Corn on cob

Frugal Cooking

Tips For Freezing Corn From the Garden

All of the girls in my house absolutely love corn on the cob from the garden.  When it is the time of the year when it is being harvested fresh from the garden we always have several ears in the fridge ready for the grill.

The problem (much like I had with the Banana Peppers) is much of it will go to waste because we can’t eat all that the garden produces.  Once again, we are stuck with buying it from the store and when it is out of season, it just doesn’t taste as good as corn fresh from the garden.

I discovered this tip from an older person who explained to me exactly how to prepare the corn, freeze it and cook it up on the grill when thawed and it tastes exactly like it came from the garden.

Preparing The Corn

1. Begin by taking the ear of corn and peeling off some of the husk and the tinsel at the top, but do not peel it all off.  You want to leave at least 2-3 layers of shuck.
2. Once you have completed step 1, you will wrap the corn (that still has partial shuck on it) in the clear plastic wrap nice and tight.
3. The final thing is wrapping it in the aluminum foil. (So you will have the partial shucked ear of corn, wrapped in clear wrapping paper, wrapped in aluminum foil)
4. Put them away in the freezer where they will be good for a very long time. I am not sure exactly how long they will keep, but I know it will at least last until corn is back in season.

Cooking The Corn That Has Been Frozen

(This is just my method.  I am sure there are many other ways to get the same result)

1. Transfer the corn to the fridge the night before or set out at room temperature the day of you want to cook it.
2. Once thawed, unfold the aluminum foil (don’t tear it off because you are going to use it later) from the corn.  Then removed the clear wrap and dispose of it.  (we usually put this in the recycled pile)
3. Peel one side of the shuck down where you can add butter, salt, pepper (Do not remove the shuck though)
4. Wrap it all back up using the aluminum foil you peeled off in step 2.
5. Put the ear of corn wrapped up on the grill.  On medium heat it takes around 15 minutes for it to cook.  I usually cook it directly on the grill, rotating it for about 10 minutes and then transfer it to the warming rack for the remainder of the time.  This gives the corn the grill marks, but does not dry it out.
6. Remove from grill, remove and recycle the aluminum foil, peel the rest of shuck and brush the remain tinsel off (there shouldn’t be much left) and eat up.

It will taste just like you plucked it from the garden.

Tips for freezing banana peppers

I really love Banana peppers.  We use them in lots of dishes to give it a little extra flavor and my parents grow a ton of them each year.  We eat them up while they are in season, but lots of them were getting thrown away because they produce at such a rapid rate.

We have learned how we can freeze the peppers and once they are thawed, they taste just like they came fresh from the garden.

Preparing / Freezing them

1. Wash the peppers good
2. Cut the top part off (where the stem is)
3. slice it down one side where you can remove all the seeds inside
4. Remove the seeds from the inside
5. put them in gallon freezer bags (Make sure they are the freezer type bags)
6. Stick them in freezer and they will keep for a very long time

When you get ready to eat them, just pick out however many you will want to prepare and let them thaw at room tempeture.  Once thawed, they will taste just like they came fresh from the garden.

Get our your coupons you have been saving from clipping the Sunday newspaper and the ones you have printed off.  If you have not registered for Clip N Go Coupons and CoolSavings.com I would go ahead and do that so you can get the special offer coupons.

After you have everything in place:  The coupons, sale paper, something to write with and something to write on.  It is time to make your grocery list for the upcoming week.  The key to saving money at the grocery store is to plan the meals for the entire next week.

Many sites recommend you have at least two nights a week where you do not have a meat.  We will usually do some kind of pasta (I will be posting some of our favorites as time goes on) for a couple nights.  Not having to buy some type of meat or chicken for every meal of the night will really add up in the grocery store.

You may not believe it, but just try it for next week’s meal.  I am a meat eater so this naturally took a little getting used to for me, but once you see how much you save and get used to having some different things it will really pay off.