The century plant at work bloomed about a month ago. I've been meaning to get a picture of it but haven't stopped long enough to do it.

This morning on my way to the office I noticed a hummingbird and bees buzzing around the top. I had to stop now, I couldn't miss this moment.

Come see the hummingbird and bees all a flitter.

Click on photo to enlarge.

This was the hugest hummingbird I've ever seen. I swear, the feeders around here must have steroids in them. The little black dots are the bees.

I was happily clicking along, reading some of my favorite blogs listed on the sidebar.
This is just to mention a few.
Jaden on Steamy Kitchen is off on some surprise mystery trip for her birthday, she has a t.v. show and is in the process of writing a cookbook and has fabulous photos on her blog.
Chez Annie is cooking with heirloom tomatoes, making videos and caters, and has fabulous photos on her blog.
Alice Q goes to the hippest, trendiest places, is an excellent baker and cook, throws fabulous soirees and has fabulous photos on her blog.
I love happy cows cooks, gardens, is one of the keepers of our future, and has fabulous photos on her blog.
mmm-yoso!! Something exciting is always going on there along with fabulous photos.

Then I click back to my blog and there's a photo of an egg floating in water.

I am such a dork.

I feel like the next line should be "now go to your room".

How do you tell if an egg is bad? I've always used the egg in a cup of water method, if it floats it's bad.
Some people say that only indicates it's old and has developed a large air pocket. To me, that's too old to use.

I was going to make some corn pudding which called for eggs. I had to change my plans, so come see what happened.

 I was reading a couple of threads in the newsgroup I participate in rec.food.cooking. One was about hot dogs and what to top them with. Man, some people are animate about what goes on a dog. Me? it's mayonnaise and mustard, right next to each other on the plate, bun less dog usually eaten with fork and knife. Or a loaded chile dog. Or a kraut dog. ;-) no fork, no knife, in a bun, all over my face.
You? Do you eat your dog the same way all the time, and are you animate about what goes on it?

In reading the newsgroup corn pudding was also mentioned. Great, I have some corn that I scraped off the cob and froze last month.  What a perfect match, a nicely grilled hot dog and corn pudding. As I was assembling the ingredients thinking about how I'd tweak the recipe I discovered I was one egg short of a recipe. (hardy..har..har please feel free to use it. "man, you are so dense you are one egg short of a recipe") Sorry, I digress.
So, I was thinking about how to adjust the recipe for 3 instead of 4 eggs when I discovered they were no good.

I had to come up with a plan B so I decided to make a rendition of creamed corn. The main players in this little saga are corn, cream, onion, Queso Enchilada, and my beloved chiles that I brought back from last years trip to New Mexico

I started by cooking half of a medium onion in a skillet with some butter. When the onion was starting to soften I added about two tablespoons of the chiles and cooked it a few more minutes.

When you scrape the chiles off the cutting board with your knife, be sure and bump the cup that holds the cream. I know, I know, turn the handle dummy. 

Added two cups of corn to the pan. This cooked over medium heat. The corn needed to be cooked and some of the liquid needed to reduce, so that when I added the cream I wouldn't have soup. 

After the cream was added it simmered away to thicken just a tad.

While the corn is cooking, grill your favorite hot dog. I like the uncured, nitrate free buffalo franks we get at Costco. They are a mix of buffalo and beef. Buffalo is listed on the ingredients list first.

They look like regular hot dogs and are juicy. I like to cook them under the toaster oven broiler.

Plated with corn and dusted with Queso Enchilada. Mayo added after photo. ;-)

The corn turned out delicious. The chiles added a nice little kick. Next time I'm going to add some of the queso to the corn right before it's finished cooking.

Dang, it looks like I've been on a ground beef kick lately. I did have some chicken between the last ground beef post and this one though.

Last night I was hungry but unimaginative and unmotivated to do too much fussing over dinner. The truth be told I was at a good table on Poker Stars. No I don't use real money, I play the play money tables. So I needed to make something that I could do easily and that needed little attention.

I defrosted a pound of ground beef, and assembled some spices. I like to add corn to my sloppy joes, don't know why but I do. I didn't have any corn so I roughed it. ;-) I also add dark red kidney beans, love them.

The spices I added were cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. I also added some of my precious New Mexico chiles that I brought back from our trip there last year.

Diced up an onion and cooked it until it started to soften.

Browned the ground beef with the onions. Here's were I added the garlic. Once the beef is browned I sprinkle in a little flour maybe a couple of teaspoons, depending on how much fat is left behind by the ground beef. I then cook it a little longer to cook off the raw flour taste. This helps to make a nice "gravy" when the tomatoes are added.

This is the first time I used a microplane for garlic. I will definitely use it when I make my vinaigrette dressing, it smooshes the garlic great.

After I add the canned diced tomatoes, juices and all, I add the spices. I simmered it for a while, I don't remember for how long, (remember I was at a good poker table.) for all the flavors to meld.

It tasted like it needed some red wine that I didn't have so I added some Worcestershire sauce to it. That didn't do it so I splashed in one glug of white wine. Perfect!!!! Throw in the dark red kidney beans and we're good.

The bowl is kinda small, but I ate three helpings.