Inventing Dinner

Today I burned in my new grill. I was amazed how easy to use it was, tomorrow we will cook our first meat on it, and on Monday I will tackle a long term cooking project: beef ribs, 3 hours of smoking and high temp cooking. I'm looking forward to it.

Tonight however I tried (again) something that I have always felt shouldn't be THAT hard, but always seems to be: Fried chicken. Let me put it this way: I give up. I think you A. have to be born in the south to pull this off, or B. talk with a twang, or C. have visited the south at some point in your life. I have D. None of the above. As such I can cook chicken in oil that would make a Medieval siege strategist happy, but I wouldn't call it "fried chicken". Though I follow recipes I can only come to conclude that real "Fried Chicken" is really something that comes from the heart, not from a set of instructions of rule book. As such this is most likely the last time I will try (as each time statistically brings me closer and closer to burning myself in some horrific way on hot oil) to make the meat that I have heard lauded so much. (And I have been told KFC doesn't even begin to count.)

(Post game breakdown says the oil was too hot, but I don't really have any way to control that overly easily so until I get an electric frier that I can set the temperature at and forget it, then my FC days are over.)

On top of that I also made Gouda and Chive mashed potatoes, which needed a little more salt (always fixable at the table) and tasted pretty good.

The real "winner" of the evening was a little invention I threw together and I think I will call it, "Fresh Garlic Corn". I can already hear the clicking on the "comment" button. "What is it?" You type, and "How do I make it?" Well folks, Lisa and I thought it was pretty wonderful, and so I choose to share it with you. (I have never seen nor heard of corn being done this way, so if I am ripping someone off, it's unintentional.)

Start with fresh corn. (We used 1 ear per person, but if you are bigger on corn then adjust as needed)Cut the kernels from the cob. (Place the freshly shucked corn in a bowl and, using a knife, slice downwards to cut the kernels away from the cob.)
Then mince 2 large cloves of garlic PER ear of corn. (If using smaller cloves adjust accordingly.) I would imagine that this might come to something like 1 tablespoon of minced garlic per ear of corn, possibly a little more. Adjust as you like. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Slice up 2 tablespoons of butter.
Toss everything in a skillet and and cook on medium/low heat (I had my stove-top set to 4). Cook until the garlic has reached a nice light golden color. (Mine sat for 15 minutes or so) Stirring every 5 minutes.
Serve - Eat.

You end up with a nice fresh tasting corn with a slight sweet/ spiciness of the garlic and a hint of pepper. Very good stuff. Give it a try!

Tomorrow is pork loin on the smoker/ grill!

~B.