"He would have needed it if you were just a couple minutes sooner," Kate smiled. "I just gave him some a moment ago. If what I gave him doesn't hold, though, he can certainly take that too. You'll figure out that all of the men we have are the same way. For all of his knowledge as a healer, Robert's even worse than Angus is at taking pain potion. He's loaded with compassion for other people's pain but for his own? Not even a thought of pain potion. He gets determined to muscle through it. My job for the last thirty years or so has been to be the mother to the younger recruits.
"It's definitely his sauce. We don't have the knack to it that Angus does, but Nicky's put eight full racks of ribs to slow cook on the grill so they're good and tender and smoky. And he'll take this sauce out before too long and start to baste the ribs with the sauce so they get layers and layers of caramelized sauce on them. Nicky can certainly do that so Angus doesn't have to, and we're going to take some potatoes, wrap them in foil, and cook them on the grill. Then we'll set out a bunch of different toppings and people can use butter or sour cream, or cheese or scallions or whatever they like. That, and Angus says he wants to grill some corn on the cob. I don't know that I've ever had it on the grill, though,"
"There are a few ways to do it," Angus said. "One way is to pull back the husk and take out the silk, pull the husks back up, then soak them in water for at least 20 minutes before you put them on the grill, and grill them for 20 minutes or so. Then, when you take the corn off the grill, you pull back the husk and hte husk sort of becomes your handle to hang onto the corn with.
"But I might do it Mexican street corn style. That means I grill the corn, and then I make a spread for it from mayonnaise, lime juice, garlic, and cayenne pepper, spread the corn with melted butter and then spread it with the mayonnaise spread, and then sprinkle Mexican cotija cheese and finely chopped cilantro all over the ear of corn. It's really very tasty."
"But the basic idea is that you still eat it right off the cob, right?"
"Yes<" Angus said. "Corn on the cob is only available in the summer, so its an anticipated season when the corn is ready. That's what makes it special. In smaller American farming communities, in the summer time when the corn is ripe and really plentiful, it's really common to take the husk and the silk off of a dozen or two ears of corn, fill a big stockpot with water, boil the corn till its tender, and then sprinkle each ear with salt and pepper. The entire supper menu that night then is just as many ears of corn as everyone can eat, and usually, served with some fresh, homegrown slice tomatoes on the side. That's what everyone makes when its pretty much too hot to do a whole lot of cooking. Some of my American friends say that they usually serve it on paper plates so the only clean up, really, is the pot that the corn was boiled in. They also put another paper plate, an empty one, in the center of the table and everyone puts their empty corn cobs on that plate and some families call it a 'bone pile'. That gives everbody more room on their plates for more ears of corn to be eaten."
"We might have to take a trip for a few days to that part of the states and just take advantage of the summer traditions," Kate said
"You could, or we could just enjoy the same traditions here," Angus said. "Maybe I'll do a milk can supper tomorrow night."
"Now what on earth is that?" she asked.
"Well, if the farm had a big milk can, they would wash it out and layer food in it and cook it over and open fire, sort of like a seafood boil. They'd put a layer of potatoes and cabbage on the bottom because it needed to cook longer than the other things. They'd cut some ears of corn in thirds of halves and put a layer of that in, a layer of carrots and onions, bell pepper, garlic, thyme, a layer of bratwurst or sausages, some seafood seasoning, and salt and pepper, pour in a bunch of beer, and boil it all until everything is done. Then, when its done, they drain off all the beer, cover a picnic table outside with several layers of newspaper, pour the food out all over the newspaper from one end of the table to the other, and everyone just tucks in, uses their fingers and eats from whats spread out on the table. No plates or silverware required. When everyone's done, all it takes to clean up is to toss the newspaper and wash the milk can."
"Now that sounds like a lot of fun," she laughed.
"It definitely is. The only difference between that and a seafood boil is that the seafood boil adds fish and crab legs and big prawns to the pot. But its basically the same thing."
"So the milk can idea is a lot more practical if you live in a landlocked location."
"Exactly," he nodded.
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