Lamb Chops with Hot Pepper Cherry Sauce

Since the last batch of grilled lamb chops I made turned out so great, I was eager to grill up some more lamb chops, this time with a different recipe.   I decided I wanted a mix of sweet, fruity and spicy flavors, but since covering something with a sweet sauce and then grilling it is pretty much guaranteed to result in inedibly charred food, I decided I'd season the chops a bit, grill them, then serve the chops with a spicy-sweet sauce.  

Considering the fresh fruit options at the local market, I decided to use cherries in my sauce.  I have plenty of home-grown hot peppers on hand, and knew one of those would give the sauce some bite on hand.  All that remained was to come up with a preliminary recipe and try it out.

I'm happy to report that this recipe worked out great.  The lamb chops cooked up tender and juicy, just like the last batch had, and when topped with the thick, savory-sweet-spicy sauce, they were just plain delicious.  The different seasonings in the sauce provided it with a wonderfully rich blend of flavors.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

I wrote the recipe below for eight chops, but I cooked only four, which resulted in me having a lot more sauce than I needed.  If you prefer to cook up a smaller number of chops, halve the ingredients accordingly. 

Lamb Chops with Hot Pepper Cherry Sauce

yield = 4 servings

8               lamb loin or rib chops
1               tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4            teaspoon kosher salt
1/2            teaspoon freshlyground black pepper
1               tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4            cup grated red onion
1               serrano chili, seeded and minced
1/2            cup port wine
1 1/2         cup pitted fresh cherries
1               cup low-sodium chicken broth
2               tablespoons honey
1               teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
                 freshly-ground black pepper and table salt,
                        to taste
1               tablespoon cornstarch

Dry lamb chops with paper towels.   Brush both sides with olive oil and sprinkle both sides with kosher salt and pepper.  Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.   Prepare grill for two-level (direct and indirect heat) grilling, medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, heat butter to bubbling in a medium saucepan.  Add onion and minced serrano and cook until the onion is sotftened.  Add port and cook down until the liquid s reduced by half.  Add cherries, chicken broth, honey and thyme.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to high simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced and somewhat thickened. 

When the grill is ready, grill chops over direct heat for 4 minutes, turning once.  Transfer chops to the cooler part of the grill and cook for 7 more minutes, turning once.  Transfer lamb chops to a serving dish and tent with foil.  Let rest 5 minutes.

While the lamb chops rest, dissolve cornstarch in two teaspoons water.  Stir cornstarch mixture into cherry mixture until thickened.   Transfer to a serving bowl.

Serve lamb chops topped with portions of the cherry sauce. 

Pork and Chinese Vegetable Stir-Fry

Today's featured dish is another Chinese one of my own invention.   I knew ahead of time that I wanted to cook something Chinese, and that I wanted to use up a piece of the big pork loin roast I'd bought awhile back and had cut into one-pound portions and packed for freezing.   While shopping, I picked up a few fresh ingredients I'd need, but was able to mostly rely on things I keep stocked.

The dish is pretty straightforward to prepare and make.  Much of the required time is used to marinate the pork, during which time everything else can be prepared.  Once the prep is done, it cooks up quickly.  In exchange for fairly minimal effort, one gets a great meal of tender, seasoned pork and delicious vegetables coated in a flavorful sauce.  As far as I'm concerned, that's always a good trade-off, and it's one reason I love stir-fry dishes.  If your tastes are anything like ours, I think you'll love this.

Pork and Chinese Vegetable Stir-Fry

yield = 4 servings

1                   pound boneless pork loin roast, thinly-sliced
1/2                teaspoon rushed red pepper flakes
2                   tablespoons hoisin sauce
1                   tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1                   tablespoon rice wine
2                   tablespoons peanut oil
2                   teaspoons dark (Asian) sesame oil
1                   tablespoon minced garlic
6                   green onions, thinly-sliced, white and green parts separated
10                 ounces snow peas, trimmed
5                   ounces fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced
1                   can (15 ounces) whole baby corn, drained and sliced into
                            bite-size pieces
1/2                cup low-sodium chicken broth
1                   tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
2                   teaspoons cornstarch

Add pork slices and crushed red pepper flakes to a medium bowl.  Add hoisin sauce, grated ginger and rice wine.  Stir to mix thoroughly, then cover with plastic wrap and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Heat peanut and sesame oils in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add the pork mixture and stir-fry until the pork is no longer pink and is lightly browned in spots.   Clear a spot in the middle of the skillet, then add the garlic and the white parts of the green onions.  Cook 1 minute, then stir into the pork mixture. 

Add the snow peas, shitake mushrooms and baby corn to the skillet.  Stir-fry until the snow peas start to get tender (about 4 minutes). 

Stir together the chicken broth, soy sauce and cornstarch in a small bowl, then add the mixture to the skillet.  Cook, stirring to thoroughly coat the pork and vegetables, until the sauce has thickened (1-2 minutes).  Transfer to a serving dish, top with the green parts of the green onions and serve with rice. 

Fong's Pizza

Des Moines' weekly alternative paper, Cityview, is doing a survey in an attempt to identify Des Moines' Ultimate Pizza.  They've selected 42 local pizza places, including some old standards and some relative newcomers, and representing a variety of different pizza styles, from among which readers can vote.  The first round of voting will narrow the field down to 16, while subsequent votes will narrow things further yet, until the Ultimate Pizza is crowned. 

In looking over the list, we noticed that there are a fair number of pizza places in Des Moines that we've never tried, and some others we've not eaten at in a long time.  We took that as a challenge, so over the next few weeks we plan to try out a bunch of pizza places and write about them.   I don't think we're going to get close to 42, but our plan is to try to hit a few places we've never eaten at during the first rounds of voting, and to try to hit all of the contenders still in the contest for the last few rounds of voting.  With this goal in mind, we started with one fairly new to the Des Moines pizza scene:  Fong's Pizza.

Fongs, which opened in 2009, is located in downtown Des Moines.  It's a bar as well as a pizzeria, and in the short time it's been around it has gotten a lot of notice, both in Des Moines and on the national level.  Fong's has been mentioned on blogs from Chicago and elsewhere, and was recently featured on a segment of one of the shows on the Cooking Channel, in addition to being mentioned in Food Network Magazine.  Locally, it has gotten great reviews in the local papers and rating websites, and it has won a bunch of Cityview reader's awards, including Best Pizza and Best New Bar.

Fong's decor is certainly unique.  The restaurant website summarizes it as follows:  "Our decor is a mix of Chinese, Oriental, Polynesian & Italian with a 40's & 50's feel. Think of a 'frozen in time' dive bar with delicious food, great service & tasty tiki drinks that pack a real punch."  We chose to eat in the back dining area, but there are also tables by the bar. 

Fong's serves up pizzas with all of the traditional ingredients, plus several not-so-traditional ones.   Various combos are available, some pretty traditional, some not.  Some of their combo pizzas , such as Thai Chicken, Moo Shu Pork and Crab Rangoon, are strongly Asian in flavor, but there are also more traditional choices such as the Meatarian (all-meat), Veggie Supreme and Taco Pizza.  Their appetizer selection is also unusual for a pizza place, in that it includes several Asian selections, including vegetable or pork and chicken egg rolls.   Fong's also serves a diverse batch of salads, sandwiches and desserts.

Fong's egg rolls come 4 to an order (5 if you order the
vegetarian ones), but I was so hungry and they looked
so good I started in on one before Juli had a chance
to snap a picture.

For appetizers, we purchased an order of the pork and chicken egg rolls.  They arrived piping hot and were exceptional, with wonderfully flaky wrapping and a lot more - and more flavorful - meat than one usually finds in egg rolls.   Ours were served up with sweet chili sauce and hot mustard, and they really hit the spot. 

We also purchased a large thin crust pizza with a fairly traditional mix of ingredients - pepperoni, Canadian bacon, fresh mushrooms and tomatoes - along with the house red sauce and the house blend of cheeses.  It was literally steaming hot - I doubt it had been out of the oven for more than three minutes by the time it came to the table - and it was just plain delicious, with choice ingredients and a subtly smoky flavor.  Fong's is generous with its toppings.  The thin-sliced meats were layered on the pizza, and there were ample amounts of mushrooms, tomatoes and a delicious blend of cheese.  The crust was thin and crispy, and there was just the right amount of the wonderfully seasoned sauce.

This was the first time we've eaten at Fong's, but it won't be the last.  We're looking forward to returning, to try some of the less traditional pizza choices and to sample more of the great appetizers.  I suspect Fong's will become our go-to pizza place, because after a single visit it has pushed Bordenaro's out of the top spot on our "favorite Des Moines pizza places" listing.

Fong's Pizza is located at 223 4th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309.  Their hours are 11 am to midnight for the kitchen, and 11 am to 2 am for the bar.  Their phone number is (515) 323-3333.  Fong's Pizza can also be found on Facebook.

Knoxville Farmer's Market, Late August

The weather was quite pleasant Saturday morning, so I took a nice, long walk.  I timed my walk so that after walking about an hour, I'd end up at the local Saturday AM farmer's market, spend a little time buying things I'd be using over the weekend, then have another, shorter walk home. 

With it being later in the season, there's naturally a different mix of products than when we wrote about the farmer's market back in June.  There are some commonalities - fresh eggs, a variety of baked goods, locally-produced honey - but now there's a lot more in the way of mid- to late-season produce, including tomatoes, chili peppers and a variety of winter squashes.

My purchases included:  cartons of large cherry and small plum tomatoes; fresh carrots; two large zucchini, one orange and one green; some fresh shallots; a nice-looking loaf of caraway-rye bread; and a carton of plump, delicious blackberries.  I paid a total of $17.50 for all that, which I consider a pretty good deal. 

I've already used some of Saturday's purchases.   One of the zucchini and the cherry tomatoes were used for Saturday dinner, while the blackberries ended up being used in pies.  Some of the shallots, the carrots, some of the plum tomatoes and the bread went into Sunday dinner.  I plan to use more of the tomatoes in Monday's dinner.  I'll write more about the dinners and the pies in upcoming posts.

Mixed Vegetable Stir Fry with Garlic Sauce

This recipe is something I tossed together for a quick, tasty vegetable dish awhile back, using things we had in our fridge and among our pantry items.  I was in a mood for Chinese, so I decided to stir-fry a bunch of different vegetables and serve the vegetables with a thick garlic sauce. 

This dish offers a variety of textures and a mix of nice vegetable flavors, all unified by a savory, slightly spicy sauce.  It is both simple and quick to make.  Since it uses a lot of canned vegetables along with a few fresh ones, tt took me right around 1/2 hour to make, from start of prep to having it on the table.  If you start the rice at around the same time you start the prep, you'll have a healthy, tasty meal all ready in very little time. 

We both loved this one.  For something I tossed together from scratch, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  We'll definitely be making this again.

Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry with Garlic Sauce

yield = 3-4 servings

3               tablespoons cornstarch
1               cup low-sodium chicken broth
2               tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1               tablespoon chili-garlic sauce
1               tablespoon minced garlic
1               tablespoon hoison sauce
1/2            teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3               tablespoons peanut oil
12             ounces baby bok choy, trimmed and chopped, leaf and stem
                          pieces separated
2               large carrots, peeled and sliced into thin discs
1               can (8 ounces) sliced water chestnuts, drained
6               ounces button mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
6               green onions, thinly sliced, green and white parts separated
2               teaspoons fresh, peeled and grated ginger
1               can (15 ounces) whole baby corn, drained and sliced into
                         bite-sized pieces
1               can (14 ounces) straw mushroom, drained and sliced into
                         bite-sized pieces

In a measuring cup, dissolve cornstarch in 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth.  Add soy sauce, chili-garlic sauce, hoison sauce, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.  Stir to mix, then set aside.

Heat peanut oil to shimmering in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add bok choy stem pieces, sliced carrots, water chestnuts, sliced button mushrooms and the whie parts of the green onions.  Stir-fry until the bok choy stems have softened and the button mushrooms have given off their liquid and that liquid has cooked off (6-7 minutes). 

Push aside the vegetables to clear a space in the middle of the skillet, add the ginger, cook 30 seconds, then stir the ginger into the vegetables.

Add the bok choy leaves, baby corn pieces and straw mushroom pieces to the skillet.  Stir-fry the vegetables until the bok choy leaves just start to wilt. 

Stir the contents of the measuring cup, the pour into the skillet with the vegetables.  Stir to mix and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and evenly coats the vegetables.  Stir in the green parts of the green onions, transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately with rice.

Options:
If you'd like to make this vegetarian, use vegetable broth or water in place of the chicken broth.

Asparagus Gratin

First off, credit where due.   This dish was strongly inspired by a recipe from one of our favorite cooking blogs, Closet Cooking.  The changes I've made are minimal, and I wouldn't even claim they represent an improvement from Kevin's recipe.  My version is simply a bit different from his.  His is excellent as well, though.  In addition to his recipe for Asparagus Gratin, Kevin's blog contains a lot of other great recipes, and if you haven't checked it out, you're missing lots of great stuff.

This is a fast and easy dish to make.  For a few minutes effort, you get tender asparagus smothered in a rich, delicious cheese sauce.   That's a pretty good trade, if you ask me, and I am certain you'll agree if you try this one out for yourself.

Asparagus Gratin (inspired by Closet Cooking)

yield - 2-3 servings

1 1/2          pounds asparagus, trimmed and cleaned, stem ends reserved
2                tablespoons butter
1                teaspoon minced garlic
2                tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4             cup freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/4             teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1                pinch table salt

Prepare oven for high broil, with the top oven rack placed about 6 inches from the heating element.

Bring two cups of water to boil in a large skillet.  Add the reserved stem pieces from the ends of the asparagus.  Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.  Remove the stems from the water.  Add the asparagus and simmer until just tender, about 2 minutes.   Transfer the asparagus from the skillet to a baking dish.  Reserve one cup of the water from the skillet.

Add the butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Cook it until it starts to turn a light brown.  Stir in the garlic and flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour turns a light golden brown.  Add the reserved asparagus water and cook, stirring, until it thickens.   Stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese, pepper and salt.

Pour the mixture over the asparagus in the baking dish.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, then put the baking dish in the oven and broil until the cheese has melted and turned golden-brown, about 4 minutes (but watch carefully).   Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Vanilla Ice Cream Taste Test

In planning for last weekend's cooking, I planned to make some more of the Grilled Cinnamon-Sugar Peaches we wrote about recently.   In preparation for that, I had Juli pick up some more vanilla ice cream, as the carton we had was almost empty.   She decided to pick up a couple different kinds, so we could conduct a taste test.

The three we tested were Kemps Old-Fashioned Homemade Vanilla, which is what we usually go with, Blue Bunny Original Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream and Breyers Smooth and Dreamy No Sugar Added Vanilla.   Although I like some of the Breyers flavors (especially their French Vanilla), I was pretty wary of the Smooth and Dreamy.  In my experience, ice cream with no added sugar is pretty much bad.  Still, it was something to try.

I grilled up some peaches and served them with small portions of each of the three ice creams (the picture below includes two ice cream samples; the white-colored one is the Blue Bunny, while the yellow one to the right is the Kemps).  We both sampled each and compared our impressions and rankings.   The results were as follows.

Breyers Smooth and Dreamy No Sugar Added Vanilla.   This one was just plain bad.  Like, truly awful, to a degree I didn't think possible for ice cream.  Even a not-very-good ice cream is still at least okay, just because it is ice cream.  This stuff, on the other hand, didn't seem much like ice cream at all.  It had a very artificial flavor that reminded one of cornstarch and chemicals more than vanilla, and an unpleasant texture - too light, yet somehow stiff.  It didn't taste of cream at all, or even particularly of milk, and it was so full of thickeners that it barely melted at all even after sitting for 10 minutes.  I suppose that might be a plus if for some reason you wanted to use it as a decoration rather than eating it, but as ice cream it was a bust.  It was a struggle for either of us to eat more than one bite.  We recommend you avoid this vile stuff at all costs. 

Blue Bunny Original Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream.   This one wasn't bad, but it wasn't really very good, either.  It tasted more like milk products and vanilla than chemicals, but the flavor was nonetheless pretty anemic.   The texture was not bad, but it was overly airy, and there seemed to be more ice crystals throughout the ice cream than one generally finds in commercial ice cream.  I'd rate it a little bit below your average soft-serve vanilla..  Juli likes soft-serve vanilla a lot more than she liked this one.

Kemps Old-Fashioned Homemade Vanilla.   It's not really homemade, of course, but it has a flavor that reminds one of a really good homemade ice vanilla ice cream..  The texture was thick and creamy, and it tasted of cream and vanilla, with no unpleasant undertone or aftertaste.   It's a bit more expensive than the Blue Bunny, but well worth it.  In my opinion, Kemps Homemade Vanilla compares well to much more expensive brands like Ben & Jerry's, and it was easily the best of the three brands we tested on this occasion.

We might do another taste test like this in the future, pitting the Kemps against some other brands of vanilla ice cream falling within roughly the same price range, to see if we can find one that rivals or surpasses Kemps.   Meanwhile, we'd love to hear which brands of vanilla ice cream you prefer. 

Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker- the old and the new

This week I had to say goodbye to a favorite kitchen appliance, an old Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker.  I first saw one in grandma's kitchen, years before I ever thought I'd be buying her house.  She had a fondness for kitchen appliances, and was on the cutting edge of whatever time-saving trend was being marketed in any particular year.  She was the first person I ever knew to have a Donvier ice cream maker, a bread machine, and a food chopper (I think it was called Oskar, or maybe Emmie).

Hello, Oskar!



Oskar, meet Emmie!

I come from a good Scottish tea-drinking family, so I really wanted an iced tea maker.  A lot of people happily use powdered ice tea mix, but I knew that the tea would taste much better if it was brewed first and then chilled.  Doing that in a Dutch oven on the stove was time consuming but effective.  But the have-it-right-now advantage of the machine sang like a sailor's siren call  to me!

It was a long time before I could convince myself that the appliance was worth buying though.  As I said, I'm Scottish, and the ice tea maker wasn't cheap for someone on a tight budget.  I finally spotted one at a church rummage sale for 50 cents!  It didn't have a manual, but the internet told me how to set the brewer up, and we've been drinking iced tea almost daily ever summer since then.

Sadly, the tea pitcher was not nonbreakable plastic, and over the years it got brittle and finally developed a crack.  My budget having improved some over the years, I went to Walmart and found an immediate replacement.

I kind of miss the sunshine yellow.

Other than having a non-breakable pitcher and a dial to set the strength of the brewed tea, it's pretty much the same appliance.  It does seem to brew more slowly, but that doesn't bother me too much.  This time I paid $20.  But given the fact that Jeffrey will buy bottled or fountain iced tea every day if we don't have it ready to roll at home, I can re-coup the cost fairly quickly.  This is an appliance that will see heavy use, so I don't mind replacing it with a brand new item.   And I use Red Rose tea most of the time, so that has the added bonus of being able to send away for the little collectible figurines that I love.

Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Prosciutto

The June 2011 issue of Bon Appetit featured a pasta recipe that looked pretty good.  The recipe called for baking cherry tomatoes for several hours at low heat to intensify and concentrate, their flavors, making a quick sauce by crushing and boiling some more tomatoes, and adding seasonings and the baked tomatoes befoe stirring in the pasta.  I've thought about making that recipe for awhile now (ever since I read the issue, really), but ultimately I decided to use some ideas from the recipe to make something quite different of my own.

I used a mix of cherry and grape tomatoes from our garden for this recipe.  Our tomato plants have been giving us more tomatoes than we've been able to keep up with, so this recipe provided a good opportunity to use some of that bounty.  The basil and chili peppers were also from our garden.   I used two fresh chilis and one garden-grown, dried one. 

This pasta turned out to be wonderfully delicious.  Cooking the nearly-done pasta with the sauce and some of the reserved pasta water resulted in the finished pasta having absorbed a lot of the flavors and being well-coated by the sauce.  Roasting the tomatoes really did concentrate and sweeten their flavor.  The chili peppers gave the dish just a bit of bite, while the proscuitto and Parmigiano-Reggiano added a savory element and more depth of flavor.  All in all, this made for a very satisfying meal.   It does take a bit of time to roast the tomatoes, but you needn't pay much attention to the oven during that time, and the effort is well worth it for this delicious a dish.

Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Prosciutto

yield = 4 servings

6            cups cherry or grape tomatoes
3            tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1            large pinch kosher salt
1            tablespoon table salt
2            small onions, finely chopped
3            fresh or dried red chili peppers, finely minced
3            ounces thin-sliced prosciutto, chopped
2            teaspoons minced garlic
1/2         teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
12          ounces spaghetti (or other pasta of choice)
3/4         cup freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1            cup fresh basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.   Place two cups of tomatoes in an 8x8x2" glass baking dish.  Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil, stir and sprinkle with a large pinch of kosher salt.  Roast, stirring occasionally for 4-5 hours.

Heat a pot of water and one tablespoon table salt to boiling.  Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.   When the oil is shimmering, add the onions and chilis.  Cook, stirring often, until the onions are soft and starting to brown.   Add prosciutto and cook, stirring often, until slightly crisped.  Stir in garlic and black pepper, cook 1 minute, then add the remaining 4 cups of tomatoes.  Cook, stirring frequently and mashing tomatoes with a potato masher, until the sauce has thickened and little liquid remains.  Stir in the roasted tomatoes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta until not quite done per package instructions.  Reserve 2 cups pasta water, then drain the pasta.   Add the pasta and half of the grated Parmesan to the skillet with the tomato mixture.  Add 1/2 cup pasta water and cook, stirring often, until the pasta is done to desired tenderness.

Transfer to a serving bowl.   Add and stir in basil and top with the remaineder of the cheese.  Serve.

Freezing Sweet Corn

In Iowa, fresh-from-the-garden sweet corn has a fairly short availability season.  I had recently noticed that local yields were starting to taper, and figured I'd better get to work if I wanted to be able to enjoy corn this winter.  I don't have a pressure canner (and the smooth-top stove I have, nice as it is, won't work with a pressure canner), so I knew that freezing was my only choice.

Finished product.  Indescribable satisfaction!

A few weeks ago, one of my choir members and I were talking about preserving corn.  Barb said she always started with uncooked corn kernels.  That meant no blanching, no cooling the hot corn on the cob, no (inevitable) burning of my fingers while holding the not-quite-cooled ears of corn.  I was intrigued.  

I had a dozen ears of corn from the CSA, but I wanted to make the effort worthwhile, so Saturday morning I went to the Knoxville's farmer's market and bought another 3 dozen+ ears, at just 3 dollars a dozen! It's mostly been $5 a dozen this year, so I was pleased with the price.  Still, I politely asked if I could have a discount, since I was buying a larger quantity.  Instead of getting a price adjustment, I got 8-10 more ears of corn thrown in for free.  It never hurts to ask!

Barb's Freezer Sweet Corn

16 cups corn cut off the cob (about 2 dozen ears)
scant 2/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons salt
4 cups water

1.  Husk the corn and remove the cornsilk, using a brush as necessary.

  

2.  Cut raw kernels from cobs, discard cobs.

  

We used 9 x 13 glass baking dishes to keep the kernels from flying everywhere.

 3.  Place corn in 8 quart stock pot/Dutch oven.  Add sugar, salt, and water and mix well.  Bring to a boil and cook for four minutes.

4.  Cool corn completely. 

Two batches, ready for the refrigerator cool-down.

5.  When cool, place in freezer bags.  Label, freeze, and enjoy later!

Barb said she mostly packaged her corn in 2-3 cup portions.  I used quart-sized resealable freezer bags, and put 2 cups in each bag.  Then I folded the top over to squeeze most of the air out of the bag, and sealed it.  Now the fun part- I laid the closed bag flat and gently massaged the contents so that they filled the entire bag.  Then I put all the bags flat on a cookie sheet and froze them.  Doing this should maximize the number of bags I can store into the smallest possible freezer space, and make defrosting them a snap, since there's a greater surface area with thinner contents.  

Most of the air has been pressed out.

Jeffrey helped with the husking and cutting the kernels, and I was so thankful!  We ended up with a double recipe:  32 cups of corn, which translated to 16 bags. 

After the pat-down, and ready to label with today's date!