Fun in the shop

[Enzo]

Had a nice visit from Tom Phillips yesterday. We hung around a couple hours just shooting the breeze. He didn't buy anything from me, but he did spring for lunch, so I am ahead of the game. It's always fun to have someone to talk to that understands the stuff. He had some photos of his shop, and in particular his test gear. Tom has a much cooler test equipment collection than I do. I have a couple old Tek tube scopes with plug ins, but his are cooler. Besides, mine are all out in the remote warehouse. Plus I am jealous, he has some esoteric useless stuff too, like microwave pulse generators and oh, underwater sonar diode tracers... or something. We got to gripe about dummies we know and trade some famous musician stories. yeah, and even the weather. it was a good afternoon.

[Tom Phillips]

I had a good time spending the afternoon with Enzo. His wit and stories were great fun and his beard is magnificent. The time past quickly. He had lots of interesting equipment in his shop but I already have more than enough to last my lifetime so I was able to resist the temptation to buy more. I have one more night to spend in Michigan and then will head back to California. I will miss the rain, the greenery and the great fresh corn. I'm glad we got to meet in person.
Cheers,
Tom

[Enzo]

Oooh, sweet corn in indeed right in season here. I been doing a lot of it.

[Chuck H]

Not much to say re a personal visit between the two of you.?. Other than it's sort of cool for all of us when members meet

I will comment on the corn though Being in the PNW now, I miss the corn season in Cali. Not that the corn isn't good here. It's great! But the season is short and the harvesting lasts for about two weeks. You gotta jump on it and get your sweet corn fix in consecutive meals! Cali is better with the harvest lasting about a month, though the corn isn't any better. Bigger maybe.

Ahhhh, corn. Already missing it now.

[Enzo]

Enzo corn tip


When I grew up, my mom did it the conventional way. She put a huge pot of water on the stove and got it boiling - seems to take all day. Then shuck the ears, toss them in the water, and boil for a while.

I shuck a couple ears, toss them in a deep saucepan with tight lid, and maybe half an inch of water in the bottom. High heat. The water boils into steam in a matter of a couple minutes, and steaming the ears takes maybe 3-4 minutes tops. Tasty corn ready to drown in butter, salt, and pepper. If I want an ear of corn, I can be eating it within ten minutes of getting the idea.

[Chuck H]

Good tip.

Let me tit your tat (Uh... Ok, that sounded a little weird).

Shuck the corn, then smear butter on some aluminum foil and sprinkle it with salt. Wrap the corn up tight and put them on the grill. It steams in it's own water so there's no flavor lost in the pot! It takes about ten minutes, turning occasionally. If you do it just right there will be a little carmelization on some kernels.

I grew a variety in Cali once that was called "Cotton Candy". I tasted an ear right in the garden and ended up not cooking any of it! It was too good to risk changing it in any way.

[DrGonz78]

Now I am wanting to eat some corn! I like all the mentioned ways of making corn thus far. Another very tasty recipe for corn on the cob involves sun dried tomatoes. Take sun dried tomatoes & chopped garlic and line the corn up with it wrapped in foil. Put on the grill for 10-20 minutes, depending on the grill, and yes it requires caramelization. The sun dried tomato flavor fuses together into the corn's flavor, it is as if they have been married.

[olddawg]

I was born in Coronado (across the the bay from San Diego) and now live in Carlsbad/Encinitas. I was trying to figure out where this Cali place is? Maybe Calexico? My wife was born and raised in Detroit. She says they use Cali so the CA abbreviation isn't mixed up with Canada. There are miles and miles of corn in the Central and Imperial Valleys. My mom was an Okie. She always put a teaspoon of sugar in the water. I just throw the corn on the BBQ, outside, in the husk, even in January. One advantage of living in SoCal.

[Chuck H]

Now I am wanting to eat some corn! I like all the mentioned ways of making corn thus far. Another very tasty recipe for corn on the cob involves sun dried tomatoes. Take sun dried tomatoes & chopped garlic and line the corn up with it wrapped in foil. Put on the grill for 10-20 minutes, depending on the grill, and yes it requires caramelization. The sun dried tomato flavor fuses together into the corn's flavor, it is as if they have been married.

Ok, that sounds bomb! Do you use actual dried tomatoes? as in dry? do you rehydrate them? Or do you use the already rehydrated ones in the jar? With a good, sweet corn I'm thinking you could add diced jalapenos and/or onion to that also. In small, tasteful amounts. You wouldn't want to bury the corn flavor.

And sorry to Enzo and Tom for stepping on the thread (Enzo started it! He's old enough to know the power of sweet corn).

Maybe we need to make a "corn thread"

[Chuck H]

I was born in Coronado (across the the bay from San Diego) and now live in Carlsbad/Encinitas. I was trying to figure out where this Cali place is? Maybe Calexico? My wife was born and raised in Detroit. She says they use Cali so the CA abbreviation isn't mixed up with Canada. There are miles and miles of corn in the Central and Imperial Valleys. My mom was an Okie. She always put a teaspoon of sugar in the water. I just throw the corn on the BBQ, outside, in the husk, even in January. One advantage of living in SoCal.

S.F. bay area. You can get corn most of the year. There's so much being grown for multiple purposes. But it's repurposed as market corn. The overall corn season is a probably over four months and includes corn grown for feed (livestock), oil, milling, sugar/starch, alcohol, etc. Even biodegradable vegetable plastics used for bass fishin' worms, disposable restaurant utensils and such... On the right central California route you can drive two hundred miles before you realize you're not in Iowa! But the GOOD corn... The sweet, white corn and the plump juicy yellow corn are only around for a month. I don't usually go in for that starchy feed corn that gets sold out of season. It's fine. If someone serves it too me I eat it and say "thank you". But I only buy the good stuff.

[big_teee]

I cook corn on the gas grill, without the shucks, put a little olive oil on it.
Cook it on the high rack for a while.
We like the Peaches and cream variety, which is kind of white and yellow marble looking.
It tastes great.
I rented a small house on Coronado island in 79 when I worked in the area doing Comm tech work.
I got to enjoy waiting in all the gasoline station lines, while I was out there that year!
T

[DrGonz78]

Ok, that sounds bomb! Do you use actual dried tomatoes? as in dry? do you rehydrate them? Or do you use the already rehydrated ones in the jar? With a good, sweet corn I'm thinking you could add diced jalapenos and/or onion to that also. In small, tasteful amounts. You wouldn't want to bury the corn flavor.

And sorry to Enzo and Tom for stepping on the thread (Enzo started it! He's old enough to know the power of sweet corn).

Maybe we need to make a "corn thread"

Yeah this thread might be getting a little bit corny! I have made that recipe both with sun dried tomatoes (non-rehydrated) and ones that were in a jar soaked in oils (all I could find one time). I prefer just to add a garlic paste of sorts that helps steam out the dried tomatoes, but rehydrating the tomatoes will bring out the flavor even more. Yeah you don't want to add so much as to overwhelm the natural corn tastes. Yum! I like the idea of playing around with jalapeno and onion, count me in.

[Enzo]

I love roasted/grilled corn, I love most corn methods. My way is FAST. No grille prep. I lived 40 years on farmland, and was always making piles of tree branches and burning them. A pleasing all day activity working in the yard and tending fire. After the fire burns down, I like to wrap a couple potatoes in foil and shove them into the coals to roast, and same with a couple ears of corn. Hey, the fire is already going, y'know?

We used to have a HUGE garden, seriously, a half acre. One year we had 360 tomato plants, and I sold tomatoes to a couple local restaurants. We grew sweet corn. I am sure you have heard that corn loses sweetness pretty quick, and I can attest to that. Pick it and a couple hours later you can tell the difference. Not that it tastes bad, but it loses that certain something. And I will agree that most sweet corn varieties I ever grew taste just fine raw, right off the stalk.

HEY, it's my thread, take it wherever it goes, I sure don't mind. I was thanking Tom for his visit, doesn't need much more discussion on that.

You know what else comes from the garden and changes? I was surprised to find... potatoes!! Right from the ground, a potato has a sort of springiness. Bounce them together and they sort of BONK. After a couple hours, they turn into the familiar lump of potato.

There are few things I cook that don't include onions and jalapenos/serranos.

[Chuck H]

360 tomato plants! AAaahhh.!. Ok... I love the tree apples here in Washington. None better. But I sure miss citrus fruit and tomatoes.

Being a California native it's like a missing piece of my life. Lemons here cost a buck each and smell like NOTHING. When I lived in California I had a lemon tree in the back yard. A citron type lemon. You can keep those Meyer lemons. Or throw them at a car or anything else. The Italian varietal citron lemon has that bright aroma and kick that I like. I make a killer lemon meringue pie.

Once I brought a sack of lemons to the paint store I worked at. We came up with this mad plan... We bought a bag of ice at the convenience store across the street. We halved the lemons and gave them a squeeze into a five gallon bucket, then just dropped the spent halves in too. We poured in a couple pounds of sugar, the bag of ice and a couple of gallons of water from the cooler, lidded it and put it on the bucket shaker. After shaking we poured it through a paint strainer into glasses. Best damn lemonade I've ever had! I attribute it to the spent halves being bashed by the ice, infusing the lemon oils into it. Anyway, my point is that this is a California experience. Maybe you could pull it off in Florida too. Maybe. But it was amazing.

Here we have killer apples, salmon and wild mushrooms! Some decent citrus and maters from eastern Washington. Blueberries, blackberries. Life can be pretty sweet wherever you go if you look around. But you never forget those things that remind you of where you come from.

Like oranges!!! I love oranges best of all. I grew up in a neighborhood where every backyard, and many front yards had orange trees from orchards that existed before the homes were built. As a kid I ate a ridiculous amount of excellent oranges. I can barely buy an orange from the store. I'm the shittiest of orange snobs. Washington is utterly lacking in oranges. Even the Florida oranges we get in the stores pale compared to the oranges I know. I've been spoiled forever.

[Enzo]

My old north lawn was a orchard. Half dozen apple trees, a tart cherry tree, a bartlett pear tree, and a huge black cherry that never bore fruit. Late summer while riding on my mower, I enjoyed mowing along under the trees, reaching up and snagging a pear or apple and having a snack right there. We never sprayed, so I had to share the apples with worms, but the pears were relatively clear of that.

But my fave is the wild black raspberry plants next to my garage. They are only in season briefly, but oh they are good. One swath around the yard on the tractor, stop and graze berries, then another lap, then more berries. Then go inside and dress my wounds. The plants are covered in sharp thorns. Don't know what to call it, it's not a bush, not a vine. A brier maybe. For all the world it reminds me of long stem rose bushes - I bet they are related. I just looked, they are.

I like apples OK, Michigan is a big apple producer, but much of the year we get the apples from your northwest. They taste OK, but geez, they are the size of basketballs, and I don't want to eat that much apple. The small apples only come in three pound bags, and I would eat two and the rest go to waste.

Michigan is a large producer of morel mushrooms. Fortunately they do not weigh a lot, they have large tubs of them in season, for $50-100 a pound. Tasty.

I like lemons, but I can't just eat one, so I like the Meyer lemons, because I can eat one. I like the blood oranges too. I enjoy pink grapefruit, but they interact with my medicine, so...