Fabulous Friday

10 Steps To Great Corn

1. Look for it on sale, you can usually find corn for at least 4 ears for a dollar.
2. Buy it in the husk, it's cheaper that way.
3. Husk your corn over a newspaper or right next to a trash can.
4. Be sure to grab as much of the tip of the husk as possible and pull down, trying to grab as much of the silks as possible.
5. Work in an assembly line fashion. Husk all the corn, then wash all the corn, then work on the silks.
6. To remove any remaining silks use a wet paper towel and starting at the top of the ear drag the towel down to the bottom.
7. Bring a large pot of unsalted water to a boil. Turn the heat off and drop the prepared corn into the water. You really don't need to cook the corn you just need to heat it, that will keep it tender.
8. You can also grill it directly on the barbecue it you'd like.
9. Serve the corn with butter, salt and pepper.
10. You can flavor the butter with your favorite herbs or even chipotle peppers. Just whirl the softened butter in the food processor with the herbs or the peppers.

And that is this gal's view for today. Enjoy your weekend and make sure to fix yourself some corn!

Fabulous Friday

I can't believe it's Friday!!

This week was thrown off a bit by blogger glitches. No posting was possible on Thursday and Wednesday's post was even lost for a bit. But all seems to be well now...on Fabulous Friday.

This week's tip has to do with waste.

Food waste that is.

I hate going through the fridge and finding spoiled food. I can't stand the thought of throwing it away. And with the high price of food these days it makes it doubly hard.

So, I have decided to stop the madness. No more wasted food!

I'm going to make it a point to check through the refrigerator every couple of days to find what foods seem to be starting the aging process. And I'm going to plan menus around those foods.

And for pete's sake no more wasted celery!

How many times have I been hunting around the refrigerator only to find, buried under the lettuce, apples and oranges, that sad looking bag of wilted celery.

What a waste!!

And to think celery is an excellent source of vitamin C and fiber. It also is a good source of folic acid, potassium, and vitamin B1 and B6 and calcium.

Who knew?

And considering that the hubs likes celery, takes his lunch almost every day and is trying to eat more fruits and vegetables in the hopes of avoiding cholesterol lowering medicenes...well what a waste all of those poor, pathetic looking bags of celery were as they made their way to the compost pile.

But no more.

From now on when I bring celery home I will wash it, dry it, and cut it into serving size pieces and keep it in a zip lock bag with a folded paper towel.

And most of all...I will remember to use it.

And that is this gal's view for today.

Roasted Potatoes

In this family we love potatoes!

Baked Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Potato Chips
Potato Soup
French Fries
Boiled Potatoes
Scalloped Potatoes
Roasted Potatoes

You name it and we'll eat it.

Today's recipe is for roasted potatoes.

With a twist...they are smashed.

I found this recipe at One Perfect Bite.

Wash about 1 and 1/2 pounds of miniature yellow potatoes and place them in a microwaves safe dish with about 1/4 cup of water, cover and microwave on high for 10 minutes. Let cool and then lay them on a foil lined cookie sheet. With the palm of your hand flatten each potato. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Add 3 or 4 unpeeled garlic cloves. Roast in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn the potatoes and drizzle with more olive oil and add more salt and roast for 15 more minutes. Turn into a serving dish and squeeze the garlic out of the cloves onto the potatoes and toss.

These were delicious. I think we have found a new favorite potato dish. One thing I will do a little differently is to roast more garlic cloves. We are garlic lovers and everyone was looking for more garlic.

I'm thinking I will make these next Christmas instead of the usual au gratin potatoes I'm in the habit of preparing. Not only are they healthier but they would be so much easier. Try as I might I've never been able to do the au gratin ones ahead of time and have them turn out well. And the last thing I want to do on Christmas is peel and slice potatoes. I like to have as much of the meal done before hand as possible.

And with these I can precook them the day before, lay them on a cookie sheet, smash them, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the next day. Then I'll just add the olive oil, salt, and garlic cloves and proceed with the recipe.

I'm so excited, I think I've just made Christmas Dinner preparation a little easier and the potatoes a lot healthier.

And that is this gal's view for today.

Roasted Veggies

Do you have those times when your refrigerator is full of a little bit of this and a little bit of that?

Perhaps you've prepared several different from scratch recipes in days prior and now your fridge and even freezer are full.

You simply cannot justify bringing anymore new food into the house.

It's time to be creative. To make do with what you have.

And save a little money along the way, I might add.

This is what faced me this morning as I was contemplating the dinner for this evening.

And a major leftover I had was the Easter ham...since we bought the usual size ham for the not usual group of guests...

So this will be a week of leftovers. A week of making due and buying as little as possible.

Which brings us to tonight's dinner.

Leftover ham slices
Roasted veggies
Homemade baguette

This year, ham happened to be about the only Easter dinner leftover, but I still have a full fridge...so let's go shopping...in the refrigerator that is...

My bread making daughter had made 2 baguettes from scratch and we had only eaten one so far so there was one part of our meal.

And a search through the crisper turned up, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and red onions, which I decided to roast.

Roasted Veggies
Place the veggies on a large cookie sheet, drizzle olive oil over them and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in a preheated 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes, until slightly browned. Turn them into a serving dish and drizzle with fresh lemon juice and sprinkle with fresh, chopped rosemary.

The lemon and the rosemary both came from the garden.

And remember, this is a method, and you can be creative and use whatever vegetables you have on hand. You just might need to adjust the cooking time a bit.

This turned out to be a delicious, light dinner. Which was a good choice for the day after indulging in chocolate eggs and jelly beans.

And that is this gal's view for today.

Garlic!

Not only is garlic good. It's good for you!

Now I've read that raw garlic affords the most benefits, but cooked garlic has value too.

So how about roasted garlic!!

I made some last night and it was awesome. Everyone loved it and agreed that the only problem with it is that there wasn't enough of it.

Here's what I did, using my new garlic roaster.

1. Grab a head of garlic.
2. Peel off as much of the outer layers as you can.
3. Cute the top of the head off.
4. Pour olive oil over the top.
5. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. Place in the roaster, cover, and roast in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes.

You have to be careful with the roaster. It will be hot and slippery so put it on a cookie sheet so you don't have to touch it when you take it out of the oven.

Be sure to let it cool before you remove the lid.

When it is ready break it apart just squeeze the garlic out of the cloves. We used this instead of butter on our baguette. It was so good! You can also eat it straight up or use it in mashed potatoes. I think we'll try that next.

Oh, and if you don't have a garlic roaster you can just use foil instead.

And that is this gal's view for today.

Fabulous Friday

It's Friday! Time for another tip.

Do you dread looking into your crisper drawer in the fridge?

I know I do.

I hate to see those various bags of limp, wilted greens that I have to throw away. With the rising price of groceries today it is literally painful.

Well here's a tip that will keep those veggies looking fresher longer.

Wash your produce when you get home from the store. Dry it as well as you can and put it in a zip lock bag. Then take a paper towel, folded in quarters and place in the back. Or if you are, say putting grapes in a serving bowl, place the quartered paper towel under the grapes in the bowl.

This will keep your fruit and veggies dry. And they will lost longer since it is moisture that causes them to wilt and even mold.

It's also a good idea to line the crisper drawer with a double layer of paper towels. The dryer you can keep things the better.

And that is this gal's view for today.