Easy Corn On The Cob Tips

Don't you just love sweet, summertime corn?  But making it can be a bit of a mess.

 

Until recently, I always shucked it and then either boiled it on the stove (where the water seems to take forever to boil) or grilled it (often over- or under-cooking it).

 

Someone told me about a super easy way to cook and shuck corn.  All you do is place your corn cobs directly on your top oven rack (husks and all ~ absolutely no prep work) and turn the oven on to 350 (don't preheat the oven) and bake for 30 minutes.

 

Remove your corn from the oven and cut about and inch off the bottom like this:

 

 

Then squeeze the corn out of the husk (kinda like a giant tube of toothpaste):

 

 

Walah!  The corn comes out of the husk with virtually no silk!  How easy is this?!

 

 

Now, in other corn cob news...Have you ever met Butter Boy?

 

 

He's a brilliant little guy ~ holds the butter so that you can expertly cover your corn.  No butter dish mess!

 

 

Two solutions to some of life's hassles.  Happy I could share these with you!

Easiest Bathing Suit Shopping! {Custom Bathing Suit}

I know there are a lot of bad things in this world.  Serious, dreadful situations.  I rank bathing suit shopping near the top of the list;)

Right?!

It's been a few years since I've bought a suit and I really needed one because my old one's just about threadbare.  I searched Etsy and look what I found!

 

(Sparing you pictures of me in the suit!)

 

I found it in Diane's shop.  All I had to do was describe to her the type of fabric I wanted and she sent me pictures of options.  Then I gave her my measurements and wahla!

I love all of the stitching and button detail...

 

...And the buttons and the zipper on the back of it.

 

My first ever custom bathing suit and it fits perfectly!

 

It reminds me of the suit my mother wore in the late 1960s (Virginia Beach with my sister and me/I'm in the red suit).

 

Best of all?  I didn't have to try on 20 different suits in a cramped fitting room with hideous lighting!

 

Hope you all have a beachy keen day!

The Perfect Lemonade Recipe

Looking for the perfect lemonade to quench your summertime thirst?  I think this is it!

After years of squeezing lemons into lemonade, I finally figured out that the secret to the perfect lemonade isn't just the ratio of lemon juice to sugar, but the method of mixing the two!  Making a "simple syrup" is the real secret ~ here's how...

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water (for syrup)

1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

4 cups cold water

Directions:

1.  In a small saucepan, heat your sugar and 1 cup of water until the sugar is completely dissolved.

2.  While your sugar is dissolving, squeeze your lemons (4-6 lemons will produce 1 cup of juice).

(I also include the pulp squeezed from the lemons.)

3.  Pour your simple syrup (cooked sugar water) and fresh lemon juice into a pitcher.

4.  Add 4 cups of cold water (you can reduce this for a sweeter lemonade, and conversely, more for a weaker lemonade).
5.  Pour a tall glass over ice, take a sip, and enjoy!

Aaaahhhh!  Refreshing.  The perfect mix of tart and sweet!

Hope you're all keeping cool through these heat-filled, summer days!

Click here for a chance at winning Beth's book!

Drawing is August 31st ~ good luck!

Perfectly Ripe Summer Peaches

Visiting our son and daughter-in-law in south Georgia recently, we picked up the most perfectly ripe peaches at a farmer's market.



I pulled them out of the fridge and started snapping.



Condensation quickly appeared because of the hot, humid air here in Florida.



Oh, the color!



Reminds me of a sunset...



A velvet-y sunset.



They were as delicious as they were beautiful.



Hope you're having a peachy day!

Don't forget this month's blog giveaway:



From all of your comments to my July posts, I'll draw a winner on the 31st ~ good luck!

Dog Days of Summer

It's early. While I drink my coffee I'm enjoying one of my favorite morning rituals -- reading my blog comments. Twyla's being impatient and has jumped up on my ottoman, staring me down, willing me to shut my laptop and take her outside.

A couple of hours later and I'm feeling kinda lazy. It's now 8:25 a.m. as I write this and it's already 85 degrees! So much to do today -- a few shower cap orders and an apron to stitch. Blaming my lack of motivation on my lazy assistant... This is the beautiful live oak tree that shades her in the mornings:

By about 10:00 each morning she's whinning and howling like someone's beating her (she's very dramatic). She wants air conditioning. On the way in to the house, she snuck up on the porch swing (look at that guilty face -- she knows she's not supposed to be there):

Two minutes after I bring her in the house she's fast asleep on top of the back cushions of the couch....I look at her and she makes me sleepy. Must.not.look.at.Twyla!