Corn on the Cob - An Instant Pot "Recipe"

I usually cook corn on the cob in the microwave.  It's 3 minutes per ear of corn, a little water in the bottom of a microwave-safe dish, cover with plastic wrap, and get it going.  But halfway through, you're supposed to uncover the dish and rearrange the corn, then cover it back up and continue cooking.  Have you ever tried to get that hot, steamy, plastic wrap back over a dish of hot food in the microwave?  I've fought many battles with plastic wrap.  New wrap, straight from the roll is bad enough, but once it's been used in the microwave, you're at a whole new level of frustration.  You might as well just get out a new piece of plastic wrap.

Enter the Instant Pot!

I was looking up something completely different and found instructions for cooking corn on the cob in the IP.  So easy and completely hands-off!  No rearranging things halfway through cooking.  No plastic wrap wrestling matches.

Here's the steamer basket.

I used an extra accessory, the steamer basket, which fits either the 6-quart or 8-quart (mine) Instant
Pot.  If you don't have a steamer basket, you can stack the corn on the rack that comes with your IP.

I used husked corn, but you can cook it in the husk, too.  Of course, you can get more in there without the husk.  So here's the process:


Corn on the Cob in the Instant Pot

water (1 1/2 c for 6-quart, 2 c for 8-quart)
ears of corn

Put the water and a rack or steamer basket in the pot. Stack ears of corn on the rack (no higher than the maximum mark) or stand them in the basket.  Close the lid and set the vent to seal.  Choose the "Manual" or "Pressure Cook" program, set the pressure to "High," and set the cook time to 2 minutes.  When the cook time has elapsed immediately release the pressure.  When the valve has dropped, open the lid, and serve the corn!  Total time from closing the lid is about 20 minutes.

Staying Home and Keeping Busy - Jigsaw Puzzles!

It seems that staying home during the pandemic, everybody has rediscovered jigsaw puzzles!  Facebook is full of posts with pictures of completed jigsaw puzzles. 

My mom LOVED jigsaw puzzles.  We'd get one out and work it on the dining room table.  We didn't eat in there most of the time, so it was a great place for puzzling!  When I vacation with my sister, we often take a puzzle to work on.  One infamous night, we got a puzzle out at 10:00 at night, "just to find the edge pieces," and we finished it around 3:30 in the morning.  There must be something terribly wrong with us.

Here's the infamous 1,000-piece puzzle that kept us up all night on vacation.
It looks likes it's been framed, but we worked it on a bamboo and glass table.

I've been wanting to work a puzzle, but...we have cats - naughty cats.  That's why taking puzzles on vacation is a great idea - the cats stay home!  I needed a cat-free zone at home in order to get a puzzle out and not have the pieces turn into cat toys that disappear under furniture and down heating vents.  I ruminated on the problem and finally figured out where I could set up a couple of antique side tables that, pushed together, are the perfect size for working jigsaw puzzles! 

I also have one of those puzzle organizer/storage caddies with a large area for working the puzzle and trays for sorting pieces.  If you have to move the puzzle or put it away temporarily, everything goes inside the caddy, the puzzle stays assembled, and nothing gets lost.  Then, when you're ready to work on it some more, you open it up, and there everything is, ready for you to resume the puzzle!

So I dug out my puzzle caddy (it's a really fancy one - HA! - made of corrugated cardboard) and found an empty puzzle box next to it.  I put it on the tables and opened it up, and found A PUZZLE!  Maybe a little more than half assembled.  It is TOUGH.  I've found an average of 5 pieces each evening this week.  At least I'm actually finding pieces.  The first night I worked on it I almost despaired of finding ANY pieces.  You'd think it would be easy to distinguish between the different colors of the trees.  You'd be wrong.  No wonder I put it away for a while! 

But by golly, I WILL get the whole thing put together.  All 1,000 pieces of it.

Here it is, in all its glory.  You can kind of get an idea of what the puzzle caddy is like.

It's SUMMER! Time for Fried Chicken!

Memorial Day has passed, and it's officially SUMMER, for all intents and purposes.  It used to be that a staple of picnics and pitch-ins was fried chicken, and NOT from a red-and-white-striped bucket.

I pulled out my cast iron skillet and made fried chicken a couple of days ago, and it always gets the same comment from That Man - "This is better than KFC!"  I used split chicken breasts instead of the skinless boneless Chick-zilla breasts I usually buy, but darned if those split breasts, which were even from a different company, were still HUGE - 2 1/2 pounds, and only TWO breasts in the package.  I had to cut them in half with my trusty kitchen shears.

Fried chicken really ought to be made with bone-in chicken with the skin on, but you can still make it with boneless, skinless breasts or thighs.  It's up to you, of course!

I used to just buy one of the prepared fry mixes, like Drake's or Kentucky Kernel, but I always ended by doctoring them up.  This recipe for my fry mix should be enough for 5 to 6 pounds of chicken.  I used half for those two monster split breasts, and there wasn't more than a spoonful left, so I just sprinkled it over the chicken pieces once I had them in the pan.


Fried Chicken

5-6 lb cut-up chicken (rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel)

1 c all-purpose flour
5 t seasoned salt
1 t pepper
1 t paprika
1 t poultry seasoning
1 t Montreal grilling seasoning for chicken
1/8 t ginger
1/8 t MSG (optional)

1 c Crisco shortening (one stick, if you buy it that way)
1/4 c bacon fat (optional, but everything's better with bacon!)

If making the full recipe, you'll need two 12-inch skillets with lids, or a large electric skillet with a lid.  Melt the Crisco and bacon fat at medium-low heat while you make the mix and dredge the chicken.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Dredge each piece of chicken in the prepared mix, coating each piece thoroughly.  Set the coated pieces on a sheet pan while you finish dredging all the pieces. 

Turn up the heat to about medium.  Start with the first piece and dredge each piece in turn a second time.  After all the pieces have been dredged twice, place them in the skillet(s) skin side down (if you're using bone-in chicken with skin), or what would have been the skin side down (if you're using boneless skinless pieces).  Cover the skillet(s).  Turn down the heat to somewhere around medium-low, so the chicken is gently sizzling.  You may need to turn it down a little more.  Cook 20 minutes on each side.

Using tongs, transfer the chicken from the skillet(s) to a paper-towel-lined sheet pan to catch any excess fat.  Dig in!

teeny tiny watercolor fun

A couple of weeks ago I posted about how I had put away my "good" paints and paper and was learning to PLAY with a set of Crayola kid's watercolor paints (here).

I'm still PLAYING with my kid's paints, and here are my latest efforts - teeny tiny watercolors.  All but one are right around 1 inch by 2 inches, except one, which is a whopping 1 inch by 3 inches!

As you can see, I've been having BIG fun making TINY paintings!  It doesn't take much, does it?

I was playing with laying down a wash,
and then "lifting" some of the color.
Not exciting, but a pretty shade of blue!
(1" x 2")

Just seeing what happened when I dabbed
some colors onto wet paper.
(1" x 2")

Again, just dabbing some
random colors onto wet paper.
Psychadelic, man!
Groovy!
(1" x 2")

An "accidental" landscape.  Just messing around
and a sunset (sunrise?) over water appeared!
(2" x 1")

Again, just messing around with dabbing and streaking, and an
area of bare dirt appeared in the grass!  But what are those
strange magenta blotches?  LOL!
(3" x 1")