But I Saw It On The Internet

To my son Tommy,

Usually I would warn against believing many things you find on the internet, which is ironic in itself because I put these letters on the internet.  But if you find a how-to or instructions, approach with caution and verify with other sources and verify with just plain old common sense.  A great commercial, possibly classic, on the television has a person believing every thing on the internet.  The punch line comes when she says she has a date with a French model that she met on the internet and up walks a rather homely man and says "Bonjour" or more like "Bone Jure" in the worst French accent possible.  Since I saw this commercial, to this day when people tell me stories and that their source is the internet, I make my claim to French model status.

That is why when we (your mom and I) actually find something on the internet that we try and succeed with, we are flabbergasted and amazed.  In this case it was cooking fresh ears of corn in the microwave with husks on.   It was dead simple and it worked.  We took two fresh ears of corn.  We trimmed up any dead leaves and snipped off the protruding silk from the end.  We put them in the microwave on high for 8 minutes.  We pulled them out and cut off the larger end (not the silk end) making sure to cut into the end of the cob a little.  Then we squeezed it out the cut end from the silk end sort of like squeezing cake icing from a decorating bag.  Out came two perfectly cooked ears of corn that were silk free.  Our next couple of attempts told us this was not a fluke.  We ended up with one or two strands of the corn silk on one of the cobs, but I end up with many more than that doing it the conventional way.  Later we showed off the technique to your Pop-pop using just one ear of corn at 4 minutes.  He was very impressed and might end up having corn every day of the week now. 

So I guess I have to re-evaluate my prejudice and skepticism of the internet how-to's.  Occasionally you find something on there that is really useful.  And occasionally you find a technique that you might actually use and do, rather than just read and say you will do.  I will still approach any information, internet or not, with a good dose of caution and healthy skepticism, but perhaps with the recent success, some more of those Pinterest and Instructables might actually get done.

The only sad thing is this might bring a certain end to the specialness of corn.  It used to be corn was a big deal because it didn't pay to do all that work for one or two cobs and you only worked with fresh corn when it was warranted to do a couple dozen ears.  Now fresh corn on the cob can be cooked up quick and easy all throughout the summer.  Here is hoping we can get you to try this new food so the technique is not wasted on just us.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo