Food--Pioneer Style

Yesterday was my day off, which is a euphemism for "do laundry change the oil mow the grass get groceries get kid stuff done" day. Well, yesterday I did none of that! Instead Aldi had bi-color sweet corn on sale for 10 cents an ear (10 cents! At Walmart it's 25, at fruit stands it's 25-35). My mom and I bought 150 (!) and spent the day shucking and boiling. Actually it wasn't all day, we had it done in about 3 hours and had spent $16 on what ended up being 50 quart-sized bags of corn to freeze! Yay! Then we went out and picked raspberries; I'll save the berry-picking post for another day:) But here's how you do the corn:
--Shuck it--preferably outside, it's messy!--by removing all the green leaves, and the "stringy" corn-silk. Break the stems off cobs as well.
--Soak the ears in a sinkful of cold water for a few minutes to rinse them off and "shock" them
--Put ears in pot of boiling water, but just for 1-2 minutes. You don't want it fully cooked.
--Pull ears out of boiling water with tongs, let cool on cookie sheets thoroughly
--With SHARP knife, hold one ear of corn vertically with one hand and carefully slice corn kernels off cob with other hand.
--Let the kernels continue to cool off in a big bowl or on another cookie sheet; any steam will result in ice crystals once you bag the corn and put it in the freezer.
--Once the corn kernels are totally cooled, use a measuring cup and measure 2 to 2 1/2 cups into each once quart freezer baggie. This is perfect for a meal; pull out 1 baggie for 2-3 people, two baggies for 4-6 people (or corn lovers who could eat 3 baggies all by themselves!)
--extra tip: before sealing baggies lie them flat on the table, squashing corn into a flat rectangle. Seal the baggie and then stack them on top of each other; lots more room in the freezer!

HAPPY CORN-ING!