Monday, September 08, 2008

From: How to buy corn to a pencil lead in his ear.

News from Dollar Stretcher website.
Advice from the Farm

We've all seen people at the grocery store peeling down the cornhusks a little to check if they are buying nice looking ears of corn on the cob. Yesterday, I ran into a lady who told
me how her farming father taught her to select the best ears of corn.

Never peel down any of the cornhusks until you are ready to eat the corn. Pulling down the cornhusks releases the moisture and dries out the ear of corn. Instead, feel the corn silk. If it is wet, the corn is moist and fresh.

For several years now, we have been cooking our ears of corn in the microwave instead of a pot of boiling water. Leaving the cornhusks on the ears of corn, we cook each ear separately for about 3 1/2 minutes. Leaving the corn husks on not only gives the ears of corn great natural flavor, but it also keeps the ears of corn hot/warm until we are ready to sit down to eat together. We remove the cornhusks just before eating the ears of corn. We rarely use butter any more. We just don't find it necessary to slather on the butter and salt as we did in previous years when we boiled our ears of corn. Susan H.
Note from Lucy:
I’m not sure I would cook my corn in the microwave with the husks on but I did learn not to pull back the husks….lol

Planning for Christmas

I am getting several Christmas gifts for friends and family this year for free! You might have heard of www.paperbackswap.com, but what you may not know is that they have beautiful hardback books as well. The best part is that you can trade your paperback or hardback books that you have already read and swap those for gifts for people on your Christmas list. For example, if you have a sports nut on your list, you can get them books on sports and maybe tie them up with their favorite snack, and you've got a great gift. Put some gardening books together with some garden gloves or some seed packets and you've got another great gift. Nicole B.

editor's note: I found many other similar sites by Googling "book swap sites". Or you can accomplish the same thing if you have a used bookstore in town. Just bring in your old books and use the credit to buy books for those on your Christmas list.

12 money-management tips for college students
Dollar Stretcher page for families
Cleaning Engineered Hardwood Floors

Well it has been a busy week here in the Stern household. We worried our way past Hurricane Gustav and now we have “Ike” lurking our there, trying to decide which way to go. I will be soooo glad when hurricane season is over. The Stern “roller coaster of life” is on the go with never a dull moment.

I was watching the grandkids last week and discovered an explosion of bananas in my freezer. I questioned JJ to find out why mashed bananas were all over the place and he said that he was trying to make a frozen banana float and he had to freeze the bananas first. He wanted to do it himself and he secretly did his deed while grandma was changing Jocelyne’s diaper. Jocelyne and I walked into the kitchen to see JJ whipping the floor with a bath towel, he was cleaning up, when Jocelyne exclaimed, “What a mess!” It was so funny that I just couldn’t fuss at him too much. BTW: I’m still cleaning up banana fragments in the freezer.

Another day last week, Jennifer called me to ask if I could go over to JJ’s school and help the nurse take some pencil lead out of JJ’s ear…..What? It seems that she was not allowed to put anything in his ear so the parents had to come do it. Jennifer was on the other side of town giving an estimate and she asked me to go. I got to the school and found JJ and two other students in the nurses office, the nurse was no where to be found. I waited a minute or two and decided to take matters into my own hands. I found a bottle of peroxide and poured a tiny amount into his ear. With his head to the side, we let the magic begin, the peroxide bubbled and tickled his ear. After a minute, I turned his ear to the side to drain the peroxide and the tip of a pencil came to the edge of his ear. I pulled the lead out and then cleaned his ear with a Kleenex. One more time with the peroxide and the job was done. I finely found the nurse, in the break room, and let her know that JJ was fine. School was to be over in about 20 minutes, so I decided that I would just take JJ home with me……I never did get an exclamation as to how the tip of a pencil got in his ear….What a day!
Have a great week everyone!

15 Comments:

At 9:32 AM, Blogger HennHouse said...

Lucy--we don't even have a microwave, but that is a great tip about not peeling down the husks.

Also, I had never heard of the book web site. I'm going to have to check it out--I've got boxes and boxes of books in the garage that I don't want anymore, but I REALLY want to go to a good home!

 
At 10:56 AM, Blogger Oh great One said...

I cook mine in the mircrowave too but I shuck it and then spread a little butter on it and wrap it in waxed paper before nuking it. It's yummy!

 
At 2:05 PM, Blogger Mrs. Geezerette said...

Lucy, I caught your comment over at Barbara's blog regarding McCain and Obama. So, I thought I would drop by your blog to see what is happening.

On the corn, I bake my ears of corn with the husks on at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Just lay the ears on an oven rack and let them bake. After you remove them from the oven and allow them to cool a little, hold them with a hot pad and begin to pull down the leaves of the husk to form a handle with them at the bottom. Once the leaves are pulled down carefully grab the silks at the top and pull straight up releasing the silks from the ear further down. Corn on the cob prepared this way is very moist and tasty.

Go to Barb's blog and read the comment I left about Palin.

 
At 4:50 PM, Blogger Putz said...

you amaze me...you have people at your feet for your GOOD advice, and i have victoria accusing me of wife bashing...i am only trying to be a godd guy like you and jim aere, i am in so much trouble on putz

 
At 7:03 PM, Blogger Granny Annie said...

I would not have known how to remove that pencil lead from the child's ear but I will know now it it ever happens to one of my granchildren.

For some reason I'm curious about why the other students were there. Perhaps you could have taken care of them too.

Love the corn hint and hope to have a chance to try it at least once before we can't get anymore fresh corn.

 
At 11:28 PM, Blogger Diane@Diane's Place said...

I've microwaved corn lots of times, in the shuck. I peel back the shuck and remove the silks, then run cold water over the corn, shucks and all. Pull the shucks back over the corn and microwave until hot through and done to your taste. I like mine a little on the crisp and barely done side.

I guess we really don't want to know why JJ had a pencil lead in his ear. Kids do those kinds of things sometimes for their own weird reasons. Glad it all turned out okay though.

You and TF and the family keep a wary eye out for Ike. Our weather guy is saying it'll probably make landfall around Houston.

Love and hugs,

Diane

 
At 9:34 AM, Blogger Rachel said...

I love it that the microwave corn makes the silks all come off so easily...every last one of them! I don't use butter or salt either. If the corn is real sweet I have been known to eat it raw! It's good!

I sure hope Ike doesn't gain strength as he moves across the water again. Do take care!

Like your exchange ideas!

 
At 9:40 AM, Blogger Rachel said...

I forgot to mention that your grandkids are making great memories there! Pencil lead in the ear?? Kids!!!

 
At 2:29 PM, Blogger Cliff said...

Yep, that's how I remove pencils from my ear too. It also works well with sweet corn kernals.

 
At 4:08 PM, Blogger Susie said...

Hi Lucy,
Your tip for removing the pencil was a good one. I'm not sure I would have thought of that. I laughed at your smashed bananas everywhere, but then I didn't have to clean up the mess. Kids!
hugs))

 
At 6:36 AM, Blogger MightyMom said...

are kids FUN!!!

what an adventure!

 
At 7:31 AM, Blogger Lib said...

Hi Lucy,
THanks for visiting and for your prayers!
I just Love your blog.Will visit again Soon.:o)
Blessins',Lib

 
At 2:26 PM, Blogger Jess said...

Lead in his ear....goodness. You have had a busy couple of weeks! Good tips and we like to take corn freshly picked out of the field and freeze it as is.....then we tak our as many ears as we need, run them under cold water to shuck them....then boil and eat!

Have a good week

 
At 7:26 PM, Blogger Rachel said...

Lucy, I hope you are prepared for IKE. Take care! I'll be thinking about you and pray you are safe.

 
At 8:18 PM, Blogger Big Dave T said...

Hea, I hear a hurricane is headed your way. Or maybe it's just a tropical storm. Either way, I know you're prepared.

I noticed that a few of your money-saving tips for college students had to do with using credit cards. Here's something my supervisor pointed out to me today . . .

He tracks how patients pay for their clinic co-payments for their office visits. It used to be more cash and check then credit card. Then it was evenly divided. Now patients use their credit card over twice as much to pay for their office visits than cash/checks. I find that a bit scary.

 

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