Freezing Corn

Our corn is ripening faster than we can eat it.  I surfed around the Net to see what to do with it. I thought about canning it and then decided to freeze it. 

 

It is recommended that you cook it before you remove it from the cob, so I started some pots of water and went picking.

 

RJ helped.

 

I then set up a husking station to keep most of the corn silks outside.

 

Almost all of the corn has a bug or worm at the tip.  The older the cob the more that was eaten.  Just a tad gross. 

 

I broke off the cobs with major damage and brushed off any small critters into the trash.  I wanted to keep those out of the house, too!

 

First I cut off the tips where the depredation had occurred.  Then I washed and removed the majority of the silk and popped the corn into the boiling water.  OK.  I didn't POP the corn.  You know what I meant.

 

While one batch was cooking I worked on the remaining corn.  I boiled for 7 minutes.

Then I removed the corn and rinsed them under cold water to stop the cooking and drained them.  You don't want watery corn.

 

I had already removed the tips, so I set the corn tip down on the cutting board and cut down through the kernels.  Cut about 3/4 of the way through to avoid the tough bits where the corn comes out of the cob.

 

Keep a trash bag handy for the cut off bits.  Then you just tie it closed and toss.

 

I placed the cut kernels in a single layer on cookie sheets.  They sometimes come off rows, still stuck together.  You can separate these rows to get the trapped bits of silk that wouldn't come off earlier.

Freeze for an hour or two.

When the cookie sheet came out of the freezer, the corn was stuck to the sheet.  I waited a few minutes and they had melted just enough to scoop them up with a spatula and dump into a Ziploc vacuum bag.

 

After I sucked all the air out , I had a nice full bag to freeze for winter soups or southwestern dishes.

Here's the thing.  First I prepared the ground, digging out the weeds, and double digging to work in the soil amendments.  Then I planted the corn in three rows of about 8 feet long.  I did three sets of rows, planting them in two week intervals so they wouldn't all come ripe at the same time.  I had to water when there had been no rain for a few days.  I weeded between the rows until the corn grew about 4 feet high.

The picking, cleaning, cooking, cutting and freezing took about 2 hours.  I have one full bag of corn to show for it.  Granted I still have corn that isn't ripe, yet. 

I will not be freezing any more corn.  I will probably not grow any more corn, although it is quite tasty.  I can buy three ears of corn at the grocery store for $.99 all summer long.  They do not have bugs in them.  Farmers in Iowa (Is this Heaven?) or other corny places grow lots of corn and I like to support farmers.  If I buy it at the store when I feel like corn, I only have to eat THAT corn.  I don't have to eat corn at times when I don't feel like corn for dinner, merely because it is ripe. 

Canned corn is even cheaper.  It has no silk in it that has to be picked out.  It sits on my shelf, patiently waiting for me to desire corn.

When I eat my frozen corn, if I figure minimum wage for all the work I did to get it, each kernel will have cost about 75 cents.  I liked doing it.  I will like eating it.   I will not do it again.

 

At least I won't do it until the zombie apocalypse.  Then I will have to raise my own food and fight off hoards of zombies and others trying to eat me or my food.  But I can wait until then.

Zucchini Carrot Muffins

I was looking for a healthy type of muffin.  I decided to make some using zucchini and carrots.  Sort of like zucchini bread, I guess.  I thought it would be tasty with a cream cheese filling.  Most of the filling seemed to disappear in the muffin, although you could see it and taste it a bit.  I guess I will leave it up to you to decide of you want to add the filling or not.  Either way, they were really good.

Besides the goodness of the zucchini and the carrots, I added 1/2 cup of shredded apples and reduced the oil.  You could use apple sauce, but I didn't have apple sauce and I did have an apple, so there ya go.

 

Zucchini Carrot Muffins

1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup peeled, cored and shredded apple or use 1/2 cup apple sauce
1 lemon, zest only
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil, I used canola
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese filling, optional

6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Heat the oven to 350°.  Place muffin cups in a muffin pan.  This recipe made about 18 with using the cream cheese filling.

 

If you are going to make the cream cheese filling, beat the softened cream cheese in a stand mixer.  Then add the sugar and continue to mix.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.  Set aside.  If you set it in the refrigerator it might make scooping it into the muffin cups easier.

 

Don't peel the zucchini before shredding, but I did peel the carrots. 

 

It took about 2 zucchini and 3 carrots to make one cup each. 

 

I used most of an apple to make 1/2 cup.

In a large bowl mix the eggs, oil and vanilla.  When combined, add the brown sugar and granulated sugar.

 

I sprinkled the spices, baking soda and baking powder on top and mixed some more. 

 

Add the shredded veggies and fruit to the bowl and mix again.

 

Add the flour one cup at a time and mix just until moist.  Fold in the chopped nuts.

 

I have three different cookie scoops.  If you are not making the filling, use the large, ice cream size scoop and one scoop will fill a muffin cup just right. I used the medium size scoop. 

 

Place one medium scoop in a muffin cup and then use the smallest scoop to place the filling on top.  Then cover the filing with one more medium scoop.  It was hard to cover the cream cheese.  It was very runny and so I made a little depression in the first scoop of muffin batter and placed the filling there.  Did you place the filling in the refrigerator?  I didn't think of it until AFTER, but I bet it would make things easier.

 

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes.  Check with a toothpick in a spot that doesn't have cream cheese.

 

These were really delicious.  Next time I may try to replace some of the flour with almond flour.

I also put 6 unbaked muffins in the freezer.  This recipe made 18 muffins and I didn't need 18 muffins.  Even though we had them for several meals and gave some away.  They were great warmed up the next day.  After the muffins were frozen, I put them in a Ziploc Vacuum bag and will bake them when I don't feel like cooking.  I'm hoping they will be as good as fresh made and then baked.

Viking Cookies

                             

I like to read mysteries.  There is a satisfaction in a good mystery.  The bad guy always gets caught and usually gets what is "coming to" him.  This differs from real life and is one of the many reasons I prefer a good book to the news

                    

Joanne Fluke writes the kind of mystery that is called a "cozy".  This is a mystery that is mostly bloodless.  The actual crime takes place out of the view of the reader.  Then the protagonist solves the mystery and every one, except the murderer, moves happily onward.  My favorite part of her mysteries involves the recipes.  For the uninitiated there is a whole sub-genre of murders with recipes.  Diane Mott Davidson is another favorite of mine.  Her mysteries are a little less cozy and as the protagonist is a caterer, has a wider variety of recipes.  While I might check out a regular murder from the library, I purchase the ones with recipes that I want to fix.  (Note to self:  If you write a book, include recipes.)

I haven't made cookies in quite sometime and I went to my stash of Fluke mysteries and found a new one.  It had to be one that would freeze as there are only the two of us at home.  But you never know when someone will stop over and you need something to serve.  I decided on Viking Cookies.  The recipe made a ton of cookies and they freeze well, so my criteria was met.  On with the baking.

Viking Cookies

2 cups butter (four sticks, melted
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom  (nutmeg will work in a pinch, cardamom is better)
4 1/2 cups flour
3 cups white chocolate chips  (the real thing, not vanilla chips)
3 cups rolled oats

This makes 10 to 12 DOZEN.  If you don't need this many cookies, feel free to cut the recipe in half!

Pre heat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter in the microwave.  I covered the bowl with the paper wrappers from the butter to keep it from spitting all over the inside of the microwave.  Set it on the counter and let it cool while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.

I use a Kitchen-Aid mixer.  It is really handy, especially for such a large batch.  The last few ingredients really put a strain on the mixer.  I can only imagine what it would have done to my arm!

Scrape the butter into the mixing bowl.  Add in the white and brown sugars and blend well.

                                    

Add the baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.  THEN add the vanilla.  This will prevent you from getting a handful of wet measuring spoon and from dripping liquid in one of your expensive spices.  Mix in the eggs.  Ms. Fluke beats them with a fork first.  I just dump them in the mixer.

Add the flour in 1/2 cup increments. 

                                

Whenever I have more than 2 cups to add, SOMETHING happens to make me forget where I am.  The phone rings or the cat starts scratching the couch.  Something.  So I keep a piece of paper nearby and make a mark for each cup added.  In this case I needed 9 times each 1/2 cup measure.  I would have made a hash of it for sure if I hadn't marked each time I added one.

After you can no longer see the flour, add in the white chocolate.  I could not find enough white chocolate chips.  I even went and asked at the customer service desk.  They only had one bag left and this recipe calls for one and 1/2 half bags of white chocolate chips.  Ms. Fluke was very insistent on this.  But I had some vanilla chips and I added them for the final cup of white chocolate.  If there is a difference, other than size, I couldn't tell you.

                                 

Now add the oatmeal one cup at a time.  It will be VERY stiff by this time.  It almost worked its way out of the mixer.

                              

Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheets.  The saved butter wrappers are good for this.  I use Silpats. No greasing, no sticking.  I also use a small cookie size ice cream scoop.  Perfect size, way less work and much faster.

With your hand or spatula, gently smush the tops of each cookie mound.  This will keep them from rolling around when you transfer them to the oven.  Bake for 11 to 13 minutes until they are golden brown.  Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheets before you transfer them to a cooking rack.  I hope you have a LOT of cooling racks.

                             

Joanne Fluke recommends rolling the cookies in foil and then placing them in a freezer bag.  I just put them in a Ziploc Vacuum bag.