CORN SEASON IS HERE !!!

I love corn on the cob. Jackson County must have some of the best corn in the world. Fixing corn on the cob is not real hard, but a bit of a chore.

Of course, you can just put the corn on the grill outside husk and all. The husks and silks come off the corn very easily when the corn is cooked in this manner.
I have to admit, I do enough outdoor grilling in the heat that I don’t do it at home as much as I used to, especially in this hot weather.

I hate shucking fresh corn in my kitchen. It seems the silks get everywhere and are hard to get off the ears of corn. I always have silks on the counter, in the sink, and strays floating in the water cooking with the corn. So much easier is the grilled corn on the husk; just put on a pair of farmer gloves a couple of pulls from the top down and WALLA !!! the corn is clean.

So, I got to thinking…
Humm…
Why not put the corn in the oven husk and all??? Why couldn’t the corn be set on a flat sheet pan, oven set about 350, and give it about 45 minutes or so???

So I did it !!!

You know, the corn was fantastic! It was so sweet you would think someone had poured corn syrup all over the ears!
I put on a pair of cloth farmer gloves and quickly shucked it, just like the corn off the grill. I fixed a pan of butter to roll the corn in and I was ready to go…

The only prep I should have done was to pull off some of the loose husk to keep the oven a little cleaner.

Try this at home and see how you like it!!!

For the past couple of weeks I have been noticing this pair of Cardinals that have been making trips back and forth through our backyard.

These two birds roost in on of our landscape trees next to the garage window. They fly up to the window and flutter their wings flying against the window; as if they were trying to fly into the garage. At first I thought it was just the bright colored male seeing his reflection and trying to scare off another male trying to mate with his “woman”; then I noticed the female doing exactly the same thing the male was doing. Is she trying to defend her place with her “man”?

This attractive pair will flutter up and down the window several times, roost in the tree for awhile, flutter up and down some more, then fly off to parts unknown, deep in the backyard, crossing over the tree line, into the refuge.

Crazy, huh?

While I am no Shelly Erwin with a camera, I did take a few pictures using our small Cannon Power Shot.

This is the pair of love birds.

Here they are, fluttering up and down the window and occasionally landing on the window sill:

“The only difference between Men and Boys is the size of their toys.”

I am sure you have heard this saying in one form or another.
As for me… well, no boats, planes, RV’s, or fancy cars.
What I do have, though, is outdoor cooking equipment that is the envy of any backyard grill enthusiast. (of course this is not for my personal enjoyment, this is stuff that I use for my profession, but that still gives me bragging rights)

Anyway, I set up part of our collection for this past Father’s Day and took some pictures before Chef Kev and I started cooking.

This is the whole set up for the day. I will say one thing these commercial grade pop-up tents provide the necessary shade for a hot day of cooking.

This is the Ole’ Hickory smoker. At the time of writing this post I have 423 pounds of pork shoulder on the smoker; that’s half the capacity of the thing!

The next picture is the work area. You can see some spices, hand sanitizer on the trailer, work tables, cutting board, etc etc. You may notice my water misting fan in the left of the picture. This thing was priced at $500. That is a ridiculous amount to spend on a fan. I came home and immediately ordered this one after a day of grilling in 100 degree weather two summers ago.

Taking the time to arrange an efficient work area will make the work go so much easier when cranking out a lot of food. (Kevin and I cooked for over 400 that afternoon.)

The ‘Silver Grill” !!! The ultimate in portable outdoor grilling !!! We only used tow of the three fireboxes that day.
A few weeks prior three of us cranked out 750 hamburgers and 750 hotdogs in one hour and fifteen minutes on this grill !!!

The newest addition to the family, a commercial Wok with a commercial outdoor stove. I bought this a few weeks back at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago. This thing is SWEET !!!

A few nights ago I was fixing dinner for the family. (a task that Katie and I enjoy and take turns doing) I was inspired by an episode of “How I Met Your Mother”.
This was the episode where Marshall and the gang were on a quest to find the tiny diner in which Marshall had enjoyed the best burger he had ever had in his life. At the end of the episode when Marshall finally found this ultimate burger, I looked at the juicy burger and got hungry for a big, thick, skillet grilled hamburger.

I not only cooked the burgers for the family, I sautéed Vidalia onions, skillet seared some pineapple rings, crisped some bacon pieces, and cooked some baby carrots and corn. (gotta have our veggies!) I used the entire stove at once. I felt like a real multi-tasking chef with all this going.

Brent and Mitch dressed their burgers and this is what they came out with… WOW !!!

Something to try…
I LOVE this version of an Hawaiian Burger:

Nice thick patty… skillet or char grilled, your choice
Big Fluffy Hamburger Bun
Grilled Pineapple ring
Bacon
Monterey Jack Cheese
Chipotle Mayo

Try this one at home… IT’S AWESOME !!!

I know it has been a long time since posting. I could give you a bunch of excuses about being busy and such, while that is somewhat true, the real reason I have not posted recently is I lost interest. After posting routinely for over two years, I felt a kind of “writers block” and didn’t feel I had anything useful to say and that nobody was reading the posts anyway.

Well, I am back (at least for now). I want to share with you another cooking tip that I learned recently.

It’s how to make grilled broccoli…

I think Katie and I picked up this tip on one of the Food Network cooking shows. Fixing this broccoli is fun, easy, and yields some of the best broccoli that I have ever tasted.

Let’s get started…
Get some broccoli with the stalk still attached. Those trimmed broccoli tops will not work, you want some of the stalk left on the tops.
Cut them into nice pieces and set them aside. Heat a pot of water large enough to submerge the broccoli. Bring the water to a boil.
What we are going to do is to blanch the broccoli then shock it in an ice water bath. Get a similar volume of ice water ready for the broccoli. Now, submerge the broccoli in the boiling water for 2 minutes. After the two minutes IMMEDIATELY remove the broccoli from the hot water and immerse it in the ice water bath. What you have done is to blanch and shock the broccoli.

Next you want to take the broccoli out of the water and drain and dry it, patting it with paper towels.

Now for the fun…
You have a choice of using your out door grill or using one of those indoor grills that you put over your burners of the stove. Last night, I had come in from grilling for 140 people in close to 100 degree weather on asphalt. Needless to say, I didn’t want to go back outside and grill when I fixed a late night dinner. The pictures are taken using the indoor grill on our stove.

When you grill is ready, put the broccoli on the grill and start it cooking. Now, there are many ways you can flavor the broccoli on the grill. Our favorite is brushing it with Teriyaki Sauce.

This is a great Teriyaki Sauce that we have been buying lately:

Brush the broccoli on both sides and let it grill for a few minutes. A little blackening on the edges is OK, just don’t over cook the broccoli, you want it still crisp in the middle.

Pull it off the grill and serve, Walla, Teriyaki Broccoli !!!

Don’t forget, you can experiment with different ways of seasoning the grilled broccoli and serving it in different combinations with other foods.