Corn, Anyone?

I am so blessed to have the inlaws I do; they welcomed me into their family with open arms. My father-in-law is a true character. He does not know a stranger. He's now retired and spends half the year where we live. It's wonderful having them so close by because we get to spend time with them and our children get to know their grandchildren.

Among the many wonderful traits my father-in-law possesses is his need to find a deal. And it's not always the same thing. Often times, it's gasoline. He's always on the hunt for the cheapest gas. His most recent hunt is for the cheapest corn on the cob. This summer has not been a banner summer for corn. Or tomatoes for that matter. The ones I got from the local farmstand tasted just like the ones in the grocery store. I refuse to make a special stop for run-of-the-mill tomatoes. Anyway, back to the corn. Every time we see him, which is fairly often, he always mentions the price of corn. "It's $3 for 4! Can you believe it?!?" Okay, I'm exaggerating just a bit but it really has been more expensive this summer. And he has been on the hunt for decently priced corn. You'll just have to take my word for it.

So Sunday, after H's baptism, we all went back to their house for Sunday dinner as S and I wanted to have a little celebration in H's honor. As we're enjoying our lamb roast, homemade mac & cheese, homemade bread (thanks Gran!) and conversation, W (my father-in-law) mentioned that he had some corn for me. Wonderful! I'm thinking that's great since we haven't really had much of it over the summer. Conversation then turns to where he found it, how much it cost, etc. As we are leaving, he gets the bag of corn. I assumed that he meant he had, say, 4 ears for us. Not really. He had 12 ears for us. 12 ears?!? What am I supposed to do with all that corn on the cob? We are a family of five, one of whom is on a complete liquid diet, no solids allowed yet. Plus, there are two others who will eat maybe half of one cob at dinner.

Lest you think I'm wasteful, I figured out what to do with all that corn. I shucked every last piece of it and cut the kernels off to use in a myriad of ways. There's plenty to eat for dinner plus have some left to freeze for a later date. I found a recipe for homemade creamed corn (which is leaps and bounds better than the canned stuff) and corn casserole. I'll try the recipes and let you know how they turn out.

Oh, the best part is that I tried a new trick to get the corn off the cob. I heard somewhere, probably the Food Network, that to get the corn off the cob without making a huge mess you take a tube pan or an angel food cake pan and place the cob on the hole in the middle. Then cut the corn off with a knife and the kernels fall off into pan. It worked really well and creates another use for my tube pan. In the immortal words of Alton Brown, there's only room for one unitasker in the kitchen: the fire extinguisher.