Yummy Freezer Corn

I live in the Midwest and summer time here means Sweet Corn.  On the cob, off the cob, roasted, grilled, boiled, whatever-just lots of it.  You can nearly get sick of it but you have to remember it is not available all the time.  This recipe allows you to freeze your own sweet corn whether from your garden, farmers market, or the produce aisle. 

 

Little fun fact:  corn is grow in every one of the 50 states in the USA.  So it can be found all over and with different growing seasons, you may be able to get corn on the cob fresh all year.  We are spoiled in Iowa, it is just so good here that buying it from the store in mid-February would get me called crazy by my husband.   This is how you can savor sweet corn off the cob all winter!

 

This recipe was adapted from a 1997 church cookbook from Westphalia, Iowa.  There are so many variations just in the one cookbook that I read them all, got the basic steps down, and went to town on the two sacks of sweet corn my mother in law dropped off a couple days before. 

 

Special note before getting started:  don’t buy a ton if you don’t have time to do this within a couple of days and make sure the corn goes in the fridge. (Moldy sweet corn isn’t the smell to open your garage too!)

 

My husband and I boiled, cut, and bagged approximate 40 ears of corn into six bags with 3 cups each (15 oz).   We may have snacked a little a lot along the way as well.  This took us about an hour but thankfully my mother in law delivered us shucked ears of corn!!!

 

Gather supplies:

 

Sweet corn, shucked, and rinsed-as little or as much as you would like

Large quart pot  filled 2/3 full with water

1/4 to  1/3   cup sugar (I used two pans to work quicker with ¼ cup sugar each but feel free to adjust to your needs but I wouldn’t omit)

1 tablespoon sea salt

 

Bring the water to the boil, adding the sugar and salt, and stir until dissolved

 

Fill the pot with sweet corn and boil for 8 minutes and remove (the corn may be slightly undercooked but it is fine, it will cook fully when reheated)

 

**Save water to boil any cobs that didn’t go in the pan the first time, repeat until all cobs are boiled

 

Allow the corn to cool

 

With a knife or a corn removing tool (thanks Pampered Chef!) remove the corn kernels as close to the cob as possible into a bowl or pan

 

Allow kernels to cool completely

 

Measure desired amount into freezer bags and repeat until corn is gone (I selected three cups per bag which  was approximate 5-6 ears for my family of three and  it turned out weigh the same ounces as a single can of corn package with water.)

 

Level each closed bag and freeze on a flat surface or cookie sheet to conserve freezer space.

 

Enjoy sweet corn all year long (or until the bags run out!)

 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Holland 

Crafty: outdoor name stone

My sister will celebrate her wedding shower this Saturday and I wanted to make something for her.  I saw this perfect river cobblestone at the local greenhouse and decided I would personalize it for their home with her upcoming married last name.  This is easy and pretty inexpensive...don't worry sis, I have something else too since I just told the world this gift is cheap...

What you will need:

A rock with a pretty flat surface for painting

A stencil if you what assistance with the letters (no shame here, I proudly used a stencil!)

A pencil to outline your lines in advance (I found it erases well and isn't noticeable)

Craft paint for outdoor use

Fine point paint brushes (I have a $7 ten piece nylon set that I have been using for years...until half of them "ran away" today in my little's hands)

A couple years back, I found a rock in my back yard that I hit every time I mowed. I dug it up and made one if these for my front stoop.  It sits right up next to the house so I didn't put anything on it other than the paint. I just touched up the paint these past spring and it still looks great.

To get started:

Wash the rock and allow to dry

Stencil your design, letters, name, sports logo, whatever in pencil on the flattest side of the rock

Fill in the pencil outlines with paint and allow to dry

Depending on the location where you want to place the stone, you may want to consider the option of adding a sealer

Well, we will see if she finds this post before next Saturday...here are my final pictures:

Five on Friday

Like many people out there I am once again linking up for the Five on Friday with some awesome host bloggers ….  Here are my five on Friday:

One.

Down time- I LOVE having company and I LOVE my downtime after they leave!  Sunday at five o’clock was when my Thursday company left and with the husband playing golf, the kiddo and I napped until 7pm.  The entire mess (which wasn’t bad, I have good company…) was left for another day as I sat on the couch without doing anything-no TV, Facebook, candy crushing, Pinterest, or blogging.  It was so nice.  You can imagine from shots of this one minute clip I took what some of the weekend with like with five adults and four littles…mine are the big kid (aka hubby) wrestling the kids on the floor and the little guy trying to wear the Wii remote/numchuck combo as a necklace.  For some reason the little girl was just rolling around on a big pillow and one of the boys actually was in Grant's toy box...hilarious to watch.  Wish I knew how to do the video option! 

Two.

The Iowa State Fair!  For ten days in August Iowa welcomes over one million visitors for the fair.  It is great people watching let me tell you.  I am going on Saturday with the family including Grant’s nana, aunt, and uncle.  Food on a stick and fried food here we come!  I am super excited that Grant will be able to enjoy it this year.  Here are some photos from last year when Grant was just about three weeks old. 

Three.

Teething Remedies.  Grant has been crabby lately and I noticed that  he has gotten three new teeth with a possibility of # 4 and 5 soon.  Grant teethes in multiples 1 &2, 3/4/5/6/7, and now 8/9/10- we are talking all popping through in days.  Ouch!  Grant does not like those tethers or mesh feeders with frozen food but I have found three things that work great for us:  Hylands Teething Tablets, First Years John Deere Massaging Corn Tether, andCamilia Teething Relief.  The tablets were a recommendation and work great but I see nearly immediate results with the Camilia Teething Relief.  Camilia is a liquid that can be purchased in single use doses for on the go.  We found them in our monthly baby box subscription from Stork Stack and love them!  They must taste good because Grant will open for it mid-cry.  The vibrating tether was too cute to pass up (being shaped like an ear of corn-I live in Iowa…) and the gummy yellow corn ear vibrates when he bites down.  It is distracting and surprising quiet for my one year old.

Links for all three below:

http://www.amazon.com/Boiron-Camilia-Teething-Relief/dp/B00016QTPS

http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Years-Massaging-Teether/dp/B0013FCBJO/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1375901432&sr=1-1&keywords=john+deer+vibrating+teether

http://www.amazon.com/Hylands-Homeopathic-Teething-Symptomatic-Children/dp/B005F0CQ9I/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1375901484&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=hiland+teething+tablets

Four.

Grilling season.  My husband told me if I have it ready to go on the grill, he will cook it!  I love those words, not having to do much for dinner- yay!  I would seriously made every meal on there if I could but we are loving grilling veggies right now.  Last year we grilled meat and the occasional potato but we made an investment of a grill pan for veggies and fruit.  He is out there anyway, why not give him the whole meal….

Our favorite is chunks of yellow pepper, red pepper, snap peas, onion, and green beans with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.  One quick note: toss in the oil on or next to the grill, if your grill pan is like mine putting oil on in the house just leaves a trail of oil dips out to the grill.

Five.

W.  I just noticed that the next book in the Sue Grafton’s mystery series “W is for Wasted” comes out September 3^rd!  If you haven’t heard of Sue Grafton’s alphabet series, you must look it up.  There are plenty of books to catch up on as she is three letters from finishing.  I have been waiting on the releases since the letter “S” and now am just debating whether to buy in print or on my Kindle…Time is short these days with a little one running around but I will make time for this!

Thanks for stopping by,

Holland

Baby product this verses that: Baby Aspirator

I guess in this case it is this verses that, that, or that.  Nasal aspirator addition.

I thought my kid was going to be perfectly healthy all the time since nothing happened his first sixteen weeks then came daycare.  I swear the first day he came home with a cold and runny nose.  This cold lasted mostly on but a few days off from November to March.  We tried several different kind of nasal aspirators to help my little one breathe but all we would get was one shot and/or instant crying fit just by seeing the aspirators.  

I googled and read many different solutions, with six nights in a row of sleeplessly sleeping on the nursery floor I broke down and got the thing I laughed at two weeks pre-baby.  The Nosefrida snotsucker.  Gross, right?! Nope-best 15 bucks I spent in the month of January and we started the month on a cruise ship!

Here is what you do- put the pen like thing by the kid's nose, place the connected tube in your mouth, and stuck in.  Don't worry, the pen and tube are long with a small filter in between just in case.  Snap apart, wash, and dry along side the bottles. 

Being a parent or anyone frequently around kids knows, gross things happen.  I can't imagine what the rest of winter would have looked like if I just got the Nosefrida sooner.  You can see the results, again gross but every time Grant would be able to breathe afterwards and sleep. It is so worth it. It will be in my baby basket of gifts to the new mommies in my life.  

Below are the four that we have (three of which we no longer use):

1: Nosefrida- favorite would spend double to get it again.

2: First years- this one is partly clear which shows you the results and allows me to see if it is clean

3: hospital generic give away-I couldn't tell if I got anything besides what was attached via a string upon removal or if it was clean.  Part of me thought that it was too long and maybe it just plain hurt him.

4: Graco's zoo baby care pack elephant nasal aspirator- I registered for this, the whole pack was cute with the fish fingernail clippers, hippo comb, and whale medicine dispenser.  Not worth it, any of it-some of which my be included as my bottom picks for other item comparisons too.  In regards to the elephant aspirator, it curved and was cute.  The bottom opened for a cleaning a plus until you squeezed it too much or too quickly the cap would open.  What a mess, not like a could do another sneak attack with a malfunction like that!

Thanks for stopping by, 

Holland 

Grant’s First Birthday Party Wrap up

The first birthday party has come and gone, I  have also just finished his thank you cards!  His party was low key with the décor but full of people (about 50!)  Our Grant is truly loved!  We grilled a couple of pork loins paired with chips, salads, dips, and fruit topped off with cake and ice cream. 

 

I had fun displaying his photos in the shape of a “1” and made a collage of the other photos I had not put up in frames yet.  I also printed one of every monthly photo to display in order so you could watch him grow.  I chose not to do a theme since he would not recognize the characters anyway so I matched the colors of his nursery: lime green, bright blue and orange.  Last Halloween I got some clearance orange plates and cups that matched want I needed perfectly.  I only had to purchase a couple blue and green decoration items and was all set.  We set up tables in the garage for extra room for people to eat. 

 

We stripped Grant down for the cake smashing but the rest of the day he wore a solid green shirt from Baby Gap and blue shorts from Babies R Us.  It took me forever to find solid plain clothes for the celebration.  We have several photos in stripes and plaid already that I wanted something different.  For boys, cute clothes without animals, words, or numbers are so hard to find-Baby Gap is always a solution!

 

I made two gum ball like candy holders from a photo I found on Pinterest and found matching gumballs.  Our local Staples made me three banners to hang saying “Grant is ONE!!” and “Happy 1^st Birthday Grant!” for $1.70 each.  One made the perfect backdrop for some photos.    We got a couple balloons from the party store (not that they lasted long and had to be taped to the wall) and called it a party. 

 

I found so many cute ideas for parties that I already started a Pinterest board for next year.  I am already set on a truck theme with dump truck dumping dirt and rock like candy down the side of the cake! 

 

Here are some of the photos from the day. 

Living room make-over

My husband built our house back when I was finishing college two hours away and we were still in our dating phase.  Needless to say, having your first house be brand new is great but I feel that I missed out on picking things out and making it mine.  The ranch style house has two  colors beige and lighter beige on the main floor.  I honestly didn’t know that there were even two different colors until I tried to touch up a couple of spots-oops!  My husband is in the mindset that everything is new so nothing needs changed.  Well, the house is now seven years old and I have changed a couple rooms out of the beige flat builder’s paint.  The first was our master bathroom and then the nursery and last month some of the living room. 

 

My husband also hates hanging things on the wall, it is like pulling teeth.  It’s not like he can’t do it, he is a carpenter!  I have so many frames, mirrors, and pieces of artwork that I would love to put on the many blank walls.  In April I removed our wedding photos from one wall and spent four hours on hanging six 10*13  photos of Grant.  It was ok but I wanted more. 

 

My neighbor encouraged me that the high vaulted ceilings wouldn’t be that bad to paint but I could start with one wall that did not have the extended height.  I went to the store and found a framed painting that had beautiful colors, picked up a gallon of bold blue paint, and a warm chocolate brown for some accents.   I had the project priced and it was going to be $500! Or 1200 for the whole room not including paint-NO thank you!  A day off of work, some neighbor assistance, and buying her lunch was what it took-way better than $500! 

 

We painted the one wall blue, an arch above the fireplace brown, and brown on the half wall w/arch at the bar.  It turned out great.  This was a surprise to my husband; he came home and it was  98% complete.  He was fine with us doing this since he didn’t have to help but was not the fondest of the blue. 

 

I picked up a couple of accent pillow cases, colored photo frames, and 4 mirrors at Hobby Lobby to mix in more color to the room.  Another neighbor is great at decorating and with a bottle of Vodka for a thank you gift, she came over and hung it all up.  I gave her stacks of things for the walls and picked out a couple “must be in this room” items.  She arranged them on the floor and got my approval before getting out her hammer, nails, and lazar level. 

 

I love this makeover!  I feel like it made a huge difference and love that it was done in time for Grant’s first birthday party.

 

Cost breakdown:             $55 Paint and supplies; $42 painting; $40 mirrors; $10 two pillow cases; $22  four colored photo frames; $6 new clock

 

                                                Total: $175 (not including the Jimmy Johns lunch or bottle of vodka)      

Thanks for stopping by,

Holland 

Five on Friday

Linking up once again and sharing five things I am thinking about right now....1:12 am Friday August 2nd.  

1) 10 years. It has been ten years since I have seen and talked to my dad.  Three weeks into being 20 years old, my 45 years old father passed away.  The day before he suffered a brain anuersum, I was living in Florida doing my Disney college internship as a typical no worries University of Iowa college freshman.   I deleted  his voicemail of him half way singing Happy Birthday to me from two weeks earlier not knowing I could never get that back.  I tried, my little sister Lauren had her 15th birthday while he spent days in the ICU before passing away and I spent hours on the phone with Verizon support trying to get that back to share with her that day with no luck.  To this day I have a hard time deleting voicemails from loved ones for this reason- I have a great one from my husband from 2009 that I listen to every 21 days as it gets saved from expiring.  

I need to start a memory book of childhood memories before they fade even more.  My little brother was barely four when it happened so it would be especially good for him to read some of the stories as well as his first grandson. For now, I miss him so much but know that he would be so proud of the women his four daughters turned out to be!

Photo from my baby sister was a baby before my little brother...I am wearing the red stripes.

Happy Birthday Lauren, I know the week always ends in a little heartache but we'll get through one day at a time.

2) My Pinterest desserts finds: in a few hours the 100 miles of garage sales in Iowa is making its annual  occurrence at my house.  For the past couple of hours I have been baking, boy did I miss baking.  It's been over a year since I have just had the time to bake several things at once.  I found several things on my boards that I made tonight: doctored rice crispies bars, cheesecake brownies, cake mix bars, cookies, and cereal bars.  I have packaged them to sell but I really enjoyed myself as Grant was entertained by others for a while (or in bed as I just now pulled out the last pan) -it has been way too long.  

3) Grant's vocabulary.  For his first birthday he got a couple books that make animal sounds or say small words.  It was so cute spying on Grant playing alone in his room with the book.  He would push the button and try to repeat the word.  He sometimes says car after words he does

not repeat yet, like flower, but he got apple, duck, car, and ball right over and over again.

4) I found these mini people silverware sets at pottery barn kids.  Here is the link to the Halloween ones but you will get the picture.  Grant isn't eating with his own silverware just yet but I was sold on their cuteness right away.  When I checked out the lady told me that she and her co-worker use them in their lunch boxes! They a strong and shorter version of real flatware, needless to say this momma has adopted them as her own.  For kids or adults, I would highly recommend!

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/halloween-utensils-2013/?pkey=e%7CSilverware%7C9%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C2&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules-_-

5). Photos organized check!  Last week while on my work trip I had some extra time being away from my family. I used the time to organize Grant's photos that I have uploaded into groups by month taken.  In my shutterfly account, I labeled each album 2013 07 July and sorted the photos into it.  I really want to keep up on a yearly printed book and a cute holiday calendar for the Grands so this will be a major time saver later.  Now onto pre-baby photos!

Thanks for stopping by,  Holland  (2:01 am central time 8/2/13)