Thursday, June 26, 2014

Corn of the cob

     A seasonal favorite of mine is corn of the cob. You certainly can't get it in the winter and not in the spring either. It's a summer food. Well, you probably can get in during the winter, but it wouldn't be from around here. Unlike steak, you can't really change the recipe for it. However, you can add certain after effects.
      Of course, corn can't grow in the mountains, and Colorado is famous for its mountain's (the rocky mountains). However, they do grow corn in Colorado, just not in the mountains. If the corn isn't grown in your area then it's probably not fresh. Obviously, the farther away the corn is coming from the longer it takes to get to its destination and the less fresh it'll be. I'm leaving the starting farm and the corn's final destination not specified because it would be different for each individual. Thankfully, unlike, for example canned peaches, you can see the product. Or get a general picture anyway. With canned peaches, if they used bad peaches (for whatever reason), then you don't have any idea what your product looks like, or the size of it, until you open up the can and hope for the best. Corn on the cob is only in its natural container; its husk. You can generally get a picture of what the size of the corn is by the size of the husk or gentle feeling the place of the cob in the husk. Also, by the health status of the husk, you can try and judge the quality of the corn itself. If you buy local corn on the cob then you probably don't need to check it, though that could change depending on how many people are buying it and how much has been sitting around. However, whether it is necessary to check the corn or not, it is still good practice. Also, you never know when something could come up. Overall, I think I have had pretty good luck with picking out corn.
     All foods can be compared to each other in some way or another. When cooking steak, it has been noted that you can season it with a whole arsenal of spices and herbs. Also, it can be cooked to several different variations of how done it is. Lastly, several different steak sauces can be added when consumed or left with out any. (Last night, my steak was juicy enough without any sauce added). With corn on the cob, the choices are rather limited. There are always ways to vary how to bring food to the table, but some food can be changed less than others. With corn on the cob I boil a pot of water and drop the dehusked corns in. Later, I take them out and pile them on a plate. When I'm ready for my next corn on the cob, I remove it from the other plate and place it on my plate where I proceed to put the corn on the cob holders on either side of my corn on the cob.
A picture of corn on the cob holders.

After I have adjusted my corn on the cob holders so that they won't fall off as soon as I pick them up I pick up my corn on the cob. You would have pretaken out a stick of butter and placed it in a special container before the start of the meal.
Here you can see what my stick of butter holder looks like.
I twirl my corn on the cob over the stick of butter, so that it just barely scrapes the utmost top layer of butter off and onto my corn. I continue the process until each kernel of corn has butter on it. Or rather, almost all. There is generally a stubborn corn that I can't get to, but amongst the rest of the butter it isn't noticeable.
 I salt my corn next, but you don't have to. Some people like their food saltier than other people.
     Enjoy you corn on the cob and the summer!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Steak

     Last night I had steak for supper. Steak can be defined very easily through a few words: price, quantity,  and quality.
     One of the foods that can get the most expensive is steak. However, when the price increases, generally, the quality does too. If you want to be good at picking out steaks than you have to learn to ignore the price because if you are someone who has a tight budget or are very careful with how you spend your money than buying good steak isn't for you. Of course, if you ignore your budget too often and continuously buy steak then you will end up going through your money very fast, if you're buying good steak. Who wants that much steak anyway? I only eat steak on an occasion because there are so many other foods to try or retry, why stay on the same food over and over each night? I would think it would get boring.
     You may think that the words quantity and steak don't generally go together. On the contrary, quantity is just how much of something there is, no matter how much or how little. In a store, you can buy as much steak as you want, your budget will allow, how much you can carry or how much is in stock. Then when you get home, you can cook as much or as little of it as you want. I generally cook my steak the size of a hockey puck. Maybe I could eat more, but there is always a side or two with it that I have to add so that it isn't just steak. Also, I could end up eating someone else's leftover and I have to have room for that. However, in a restaurant you are limited to the sizes on the menus, though the chefs probably have more experience with cooking and preparing the steak then you do.
     The most important aspect of a steak is its quality, Personally, the steak I had last night was a very good juicy steak that was cooked well. If you are going to be picking out steak, or any other meat, you should know what the fat of that type of meat looks like; that way you can try and choose a package, in this case steak, that has the least amount of fat in it. However, just because fat isn't the best thing to be eating (health and texture wise) doesn't mean having a bit of it on your steak is the end of the world. You can cut the fat off before or after cooking the steak, but if you cut it off before you cook the steak then you could use it later.
     Steak is definitely on the to-try list, just not on the OK-to-indulge-in list. Steak doesn't cost as much if you only buy it once or kill the quality, but I like the quality. I have steak once or twice a month and it doesn't drain my budget, but I guess it varies from budget to budget.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Baby Back Ribs

      Hello all. I know it has been a bit, but it wouldn't be college if I didn't study once in a while. Today's post is about a popular food called Baby Back Ribs.
Some of my supper.

Generally, I have baked brown beans with my baby back ribs and a canned fruit. Tonight the canned fruit I'm going to have with it peaches. Ribs can go from here to there. Some are juice, some are dry, some have a lot of barbecue sauce and some have hardly any (though you can always add your own).
     Personally, I have my own arsenal of barbecue sauces. Below is a picture of one of my favorites.
 
I like Richard's barbecue sauce; I got it from Vermont. Actually I ordered online and they shipped a box of them to me.



I'm all for trying new barbecue sauces, but if I were you I wouldn't order a whole box just to try it. You might not like it! You probably have to buy in bulk. However, I'm sure that any grocery store has several barbecue sauces to choose from.
     Because I like barbecue sauce on my ribs it can get quite messy. My friend Chloe claims that she can eat ribs with lots of barbecue sauce on them and eat them neat. (I haven't seen this). Today I ate supper with my friend Eli who made a bit of a mess; though not as much as me... I got some sauce on my shirt. (I'm sure that stain comes out.)
     I hear that brown beans are best when not just reheated from the can. However, all though I can cook somewhat, I have yet to try and cook brown beans from scratch.
     The peaches are my short term dessert. Later I had a rice crispy square for a better dessert, but peaches are fine for eating just after supper. The unfortunate thing about rice crispy squares is that they are messy. If I am not careful than I could get it all over my coach. Or I could just eat over my coffee table...
     And that sums up my Baby Back Ribs dinner plus dessert.