Something Corn-y

 So, these are the itty bittys whose mom made a nest on top of a post under our porch roof.  They're just all fuzz and beaks.  Hard to tell, but I think there are 3 of them, and I'm pretty sure they were 2 days old or less when I took this picture.  I'm also pretty sure these little guys don't eat corn...yet.

Which brings us to the title of this post.  I've invited myself over to my sister-in-law's mother-in-law's house this summer to blanch and freeze corn (thanks so much for having me, KD!).  I'm told they use their turkey fryer to keep the water boiling and make an assembly line out of it.  Sounds like a lot of (hot) work, but also a lot of fun, and the corn my sis has preserved this way is the best I've tasted (besides fresh, of course).  Here's some information about blanching and freezing corn from the University of Illinois Extension.

So I was thinking, hopefully I can convince KD and Chip that we need to make these caramel corn ice pops from the June/July issue of "Every Day With Rachel Ray" during one of our breaks.  Yes, I said I want to make popsicles out of corn.  Rachel assures me they taste like caramel corn, and Rachel wouldn't lie.  Besides, I think it would be fun.  I'll bring the popsicle sticks, girls!

And, in corny conclusion, as some of you know, my oldest son has a summer birthday.  His teacher told the kids that if anyone with a summer birthday wanted to bring in treats, they could do it this week.  So we made a plan.  I was to buy 18 ice cream sandwiches, plus a gluten-free treat for one girl and a sugar AND gluten-free treat for another girl, and bring it all in around 10:45 for snack time...it was a great plan, and very easy (well, except for the gluten and sugar free part)...until Code-man saw my July issue of Woman's Day magazine.

 Then he decided he needed corn on the cob cupcakes.  I wish you could all be here to see them in person, 'cause they're pretty cool looking.  Those are jelly bellies (yay for Knoke's!) for the corn kernels, and I used taffy for the pats of butter (good call on the taffy, Hubby!).

If you read the recipe, you'll see that they say to make your cake and frosting from scratch.  You can rest assured that I did not do this (I used yellow cake, of course).  They also used black and white sanding sugar for salt and pepper, but I didn't feel like I had the time to go to a specialty baking shop, and our local grocery store (for some strange reason) does not sell black sugar at this time of year.

YUM!