Thursday, June 24, 2010

June 24, 2010 I'll Take Eight of Those, Please

It's been a busy few days, but I finally have a chance to write again.  Last night I made a short drive to my local grocer, Rouses, where I have found a surprisingly large variety of gluten-free products (to my utter delight).  I needed a few things, and I love to patronize this store because 1) it's a Louisiana-owned business, and 2) they carry more local and Louisiana-made/grown/born products than any other store in the area.  They even carry two--count 'em--TWO brands of prepared roux (you can ask me if you don't know what that is).

I'm even happier than usual with this store since a few days ago I sent them an e-mail from their website (see link above) asking why they didn't carry any non-dairy or soy ice creams.  I figured I'd get some sort of form-letter e-mail saying sorry you're unhappy, blah-blah-blah.  But I didn't!  What I did receive, within a day, was a personal e-mail addressed directly to me by an actual Rouse family member, who informed me that, although soy and rice ice cream were offered in some of their stores, the two closest to me didn't appear to stock them and that she would remedy that as quickly as possible.  She even went so far as to ask me what my favorite flavors were so she could be sure they were stocked.  Wow!

So, off I went to my store to get a few things I needed.  As soon as I entered, the first bin I saw was being loaded up with fresh ears of unshucked corn.  Eight ears for $2 sounded great to me, since a couple of weeks ago they were six ears for $2, and they were delicious.  The young man doing the loading said I could pick straight from the boxes if I liked, which I did.  As I picked out my hefty corn ears, he proceeded to tell me how he likes to cook them.  Here's the best part.  They are so personable at this store!  After he told me what to do, I told him I was going to try it as soon as I got home and blog about it.  Airhead that I am sometimes, I forgot to tell him what my blog was or even get his name, but anyway, here's what he said to do:

Preheat the oven to about 350.  Remove the loose petals and fuzz on the ear of corn but leave most of the husk intact.  Place on a cookie sheet and put in the oven for about 20 minutes.  In his words, "it just cooks in its own juice."

Lemme tell ya, that was some really good corn!  It was perfectly cooked, and I didn't have to boil a huge pot of water on the stove.  You just have to shuck it the rest of the way after it cools off a little.  Not just a time saver, but a water and energy saver, too.  I can imagine the barbecuers of this world could have a blast playing with this idea.

So, there's my experiment of the day, brought to you by an employee of my now favorite store.

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