Our new "house" drink

National Mead Day is the first Saturday in August, and I do like my Mead. I determined that since we were celebrating Mead, that we should make a Mead cocktail rather then simply drinking a glass. After an online search we and decided on A Cure for What Ails You. Off we went to our local liquor store, only to discover that they had no Mead! As we were about to give up we noticed a bottle of something called "Brandymel" and decided that we could be flexible.

The original recipe we found calls for 2 1/2 parts Mead; 1 part lemon juice; and 1 1/2 parts ginger beer, but since we were using liquor instead of "wine" we cut back a bit on the alcoholic portion. I adapted by using one six-ounce bottle of ginger beer, two ounces of lemon juice, and two shot glasses full of the Brandymel (for two servings). I mixed everything together in a measuring cup then poured over ice into two glasses. So refreshing for a hot summer day! We have dubbed it our new "house drink".

Corny Corn

We picked up some corn at the local farmers' market yesterday and decided to cook it on the #BigGreenEgg. But how to do it? (Our usual approach is simply to bring a big pot of water to a boil before putting the husked ears in for exactly ten minutes.)

The EGGhead forum offered many options; we settled on a simple one. We removed the husks and soaked the corn, while heating up the Egg to about 400. (Since we were essentially using it for a quick, direct cooking, we did not worry too much about the exact temp.)

Then we put the ears directly on the grill, turning every five minutes with our indispensable kitchen tongs. Giving the corn a 5-minute head start, I then put some burgers on the griddle insert.

When the burgers were done (perfectly, I might add!), I could not tell if the corn was done. I asked Pam to look with me, and we agreed that we really had no way to know. So we took the burgers in for condimentage, which in our house is always a process. At this point, the corn had 20 minutes of regular turning over high heat, so we decided to declare victory.

Photo shamelessly stolen from EGGhead Forum
member bitslammer

And a victory was had! I did not think to try a photo until too late, but the corn looked a lot like the image above, taken from the forum. We were skeptical -- it looks tough and we like our corn-on-the-cob tender. Somehow, though, it was -- tender and delicious. I think the soaking must have played a big part in this. I applied nothing but Amish butter and a little black pepper to mine.

Lagniappe

This simple story is not a recipe story in the traditional sense, but it is a good example of what happens as we build cooking experience. Once we decided on a goal, Pam and I each consulted a wide variety of informed opinions. We did not follow any one of them as a script, but as a group, the other #BigGreenEgg users gave us key things to consider as we figured this out. 

Some of those ideas require considerably more time and effort; following this success, we might just revisit those and keep exploring the world of grilled corn. Local corn, that is, not the King Corn stuff.