How to Freeze Corn on the cob

September 2, 2009

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Who doesn't love fresh corn on the cob? We sure do, and every summer we can't wait for it to go on sale so we can put some away for later in the year, when it isn't available. Right now, Yokes has Yakima Valley sweet corn on sale 4 for $1.00 so I bought 20 ears, a few to eat now, and some for later. I would have purchased more, but I was chatting with one of the produce guys and he said that the Spokane Valley corn will be coming in real soon and that it will probably be a little cheaper so I decided to wait for it before buying more.

Freezing corn is so easy, just like freezing Green Beans. I start by schucking the corn. Then I wash it in the sink under cool water with a clean wash cloth to get the little silks off.

I have read that some people freeze corn whole in the husk, but Im not so sure about that. I like to make sure the corn is as fresh as possible and you have to look at it to do that. Once they are clean, trim off the tips and any spots that are bruised or look iffy. I cut the cobs in half as well.


At this point, they are ready to be blanched. Again, from what I have read this is "optional". I still do it, blanching deactivates enzimes that would otherwise break down the nutritional value and flavor, it sets the sugars and the color. Get out your biggest pot and fill it with water, once it gets to a rolling boil, add a bit of salt. I have used Kosher Salt in the past, but this year I used the purified salt that I had purchased for canning the beets. I was really impressed with it when I was freezing green beans, it seems to really brighten up the veggies and it doesn't leave such a big salty crust in the pan.




In blanching corn, you are essencially cooking it twice, which can - if over done- make the skins tough and the corn mushy. Depending on the size of the ears, the time it spends in boiling water will vary from 5 to 10 minutes. My rule of thumb is once I smell it cooking, I take it out. Periodically, like every 3 or 4 batches, you will need to add more water and salt or even change the water out if your doing alot of corn. Once you take it out of the boiling water, drop it immediately into an ice water bath.


Look at how bright the corn is! Now, it takes alot of ice to cool the corn down. For some reason, it seems to heat up faster then it cools off, so if you don't have an ice maker you might consider buying a couple bags of ice as you will need to add more during the ice bath process. Leave the corn in the ice water for atleast twice as long as you blanched it for, insuring that it is completely cool through the cob.

Once the corn has been completely chilled in the ice bath, let it sit on some paper towels, or a clean bath towel, to dry just a bit. Then your ready to bag it up. I have a food sealer, but you can also wrap the ears separately in cling wrap and bag them up in a gallon size Freezer bag.

And there you have it! Home frozen corn on the cob is sooo much better then what you can buy at the store. The stuff in the freezer at the store has been injected with sugar and salt and its extremely over-priced (IMHO). So, if you got a bit of space in your freezer, a big pot and some freezer bags then you have everything you need.

There are alot of good websites out there that provide excellent information on freezing and canning your own produce, my favorite one is http://www.pickyourown.org/

How to Freeze Green Beans

July 26, 2009

The Green Bean patch has started producing really well this week. I have been picking every other day and am getting about a half gallon each time. I estimate that will increase because the plants are blooming like crazy.

I had originally planned on canning the green beans, but then my husband came home and announced that he had been "talking" to people about home canned green beans and "everyone" had told him that it wasn't a good idea. I tried to explain to him that I would be pressure canning them and it would be ok but he is convinced that I will poison us all if I home can the beans so in order to avoid a fight and keep harmony in the household I agreed to freeze them again this year. As it turns out, since Im dealing with relatively small batches right now anyway its just easier to freeze a few bags at a time.

We love fresh green beans, but as all of you know there are times during the year that they are simply not available and at other times, when they are, they are extremely expensive. A few years ago I started freezing beans from the garden so we could have them during the winter and we are always bummed when they run out. I remember when I first tried freezing them I was clueless and probably called my grama a dozen times to find out how to do it so I thought that someone else might appreciate a little tutorial on how to do it. Its so easy. If you have a big pot, a big bowl and freezer bags then you got all you need to do this.

Starting with fresh green beans, these ones were picked over the last few days.

I trimmed off the ends of the beans (great little additions to the compost pile). I like to leave them whole if I can but I do cut the really long ones in half. I then rinsed them really well to get the little bits of dirt and possible bug poop off of them.

Once all the beans are prepped, I drop them into a pot of boiling hot salted water to blanch them. Ive used Kosher salt in the past, but this year I used the pickling/perserving salt that I purchased for the beets. Its a purified salt. Some people dont bother blanching their beans, but I think its a good idea. It deactivates enzymes that might otherwise encourage spoilage and it also preserves the color. I usually leave them in the boiling water for about 2 minutes, just long enough for the pot to come back to a boil and then give it a little stir so that all the beans get to have a chance at the hot tub. Some websites will say to blanch them for 3 minutes, but I have found that if they are in the boiling water for too long they will start to cook and then will end up mushy when you go to use them later and thats not good eating.

After blanching, it is uber important to put them into an ice water bath. This stops the cooking processes immediately. Leave the beans there for atleast as long as you have blanched them for in order to insure they have thoroughly cooled. If they are not completely cooled before being bagged up, well, thats just inviting bacteria to the party and then your family will be accusing you of trying to poison them.

Once they have cooled completely, I spread them out on paper towels to dry them a little bit and I also put them into my salad spinner to get any extra water off as well. I do this because excess water will freeze before the beans do, and that can lead to freezer burn, and Im using a food saver and have found that extra water on the beans prevents the food saver bags from sealing properly.

If you dont have a Food Saver, you can still use quart size freezer bags but try to get as much air out of the bags as you can and then double bag the quarts into gallon bags. I like to measure the beans out in 3 and 4 cup sizes.

There are alot of great sites on the internet with information on how to safely freeze food. I like THIS ONE, but you can always google for others.

So, I froze about 12 cups of green beans this morning in 4 cup portions. I had about a cup left over so I made some refriderator Dilly beans. Using equal portions of water and white vinagar with a bit of sugar and salt as well as some dill seed and 2 cloves of garlic, bring to a boil then pour over the green beans. Chill in the fridge and serve cold. Yummy :)

Home made Pizza for my picky eater

July 21, 2009 ( I dont know why blogger isnt putting dates on my post, so for the mean time until I figure it out I will put the date at the top of the post)

We have been trying to eat out of the freezer and pantry for the last 2 weeks and for my husband and I this has worked well but for our son not so much. He is (as many other mother's out there will understand) an extraordinarily picky eater. He maybe has a dozen things he will actually eat and this has presented a bit of a problem because here I am trying not to shop but finding our pantry doesn't neccessarily fit the bill for Colby and I am forced to purchase those things he will actually eat.

There have been days that the only nutritious thing I think he put in his mouth were his vitamins, and I have occasionally resorted to some trickery to get him to eat something that is good for him (like telling him that the Fruit Fusion Juice is Orange Kool-Aid)

One of the things he will eat is Pizza and he loves the little individual ones that Tonys pizza makes. They cost about $1.25 each, and you almost never ever find coupons for them. Even when I can find a buy on a store brand one, they still cost about $1.00 each.

So, this morning I thought I would try something to see if I could avoid running to the store today to buy him his much beloved little Pizzas. I had a box of Jiffy Pizza Crust Mix in the pantry, a jar of Ragu and the last bag of free cheese from the Albies Cheese run back in May.

I mixed up the Pizza dough and patted it into 4 little round - well - somewhat round crusts. I hope he doesn't notice that a couple of them are not exactly perfectly round. He has a tendency to reject things that he doesn't think look quite like the right shape he thinks they should be.

(Anyone remember Phil Hartman's SNL Anal Retentive Chef Skit?)

I finally figured out that I could pat the dough out on a little plate to keep it in shape, but I was half done by then. I baked the crust for 3 minutes and let it cool off.


Final result, 4 little personal Cheese Pizzas. I set the trays in the freezer and when they are frozen I will wrap them in cling wrap and hope hope hope that the boy will eat them.

And since I have an almost full jar of Ragu left I think instead of Rib eye for dinner tonight Im going to use up some Lasagna Noodles that have been sitting in the pantry for a while and make a Lasagna casserole for dinner tonight.

Eating out of the Pantry, Week 2

Well, so far my goal of not shopping for groceries and eating out of the pantry has been working out pretty good. My menu changed slightly as the week went by because I had more left overs then I had anticipated but that just meant I didn't have to cook as much as I had originally planned for.

I did have to buy Milk, which I got at Yokes for $1.68 a gallon (weekly sale),

Eggs for .77 cents a dozen from Fred Meyer,

Cheese, $3.99 for a 2 lb. block (x 2) from Fred Meyer

And Bread, 2 loafs of whole grain white bread and 1 loaf of round sour dough from the Snyders Bread Outlet for $2.97.

I have a new Menu for this next week (7/15 - 7/22).

I will be having a Garage Sale this Friday and Saturday. The weather was suppose to be nice and mild but today they are saying it is going to get into the 90s on those days so sitting in a hot garage wont be much fun. I will post some photos of my stuff later today and if your interested in coming by you can get the info Here

Eating out of the pantry

The sales are pretty boring this week, even with the 2 Albertsons Doublers.

And, I have a ridiculous amount of food in my house anyway.

These photos are of my pantry. Its not a real pantry, its a large shelf in my utility room and I couldnt stand far enough away from it to get it all in one shot. So, I have decided that instead of shopping for even more food this week...or maybe even the rest of the month, that we would eat out of the Pantry. That is not to say that I will not shop (because Im addicted, if there is a really good deal going on out there I cant help myself), but we really need to eat some of this stuff up, especially before some of the dates start expiring on them. Besides, I need to make room for when my parents get home in the fall and eventually start restocking with items that we will use over the winter.

Part of being able to do this is having a pretty good idea of what I have (which as you can see is just about everything)the freezer is well stocked and my Garden is starting come in with Green Beans, Lettuce and Spinach. There are enough neighbors around me that have gardens too so I will probably be able to trade some of my produce for some of theirs to add variety.

I will still have to buy Bread, Eggs, Milk and Cheese. If I was real industrious I would pull out the Bread Machine because I actually have everything I need to make bread too, but I dont know if Im really that dedicated. I have created a Menu for this week that is based on everything I already have in the House.

Since it has been so cool that last few days I have been doing some freezer meals for later when the weather warms up again. I have a nice little supply of Chicken Rice Casserole, Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken Stew and Chicken Chili. Im hoping that I can add to that by making double and triple portions of my menu items and basically make life a little easier when its 900 degrees outside.

Home Made Dishwasher Detergent

The county I live in recently went phosphate free in regards to Dishwasher detergent, and all of us who live here know just exactly what kind of (insert your own 4 letter word here) that stuff is. Its useless and extremely overpriced.

I ran out of the last bottle I had but in no way shape or form was I going to buy another bottle. I dont have time to run over to Idaho to bootleg any of the good stuff back so I started looking for recipes online for home-made dishwasher soap and found one that works even better then that junk that is available.

I spent:

$3.99 for a box of Borax

$7.92 for a bottle of Grapefruit Essencial Oil

$4.49 for a bottle of Fruitt Fresh

Combined with the other ingrediants I already had and Wal-la, 2 and half cups of home-made dishwasher detergent. Plus, I still have a virtually full box of Borax, which has countless other uses around the home, and a nearly full bottle of Essencial Oil that I can do things like add to baking soda to make my own carpet freshener, mix with water for a home-made fabric freshener, put a couple drops in the toilet to freshen the bathroom....endless possiblilities. The Fruit Fresh will come in handy when its time to make more jelly.

So, for $16.40 I got a variety of home made cleaning products that will end up being pennies on the dollar.

How cool is that?

Leah

PS. Get the recipe, and other great ideas here.