butcher, a head of red cabbage from my neighbor’s garden and some fresh picked corn from Suter’s; it was picked this morning. I was making some of akruckus’s, he is a fellow member of Lets Talk BBQ, apple slaw from the cabbage.

My Instant Pot 6 in 1 came today so I could try it out steaming the corn in it. It looks like it is well made.

The brats I planned to smoke for an hour on the Traeger and then brown up on my Weber Gas Grill. I made up the slaw after lunch; I just used a half head of cabbage so cut the ingredients accordingly.

About 4 PM we had a downpour for a half hour and got .8 inches. I thought I was going to have to brown the brats inside. I had some mini sub buns that would do well for the brats, I sliced some off the open edge and toasted on my gas grill. It all came together well but didn’t get as many pics as I wanted, I missed the finished slaw but you can see it on my plate.

I had a batch of my homemade Kimchi ready so I had to try that on my brat. The Kimchi and slaw doesn’t exactly go together but I like it. AK’s recipe for the slaw is a winner, the apple cider and applesauce dressing is great on it. My wife loved it and she had it on her brat.

The Instant Pot worked great; I had 3 ears of corn, one long one I had to halve, and it made one layer on the steam insert. There was enough room for another layer so you could do six ears in it. It took about 7 to 10 minutes to heat up and then went to timer mode; I had set to 4 minutes. 4 minutes later I shut it off and vented the steam. My wife and I both thought it was the best corn I have ever made.

Click Here for printable slaw recipe

For the slaw

Ready to mix

Corn in my Instant Pot

My supper

I made a second batch of the slaw for my wife's
Aunt so here is a photo of how pretty it is

An Overload of Tomatoes for Us

Aug 12 2016

It was another stinking hot humid day here in Ohio. We have had about two months of high 80 & 90 degree weather and very humid. We have been without rain though until two days ago we hot 1 ¼ inches in an hour and today we got .8 tenths in a half hour.

I had 12 tomato plants in my little 4X8 raised garden and they were not getting ripe. I just about had to water them every night but the grandson helped a lot of evenings doing the watering. I have a mix of Big Boy Beef Steak, Roma cherry, and Rutgers. I have had three bowls of mostly the Roma and Rutgers, but today I had the Beef Steaks come on too.

What you see here was about all picked today. Looks like I will be cooking some tomatoes tomorrow!

Yoshida Chicken Thighs & Caprise Pasta Salad

Aug 09 2016

I had an overload of little plum cherry tomatoes so I made up this caprice pasta salad and got some skinless boneless chicken thighs to have with it.  

My salad was 12 oz. gluten free penne, 1 ½ pounds cherry tomatoes, 12 oz. mozzarella, 1 shallot, a large handful of fresh basil, some lemon zest, salt and pepper. The dressing was 1/3 cup olive oil, ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, minced garlic whisked together then added the basil, shallots and tomatoes. I let set while I cooked the pasta about ½ hour total. When the pasta was cooked and cooled I mixed it and the mozzarella in and let that set about ½ hour before going in the fridge.

The chicken thighs were placed in a dish, a little kosher salt, and garlic flakes on top, Mr. Yoshidas added to cover and in the fridge 5 to 6 hours. I turned them half way through.

I heated my Traeger to 225 deg. I rinsed the thighs and placed in lightly oiled muffin pan. I covered each with a little Yoshidas and a little garlic flakes then Big D’s Big Kahuna went on four and the Margarita went on two for me. The muffin pan went in the smoker for 45 minutes then I removed them from the pan and direct on frog mat. Being in the pan they set up some and will hold a nice shape for the rest of the cook.

I upped the temp to about 280 deg. grill level for 45 minutes and went to 300 deg. the last 15 minutes. Total cook time was 1 ½ hours. All was served with some toasted English muffins and of course some butter!

It tasted pretty good, the Big D’s seasoning went well with Mr. Yoshidas. I had one thigh with the Margarita and one with the Big Kahuna.

 Thighs in the marinade

For the salad

Dressing

Basil added

Tomatoes added

Mixed with pasta and mozzarella

Chicken ready fro the grill

After 45 min. removed to the grill

170 IT and ready to serve

Resting

My supper