Has anyone tried to fry an egg on the blacktop thing? I have not because I knew that if it did not work, I would have to be the one to clean it up. I can tell you that the blacktop is “running hot”. That means for those of us who are in the barefoot – no shoes group, no time is lost when going from point A to point B on the blacktop. It could be said that common sense should be mustered up and wear something over those human feet. Now look at it from your dog's side. They do not normally have a collection of shoes available for trips over the hot blacktop and they could burn their paws on these very hot days. Please keep that in mind for walks or other outdoor dog activities. Remember, dogs do not loose heat from their bodies as us humans do. They have to rely on their mouth and paws to lose the heat.

As partial payment for the heat and rain, the fresh sweet corn season is HERE! Fresh sweet corn and fresh homegrown tomatoes seem to be the 2 ROYAL SUMMER FOODS to me. There could be books written on how to cook the fresh corn to have it at its best. I do know that it's best to get it from harvest to your cooking pot as quickly as possible. To be realistic, there is going to be a time gap for most of us. As soon as the corn is harvested the corn sugars start turning to starch, so it is important to cook it as fast as possible or the next best step is to pop it in the refrigerator to slow things down. DO NOT husk the corn

until just before cooking unless you are cooking them in the husk.

There are several cooking in the husk methods which can include putting them directly in the boiling water pot as is. One other way I have heard of is the “cooler method”. You put the un-husked ears in a well made cooler and pour boiling water over them, cover tight and let sit for at least an hour or so. I have never done the cooler method but I know others have done this for picnics etc. I keep thinking that maybe the boiling water might not be good for the cooler? Putting the unhusked ears into a large kettle of boiling water does work well and the prize is that all the corn silk slides off with the husk when you open it up to enjoy it.

This year there is a new player in the corn cooking ballgame and that involves our very good friend, the Instant Pot. I have run some trials on that from some of the excellent Hastings Farm Market corn and it is going to be my 2020 way of doing my corn. It is not rocket science so don't worry you are going to need a stopwatch to make it work. The basics that most recipes agree on is that first you need water in the pot and that can be from 1 to 2 cups. Almost all of them say to use a “sling” to lift out the corn after its done. I think it also keeps the corn directly out of the water. My corn ears were too big to stand up so I broke them in half and I got 8 ears in with room for maybe 2 more. The size of the ears will be a major factor in how many will fit. This did put it past the 2/3 full fill area but I figured there was lots of space between the ears. Cover and check that the valve release is in place to hold in pressure. Use the manual pressure cook setting and then use the plus and minus feature to set it to zero pressure cooking time. This setting is the most used way to cook almost all veggies. As soon as the Instant Pot has completed that, it will start counting up the time after it is done. In other words, do a manual release as soon as it's done. Some instructions say to cook the corn for up to 3 minutes before releasing. For me and my corn, 3 minutes was too much.

My next trial will doing huskon corn in the pot. This might be harder since I am not sure how the un-husked whole ears will fit. A good scientist and trial person has to suffer for the good of mankind and womankind. Results will be published.

by Bea Westerberg