How to blanch your sweet corn from your garden

The first thing we do is pick all the corn in the garden. We like to shuck them outside to eliminate the mess in the house later. After all that, you will want to start some boiling water on the stove. I like to do at least 2 pots boiling at the same time to make it faster. You may want to cut your corn off at the tops if there isn't much kernels on them. Once the water is boiling you can start adding your corn. Depending on the size of your pot, put a few ears of corn in. Try not to put too many as this will make the water stop boiling. Put the lid on, set your timer to 7 minutes and then get some ice cold water ready.




After the 7 minutes put the corn in ice cold water for a few minutes to stop the cooking.




Then you are ready to start cutting the corn off the cob. I use an electric knife to do this. This will make it faster and easier. I also get a big bowl and a smaller bowl. I put the smaller bowl upside down in the bigger bowl. This way the corn falls into the big bowl and eliminates a major mess. I am all about easy clean up and less mess. After your bowl has filled up enough you can put the corn into freezer safe Ziploc bags and label with the date and what is in them.





Another option for freezing is to spread all out on a baking sheet and put in freezer for a few hours until frozen, then put them into Ziploc bags. This will allow the corn in the bag to be loose and broken apart. They will not all stick together. So if you prefer to make bigger bags and then scoop some out here and there this would be the way you would want to do it; otherwise they come out in one big clump.




And this is how Mr. and Mrs. CountryLife blanch our corn.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Butterscotch Bits

Tonight I was in the mood for something sweet. I was looking through some magazines and came across this recipe in the August 28, 2009 All You magazine. I went through my cabinets and had all the ingredients so I decided to bake some some.


Prep: 20 min.; Chill: 2 hr.; Bake: 15 min. per batch.Cost per serving: 24¢
Yield
About 2 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Ingredients
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter (not "all natural") I used creamy Jif peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 11-oz. package butterscotch morsels

Preparation
1. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt.

2. Beat butter and peanut butter until smooth. Gradually add sugar, beating to blend. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture and butterscotch morsels. Form into a large disk and wrap in plastic. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 375°F; line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Use hands to form dough into 1 1/2-inch balls. Place balls about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Using a fork, press balls flat, then press again to form a crisscross pattern. Bake cookies until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Cool on sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 241
Fat: 13g (sat 4g)
Protein: 5g
Carbohydrate: 29g
Fiber: 1g
Cholesterol: 20mg
Sodium: 207mg

All You, AUGUST 2009

I baked the cookies after two hours instead of waiting all night. The first batch I tried to take off the cookie sheet immediately. They all broke into pieces. I decided to leave the other batches on the cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes before putting them on a cooling rack. This worked very well. They cookies stayed intact.

As far as taste, Mr.Suburbia and I would probably rate them a 7 on a 10-scale. They are very good...but it is like they are missing something. I'm not sure what yet. I do recommend these cookies if you love peanut butter like I do.

Freezing Zucchini

I'm lucky that a lot of the people I work with have gardens and grow more food than they can eat. People are always bringing in vegetables to share with everyone. They just throw them on a table with a first come-first served sign.

Today I brought home 5 zucchinis. I always get hungry for zucchini bread or fried zucchini in the Fall so I wanted to freeze some.

I know that my zucchini bread recipe calls for 2-1/2 cups of shredded zucchini so I placed the shredded zucchini in bags of 2-1/2 cups. I sliced the rest and put them in separate bags as well.

I wrote what type of zucchini it is (shredded, sliced) and then how much is in each bag (2-1/2 cups) and the date that I froze it (8/26/09).

Now when I am in the mood for some bread or some fried zucchini in butter with mozzarella I can pull some zucchini out of the freezer.

Wild Blueberry Jam

This was my first time making jam. I recall watching my mom making strawberry jam when I was younger, but I was too little to help.

I found lots of recipes on-line but decided to try the recipe on the Sure-jell box. The next thing to decide is whether to make cooked jam or freezer jam. I made a batch of each.

The freezer jam is the easiest to make and I personally think the freezer jam tastes better.

Picking Wild Blueberries

This was my first trip with my husband to pick wild blueberries. We went to Paradise, Michigan.

Paradise is known for their wild blueberries, so much so, that they have an annual festival each year in August.

I wanted to pick enough blueberries to try making some jam, syrup and fruit roll-ups. We came across tons of blueberries. We picked 2 gallons. It seemed like a lot to us.

Wild blueberries are smaller than farm picked blueberries but have a better taste and are better for you.

When we came back from picking we went through all of them to take off any stems, leaves or to throw out the bad ones.

FREEZING WILD BLUEBERRIES: Place them in a freezer bag. If you wish to rinse them, do so when you take them out of the freezer, under cold water. Place them directly into your recipes as you would using fresh blueberries.