There's a Right Way

I'm pretty big on traditions.

I mean, traditions are my thing.

Let's just say that I'm the Tradition Police in the family.

Especially when it comes to falling asleep at the table after Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday shopping full of Target, Kohls and Panera Cinnamon Crunch Bagels with hazlenut cream cheese, making gingerbread houses with my mom after too much wine, taking goofy pictures with my brothers in front of the Christmas tree, and eating corn with spaghetti.

Speaking of corn... Well, wait a minute.

Another crucial tradition is in the Muddy Buddies.

Make fun of me all you want for calling them Muddy Buddies. I've heard it all. But I will say that by calling them Muddy Buddies, I never once have accidentally received dog food from a Secret Santa in high school when I asked for puppy chow.

Just sayin'.

But the tradition here is in the preparation.

First off, you need the Muddy Buddy spoon. From what I know of its usage in the Heins household, it has only ever been used for Muddy Buddies. (Granted, from what I remember of my mom's cooking, it consisted of Muddy Buddies, chocolate chip cookies and hot dog toasties so I don't know what else she would use it for. Just kidding. Love you, mom!). She graciously passed along the spoon to me so I could make Muddy Buddies. No other spoon works. Trust me, I've never tried.

And the last and important step is using a zip-loc bag to move that powdered sugar all around those peanut-butter-slathered, chocolate-chip-drenched Chex cereal. Growing up, I always got to be the shaker of the bag. Being the shaker of the bag is a powerful position. You hold the power to drown the Buddies in powdered sugar. You hold the moral responsibility to drown the Buddies in powdered sugar.

My husband took this responsibility like a champ.

To reiterate my earlier point - There is a right way to do things. And a wrong way. And the traditional way is always. the. right. way. I don't care if it doesn't make sense. It makes sense that it's done the way it's done. 

Anyways. Speaking of corn.

Usually I think that FiestaWare makes food pretty. 

In this case, I think the corn makes the FiestaWare pretty.

My husband said to me, "That ear of corn looks earily similar to the other one."

Thanks to my uncle for the best sweet corn "on this side of Davis Creek" as my dad would say, and thanks to my Maid-of-Honor for the cutest corn holders on this side of corn-growing Nebraska.

Corn on the cob is not an exception in this Tradition Police's book. Oh no, that's far from the truth. There's an art to how one cooks, prepares and eats corn on the cob. I can hear my mom's voice in my head, "Put water in a pot and set it on the stove. Once it comes to a boil, add the corn and cook them for 10 minutes." Simple as that.

As for the eating - without fail, the first corn on the cob of the season we would eat in the Heins household, we would have the inevitable and lively argument..er, discussion on the correct way to eat the corn. Do you eat it typewriter style? Or going round and round and round which doesn't even have a name and forces you to go slower and give your fingers a workout? Exactly.

And lastly, the corn must be dripping in butter and salt. Obviously the most effective method is to unwrap a stick of butter, place it on a butter dish, roll your corn in the butter, and then shake the salt shaker so vigorously that your sitting on salt for the rest of the summer. Obviously.

So you can see why I was lamenting to my husband the other day when I realized we didn't have a butter dish and couldn't eat corn on the cob. (Kinda like how you can't make Muddy Buddies without the spoon, ya know.) 

He told me we could eat it another way. And since marriage is about sacrificing, leaving and cleaving, and trusting. I gave it a try.

And although it wasn't quite the same as the Heins buttering method, it worked. And we'll still be sitting in salt the rest of the summer, and we'll bond together over an hour of flossing later tonight.

How do you eat your corn on the cob?

Muddy Buddies

Ingredients:
9 cups Chex cereal
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
LOTSA powdered sugar
1 Muddy Buddy spoon

Directions:

1. Pour cereal in a large bowl and set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave on high 1 - 1 1/2 minutes until smooth. Stir in vanilla.
3. Pour chocolate over cereal and stir with Muddy Buddy spoon.
4. Pour cereal in large zip-loc bag with powdered sugar and shake.
5. Cool on waxed paper.

Perfect Corn on the Cob

Ingredients:
Ears of corn
Water
1 stick of butter
1 butter dish
Salt shaker that shakes out salt like nobody's business

Directions:

1. Pour water into a pot and set on stove.
2. Bring to a boil, add corn and set timer for 10 minutes. Take out of water immediately.
3. Roll corn in the stick of butter on the butter dish and shake on that salt (or, unwrap a stick of butter and spread it over your corn. either way, still shake on that salt.)