Knives, Corn and Veggie Meals

You may be wondering why it's been so quiet lately, well we were on vacation. We made a lovely trip to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to see Fortress Louisbourg. It is a 1700's era fortress that has been reconstructed. We took my nephew and Tim's son who are 14 and 13 respectively. An old fort is a great place for boys that age. They were expecting ruins where one has to image that there once was a fort there. But what they got was a whole other story.

By the end of it, they were over stimulated.

We even ate at the inn at the fortress. Period food was not Alec's cup of tea but he coped... Note to parents - expose your kids to all types of food early on. If you only feed them "what they like" they will end up only eating chicken nuggets and fries. And no one on this planet needs to live off of that crap!

While we were away, I had my knives sharpened. A sharp knife is a safe knife. And if you do cut yourself, the cut will be a clean cut so re-attachment will be easy! I can cut through a squash no problem because instead of using force, I use the sharpness of my blade.

After our journey we needed to eat healthy. Restaurant food is full of sodium and fat. So I made a corn and broccoli stew. On top of the 27 ears corn I had previously roasted and shucked, I roasted some more for this stew and shucked it. The ingredients for this stew are easy.

• 2 slices of bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 6 cups of broccoli (2 stalks)
• 4 ears of corn (or 3 cups of nibblets)
• 2 cups of skim or 1% milk
• pepper
• 1/2 tsp Ms. Dash or salt.

First saute the bacon over low heat until almost cooked but not browned, add the onions and cook until soft. Add the potatoes and half the milk. Cover and simmer 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft when poked with a fork. Add the broccoli and the rest of the milk and the Ms. Dash and Pepper. Cover and cook another 5 minutes. Add the corn, cover and cook another 5 minutes. That's it. Tasty! And low in sodium and fat!

As you can see, I used red potatoes and left the skin on. Just a reminder to stock up on corn while it's in season. Roast it on the bbq or boil it, shuck it from the cob and freeze it. The roasted corn is great thrown in all sorts of winter soups, stew, etc. Yum!