Summertime Corn

Have you noticed a plethora of corn lately?!?! Every time I go to the grocery the price has dropped even more. Last time it was 10 ears for $2.00! (That's 20¢ folks!)

(And if you want to know how to make the ¢ symbol, just hold down the "alt" key and type "0162". When you let go of the alt key, there it'll be!)

So, we've I've been having corn on the cob a lot lately, but no one else in my house eats it. (Not sure what to make of that, but I've given up.) So today I decided to make one of my childhood favorites: creamed corn, just one of the many food loves I share with my dad.

(Others are mounds bars, a good ol' glass of milk, pudding cooked on the stove, milkshakes, and pouring cream on our cereal - poured off the top of the raw milk that was delivered by Mathis Dairy every Tuesday and Friday mornings in that metal box on the front porch.)

Anywho, I have had homemade creamed corn that my step-mom, Carolyn, has made, and I was determined to try it. She told me that Voretta, her housekeeper for years, told her to slice through the middle of every other row of kernels in order to release their "milk." (I've read alternatively to only cut off the top half of the corn kernels.) But just look at that oozing out!

After cutting off the corn, I scraped the cob with the knife to get all the wonderful little bits of corn. The good thing about doing this is you don't have to worry about how close to the cob you cut the corn because you're going to get all that yummy goodness anyway. See?

And after a quick phone call to Carolyn to help me with the details, I put the corn in a heavy pan, covered it with water, added a couple of tablespoons of butter, and simmered it for a bit. (Sorry, no timer, but it was probably about 5 or 10 minutes.)

I've read that true creamed corn has no thickener, just the corn milk, but per Carolyn's advice, I took a bit of cornstarch and milk to thicken it just a touch. I used 1 Tbs of cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbs of 2% milk. Once I poured this in and simmered a couple more minutes, all it needed was salt ~ 1/4 tsp. It was awesome! And I felt so accomplished. Frances had a friend over and she ate 4 servings! (Frances, of course, took one obligatory bite and made a really grossed out face, swearing it off for life.) So go get yourself some corn and have a yummy southern staple.

(I served it easy style - with chicken tenders from Publix, french cut green beans from a can, and AMAZING homemade chocolate ice cream that Frances & Charlotte made. But that's a post for another day.)