Getting Corny

I love corn. It's the ultimate sign that summer is upon us and the livin' is easy. Finding good corn on the cob becomes the goal of the quest. You've had corn from the supermarket that's been a tad on the tough side. Still, you plunge ahead, hoping to get that perfect ear of corn. I have two words for you: Farmers Markets.

You'd have to be orbiting Alpha Centauri to have escaped the phenomenon of these incredible places to find delicious, tender, ripe, succulent, and whatever good adjective comes to mind, foods.

Want to find the best corn on the cob? These are the places to check out. The corn is picked often - sometimes three times a day, so you know it's fresh. Why is this important? Glad you asked.

Corn begins to convert sugar to starch the moment it's picked. That's some serious chemistry going on. It means that you need to get it from the plant to your tummy as soon as you can, if you're going to enjoy it at its sweetest.

Buy it fresh, keep it cool, and eat and process it as quickly as possible to retain all the goodness it contains. On Wednesday we'll talk about canning corn and on Friday we'll cover freezing tips for this golden delight.

Mixing It Up

You know vegetables are good for you, so what's better for you than one veggie? Yep, you guessed it - 2 or more. What's even better is that you can freeze your own mixed vegetables and make up your own favorite medleys.

Once Upon a Time, some creative cook wondered what would happen if corn and lima beans spent some quality time together. And you know what happened next. Succotash was born and became everyone's first mixed vegetable.

After that, another inventive person mixed up some peas and carrots and that became as common as succotash. A trend was born. The game was afoot!

Don't stop there, however. There's a wealth of lonely veggies out there in the world just waiting for a matchmaker to come along and pair them up with another kindred soul. In fact, the trend today is the create a medley - three or more veggies all happily sharing the same freezer bag.

You can spend a tidy sum of money on mixed veggies at the grocery store and you might be disappointed with what you get. Usually the cheapest vegetable is the one that takes more than its fair share of the bag. Carrots are notorious for this shameful behavior. That means in a bag of frozen peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots (you guessed it) you're probably going to get more carrots than any of the other contenders.

So, what to do? Simple. Make up your own combinations. What vegetables do you like? How will you use them? These questions will guide your choices.

I do quite a bit of stir fry, so I like broccoli, cauliflower, red and green bell pepper strips, sugar snap peas, and mushrooms for one combo.

Another favorite includes water chestnuts, red and green bell pepper strips, onion slices, celery, and bok choi.

Dinner and A Mixed Vegetable

Marc Matsumoto who tweets as norecipes and who, in his spare time, co-hosts Dinner and a Movie checked in with mushrooms, corn and fava beans as his choice.

Go for the crunch, not for the mush

Follow the normal procedures for freezing vegetables. This means blanching and quick cooling (peppers don't need blanching).