How do you shuck?

I grilled some corn last night and while I was shucking it I thought of nothing. Then it popped in my head "I wonder if everyone shucks the same way".

There have been studies about how people put toilet paper on the holder, how people pull it off and how they use it so I am curious how people shuck corn.

I personally go one layer at a time and savor it. Corn is my favorite summer food and I want the whole experience to last as long as possible.

So how do you Shuck?

Just a little food for thought....ah word puns I am so clever.

andouille

andouille[an-DOO-EE] a spicy smoked sausage used in cajun cooking.

Since the most recent venture in the letter A went so badly I thought I would post an old favorite.

I have only made one thing with andouille so far but it is one of my favorite meals.
Jambalaya is one of the easiest meals to make.

Jambalaya

1/4lb of cut bacon
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 medium green peppers cut into 1 inch strips
1 cup raw rice
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 large can of whole, peeled tomatoes
1/2 tsp thyme
salt
pepper
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup vermouth or dry white wine
1/2 pound of ham or andouille sausage
1 pound of shrimp

In dutch oven fry bacon.
Add onions and cook until transparent.
Add green peppers and let wilt.
Add rice and cook until opaque and milky
Add garlic, tomatoes, thyme, salt and pepper
Pour in chicken stock, wine and bring to a boil.
Add ham and sausage.
Cook until water is absorbed.
Add shrimp 10 minutes before it is done.

This is one of the first recipies that my mom gave me when I moved. Sometimes I add ham and sausage sometimes just sausage. Mix and match as you desire.

My dad use to spice it up with added sauces and extra andouille. There were times that he added so much spice he was literally sweating while eating. So you can add or change whatever you want or if you decide to make the recipie as listed you will still get a great meal.

Apples

It is a little late, but here is the apple info I know you have been eagerly awaiting.
Apples have a long history in all earthly places. China, the garden of eden, Egypt and many more all boast a strong relationship to the apple. Different varieties are grown in different regions. From what I have found people like apples for different reasons. I can't speak for everyone else so since it is my blog here is what I think.
I love apples in just about any form. The biggest reason I love apples are the memories and the time of year that is traditionally apple season. When I was a kid we used to go to the apple orchard in the fall and get apple cider, caramel apples and bushels so my mom could make homemade applesauce(yes she was THAT mom). Fall in the Midwest is my favorite season for two big reasons; the weather and my birthday. I am a birthday whore I love my birthday so anything remotely associated with it is high on my list.
Back to apples.
Ever since I have moved from the middle of Indiana to San Francisco I have missed the fall and apple season. I have yet to find cider as good or a caramel apple that made quite the sweet mess they do in Indiana. I am such a fan that my mom actually tried to send me apple cider for my birthday one year. It imploded on the plane and probably drenched more than one package. The next year she just brought it with her when she visited. So with my love for all things apple it seemed a good place to start and lucky for me A is for apple.

I tried a dozen apple varieties. Most of them are fairly common varieties and some were very new to me.
Let's see if I can make a little grid here so you can see all 12 at once.

Variety	Flesh	Taste
Fuji	Crisp, firm	juicy, sweet not over powering
Gravenstein	very firm skin and fruit	Tart and juicy would be great in a pie
Royal Gala	softer flesh	had sweetness similar to a grape
Jonagold	soft grainy texture	juicy, sweet
Pink Lady	firm	great balance of sweet and tart, juicy
Granny Smith	Firm	Tart almost savory flavor
Golden Delicious	soft but not grainy	juicy but kind of bland and watery
Cameo	soft	juicy but not a distinct flavor
Jazz	firm nice crunch	overly sweet like candy
Braeburn	soft mealy flesh	thin skin not a remarkable flavor
Pacific Rose	soft fruit	too sweet
Red Delicious	firm, thick almost bitter skin	very bland watery taste

Sweet I still remember basic html.
It is all subjective but I preferred the pink lady as a pick up and eat apple. I really love making apple pie and I have in the past combined pink lady and granny smith so I could have sweetness and the firm texture. I will now probably add gravenstein instead of granny smith. The apples that were too sweet were so overly sweet that one bite was too much.
In a couple cookbooks I have they list a bunch of apples and how they cook and I am amazed at just how many apple varieties are grown. This website had a large impressive listing www.applejournal.com/use.htm
Cause I know you care I will be going home in October for football, pretty leaves, crisp air, my birthday and you guessed it apples and I am already salivating.

L & L Hawaiian Barbecue

One of my favorite meals has to be in Hawaii. Certainly not gourmet and essentially just fast food served in politically incorrect Styrofoam and filled with high cholesterol fried foods and served quickly.

Maybe eating dirt on Waikiki beach would have been good but he loco moco I had from L&L Hawaiian bbq was one of the oddest and most fascinating meals I have had. Every time I have had it since I am instantly transported back to the beach.

We were on our way to a television premiere. Earlier in the day while exploring the island we had seen a plane crash site on a beach. We couldn’t figure out why no one had bothered to clean it up. I was also admitedly a little frightened that there had been a plane crash since I was going to have to get on a plane in a few short days. As we drove back around we realized it was a film set of some kind. With my fears a little more in check. Michael told me there were two TV shows being filmed on the island and this was probably one of the sets. When we drove by nothing was happening and I was a little disappointed I didn't get to see any star sightings.

On the drive home there was a radio commercial for the world premier of the new TV show “LOST” Everyone knows the show now but at the time the episodes hadn’t seen the light of day. The next night there was to be a red carpet premiere of the first two episodes commercial free.

We walked down early so we could get food. We walked into L&L with the bright red and yellow menu above the counter. The meals come in small and regular. Small means one scoop of rice, meat and one scoop of macaroni salad. A regular adds on more meat and an extra scoop of rice. Michael ordered the chicken katsu, a popular Hawaiian favorite. I steered away from all Spam dishes and eventually let Michael recommend something.

I walked away with a regular loco moco: two scoops of rice, two hamburger patties, two fried eggs, a ladle of gravy and a scoop of macaroni salad. When we got to the beach and I opened my slightly bulging Styrofoam container I felt like I was training for a sumo event with all that food. I have to admit I was a little skeptical as well. My dinner looked like some raid of a fridge full of leftovers that was heated up and thrown into a container. It was such a variety of textures and flavors I couldn’t stop eating it. The sticky moist rice was almost loosened by the mixture of gravy and egg yolks. The thin dry burger seemed like the perfect thing to top off this smorgasbord. I ate the entire thing. All this while waiting to watch and asinine show about a bunch of people that got stranded on a tropical island and they band together to shoot a polar bear.
When I got back to California I didn’t really think much about my meal until one day at work someone mentioned that there was an L& L down the street. I knew then I had to find this lone piece of Hawaii sitting in the middle of Pleasant Hill, CA. It was as amazing as the night I had it on Waikiki and I continue to enjoy it with the same excitement every time I stumble on another L&L. I probably would have never had it if it had been for Michael or the fact that I was in Hawaii, but it is one of my favorite foods now. As for the tv show I am looking forward to the new season of absurdity. I have to know more about the others, the hatch and the unrealistic tangled web of back stories that fit the passengers on that plane together.

Dad's Ribs

Amazingly the weather is never bad when my dad makes ribs. A summer staple we ate them on the three passages of summer: Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.

My parents had purchased a set of Square wooden plates and I can’t remember eating ribs on anything else. After over 30 years of use they are a little chipped around the edges and would probably be considered some kind health risk by germaphobes, but to me they are as essential to ribs as a champagne glass is to champagne.

Every time he fires up the grill and sets of the rotisserie the sky is a deep blue and the air is sticky and sweet with the summer humidity. The grass is as green as it could get and feels soft and damp on bare feet. No matter how old I get I always feel like a small child hanging out in the backyard talking to him while he makes the ribs. There are a few other things that are essential to making good ribs. You need a good beverage, great music, and even better company. We seem to have wine or beer and James Taylor or the Rolling Stones (or to really annoy my brother Jimmy Buffet).

He starts the ribs hours before dinner. They cook over the grill for what seems like forever. My mom makes “Don’s favorite BBQ sauce”(an old bon appetit recipe) in the kitchen so it is ready for the ribs. The rib meals are always adventures in gluttony. We have spare ribs, corn on the cob, coleslaw and green beans. It always looks like more ribs than we need but there are rarely leftovers. I always eat light on the day of ribs. It is kind of a science. You don’t want to eat nothing all day because you will end up eating too quickly and filling up before you get your share. The key is to have a snack for lunch and a snack shortly before dinner. This plan will keep the starving at bay and will leave plenty of room to make sure you get your fair share of ribs. It sounds horrible and un-lady like, but it is ribs. Any meal served with two napkins wasn’t meant to be lady like.

Now that I have moved away from home I request ribs every time I go home in the summer. On one of these trips they tried to sneak a different bbq sauce in on me. There was loud protesting and it is well known in the house that when I come home I would like things served according to tradition, green grass, blue sky and all.

family dinners

family dinners seem to conjure up some great memories. I will add more stories about the truly great ones i have had later this week. thanks to everyone that has read so far.
this is what my brother had to add to the post about epicurian parents.

michael said...
So, I can testify to this and possibly add some further insight. Dinner at 146 lilac was serious business. In fact the entire neighborhood was made aware every evening by the alarming whistle my dad sounded, that to this day I have yet to hear replicated. He would make sure that wherever we were, we knew we had only enough time to get home wash up and grab our soft beverages, we didn't call it pop. There were definite trial periods where recipies were modified and fitted to taste, phased in and out creating an epicurian evolution of sorts. Some recipies are still around to this day and other never made it.

When anne and i figured out that this was unique among our friends and thier families we began to protest, silent at first and then learning to pick our battles, and how to get away with not quite finishing, but still getting some dessert. When friends came over I would be a bit embarrassed when dinner came around, and the food had to be explained often with tutorials on how to properly manuver the food from the serving dishes to your plate and finally into your mouth. Frequently, friends would be convinced that they despised onions, or peppers, or some other culinary element, then much to their surprise it was to their liking.

To this day friends of mine note that my parents are the best cooks. They have singlehandedly opened minds to different foods and ways of eating. I guess it was easy to take this all for granted growing up, but now when I think about making dinner I don't hesitate to use my intuition or go out on a limb.