Grilled Corn on the Cob

Few things in life are as sweet as the first bite into hot, fresh corn on the cob; the crisp bite, the popping sound, the juicy burst, the sweet corn goodness.

Oh my.

My Three Sisters Garden

Corn on the cob (or, rather corn in general) is an icon of the Midwest.  While growing up, every major gathering offered (along with big bowls of chicken booyah stewed for hours in giant barrels) perfectly grilled cobs of sweet corn dunked into [coffee cans full of] melted butter and lightly sprinkled with salt, husks pulled back to make nature's perfect handle. And all was well with the world.

I know that it is hard to find corn that has not been contaminated with GMO field corn, and that is a shame.  However, you can ask around to find a farmer who tries hard to maintain that little piece of much loved Midwestern history, or you can grow your own from heirloom seed (I ordered mine).  It's not hard to grow corn, and it doesn't take up much space; you can fit 12 - 16 stalks of corn in a 4'x4' area, which I've done rather successfully before.  This year, I decided to try a Three Sisters Garden (corn, beans, and squash) to see what will happen with another one of natures little perfect combinations. So far, so good.


On to the recipe.  It's not really a recipe, though.  Some people dress soaked and desilked corn up with chili powder and lime or basil leaves and butter, or some such "gourmet" combination prior to grilling.  In our opinion, the season doesn't last long enough to mess around trying to change perfection, so we enjoy it with just butter and salt because just those two ingredients bring out that beautiful, gorgeous flavor without masking it at all.  Maybe try the bacon-wrapped corn on the cob for the blanched and frozen corn in mid winter - during the summer, just enjoy it the way nature intended it to be for those few short weeks it is at its peak.

If you can't find a way to grill your corn, boiling is the next best thing.  To boil corn on the cob, husk the corn, rinse as much of the silk from the cob as you can.  Place the ears in a large stock pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, cover, and remove from the heat.  Allow to cook (covered and off the heat) for about 12-14 minutes. 

Grilled Corn on the Cob

• several ears freshly picked sweet corn
• water
• fire
• butter
• salt

Peel back the husks of the sweet corn.  Pull as much of the silk out as you can.  Push the husks back up around the corn .  It is okay if you mutilate some of the outer husks trying to open it - you just need 2-3 layers of husks to cover the corn for grilling.

Place corn into a big pot of cold water.  Soak for anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes (this is partly to create steam during grilling and partly to get any bugs in the corn to leave immediately).

Get coals, wood, or gas hot.  Place a grate over said heat.

The gas in my gas grill fizzled and so we used wood over the fire pit.  The flavor was so amazing!

Place the corn onto the hot grate.

Cook for about 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally.  Husks will turn black - that's okay because you don't eat that part, anyway.

Serve the corn as it is ready.  Spread with lots of real butter and sprinkle with salt.  Set the rest of the corn aside (away from the flame), and cover with a tent of foil or inverted pan to keep warm for the next helping.

Rave to friends and family about how super fantastic roasted corn is and wish you could eat it all year long.

Build-Your-Own Pasta Salad Because It's Too Darn Hot To Cook

It has been so stinkin' hot here lately.  Honestly, I don't know how all you Southern people do it, bless your hearts!  Yesterday hovered somewhere around the 110F mark.  All day.  In Wisconsin.

We don't do that here. 

I don't know about you, but this Mom isn't cooking a darn thing today.

Three weeks ago (my last post - I'm sorry), my daughter caught some annoying illness from camp.  She then brought whatever it was home, and then my son ended up with it.  And then, naturally, it took me out for several days.  How my husband didn't catch it is beyond me, but good for him because it stunk.  At any rate, I've been trying to get caught up with everything, and this heat is really dragging me down.  But, it's coming together.  Slowly.  And tonight for dinner, I'm not cooking at all.  (You can't see it, but my grin is large, my friends.  Large, indeed.)

I decided to do a Build-Your-Own Pasta Salad dinner using nothing more than the pasta salad ingredients I generally reach for, and only what I had on hand (because the inside of my car is infinitely hotter than the air outside and I don't want to get into it).   Plus, I'm in no mood to listen to anyone complain about a dinner not made-to-order, customized specifically to what each individual likes...I don't get paid enough.  So...

Is it just me, or does this photo look a little too 1950's cheesy cookbook-like?

Onto a platter I piled all the fun veggies, cheese, olives, herbs, and beans I had in the cupboard, freezer and refrigerator.  Leftover chicken or beef is good, too, if you have it (I didn't).  In this picture, you can see that I made some self-serve piles of tomatoes, bell pepper, Cannellini and Garbanzo beans, black and green olives, red onion, and cucumber, as well as some fun little mozzarella balls (chunked fresh mozzarella works just fine as well) and diced feta cheese.  I tossed in some fresh basil, oregano and thyme, too, to be torn at the plate.  You can use whatever you have on hand; shredded carrots, sliced radishes, chopped spinach or arugula, and/or some spunky Asiago or some great Parmesan cheese would be all great additional choices as well.

Those toppings are mixed with some penne or rotini or fusilli pasta, cooked, cooled, and tossed with some olive oil to prevent sticking and a few sprinkles of red wine vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper for extra flavor.

Set out a couple of your favorite vinaigrettes to dress the salad.  I had a red wine and balsamic Italian vinaigrette in the fridge, and I made a Lemon Oregano Vinagrette for those members of my family who love lemon.

Set out the salt and pepper grinder, maybe add a little fruit and some crusty bread, if you want, and dinner is served; everyone heaps a pile of pasta onto their plates then adds what they like, topping it with the herbs and vinaigrette of their choice.

And everything can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.

And the kitchen remains cool.

And so does Mom.

(And yes, those are the Cheeky French Chefs of all Crappy Pictures France on my wine cooler thingamajob. You missed the ice cubes in my red wine glass; Baby, if loving this is wrong, I don't want to be right - it's too darn hot to care.)

Swiss Chard and Potatoes

Do you want to know what I think is a beautiful thing?  Heading out to my own backyard grocery store to choose what to have for dinner.

And do you know what I think is even prettier?

The price.

Not much is ready yet other than the leafy goods, but I am so happy about it all (except for the critters munching my goods; I just replanted both the corn and the peas...Grrr.).  It's really not just the price that I think is pretty, even though that is a very, very nice thing.  It's a little bit of pride, a little bit of independence, a little bit of personal choice about what we eat and the quality of the food.  And I dig it.

Last night was one of those nights where there was little in the pantry and freezer because I did not have time to shop today, yet somehow dinner for six needed to appear.  Between the potatoes, garlic, and spices in the pantry and what was in the garden, this Swiss Chard and Potato dish made a perfect side to accompany some steamed garden peas and our main dish.

And it made me very happy to go out and harvest it.

Now, I just need to get rid of those not-so-cute-anymore bunnies that like my garden as much as I do. They ate my corn, peas, lettuce, bean leaves...and I didn't get any.  They don't seem to mess with the onions and garlic, so next year, instead of marigolds (which they don't even notice - or maybe they do and they are just laughing at those silly humans as they munch right past them), I am going to plant a garlic and onion barrier around everything.  A thick one.

Soon, dear bunnies.  Soon, I will take all measures necessary to ensure you eat from the neighbor's garden rather than mine. Between the fence and the pepper spray I mixed up just last night, with the dogs in the middle, you'd better run, and run quickly.
 

A quick note about "stickage" in this dish - the moisture in the potatoes and chard mixture may cause a little sticking.  You can either gently press the moisture out of the mixture as it is draining in the colander, or use an acid (I suggest beer or white wine vinegar in the recipe) to deglaze the pan with the potatoes still in it, or you can serve the dish and deglaze the pan later with plain white vinegar gently warmed when it's time to wash the dishes (anything stuck on in any pan usually cleans up very easily with this method!). Regardless of how you make clean up easier, you're going to love this Swiss chard and Potatoes recipe!

Swiss Chard and Potatoes
serves 6

• 1 lb Swiss chard, washed
• 2 lbs potatoes (red, white, or otherwise), peeled and cut into a 1 inch dice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbs butter or olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2-3 Tbs beer, white wine vinegar - if necessary, to deglaze the pan, optional

Trim the Swiss chard: run a sharp knife along the both sides of the stem to remove the leaves. (Suggestion: stack 3-4 like-sized stems together and run the knife through all at once to speed things along)

Chop the stems into 1/2 inch pieces.  Stack and slice the leaves into 1/4 -1/2 inch ribbons.

Place potatoes in a large pot.  Cover by two inches with water.  Add 1/2 tsp salt.  Bring to a boil.  Partially cover and reduce heat to medum. Simmer for 3 minutes.  Add chard leaves and stems.

Bring back to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and partially cover again for about 10 min, or until potatoes are tender.

Drain potatoes and chard.

Melt butter or heat olive oil in 12 inch skillet over medium heat.  Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes.  Cook 1-2 minutes, or garlic is fragrant.

Toss in the potatoes and chard (be careful for any sizzle due to the moisture in the potato mixture).  Stir in the green onions.  Season with salt and pepper.

Cook untouched 4-5 minutes.  Stir, scraping any bits off the bottom of the pan.

Cook another 4-5 minutes, or until everything is well cooked.

If some of your potatoes have cooked to the bottom of the pan (heat varies between electric and gas, and when you add the moisture of the potatoes and chard, sometimes things get...sticky.  That's all fine in this dish, though - that's extra added flavor), add the optional beer or white wine vinegar now.  Stir to scrape any yummy flavorful bits from the bottom of the pan.  If your potatoes release well, you can skip this part if you'd like. Taste, and season again with salt and pepper, if necessary.

White Bean Salad

Originally this post was going to be about making various vinaigrettes. I had made three different vinaigrettes and had big plans to photograph them and offer several recipes along with a tutorial about how to make and customize them.

Then, I ate them in various dishes and forgot to take the pictures.

I'm sorry.

But the salads were good.

I will do it soon, though, because the basic formula for The Vinaigrette is indispensable for the summer salads, regardless of whether the salads are full of greens, beans, potatoes, vegetables, pastas, or a combination. 

For most of the people for whom I cooked Saturday evening, the main course was a white kidney bean salad marinated in a lovely red wine vinaigrette (with a side of tomato basil focaccia).  For the two of my family who don't like beans so much, a salad topped with sauteed chicken marinated in the same vinaigrette was the main show.  Both were easy, fresh, and summery, and both were delicious.

In this salad, I suggest de-seeded cucumbers.  To do this, peel your cucumber (if needed), and slice it in half lengthwise.  With a spoon, scrape out the seeds.

Slice it and dice it accordingly.

The longer this salad marinates, the better it tastes.  At least 30 minutes is necessary, and leftovers only get better.  If you do have leftovers, store the bean mixture by itself (not with the greens) in the fridge.


White Bean Salad
serves 4-5 as a main course

• 2 c cooked cannellini beans
• 1 c chopped red onion (about 1 small onion)
• 1/2 cucumber, de-seeded and chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped (or a handful of grape tomatoes, halved or quartered)
• 5-6 cups fresh greens (to include plenty of arugula)
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
• 3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• salt, to taste
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
• garlic croutons, preferably homemade (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine the beans, onion, cucumber, and tomatoes.

In a 1/2 pint jar or other small container with a tight fitting lid, combine the vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.

Tighten the lid and shake like crazy.

Pour over the bean mixture and mix well.

Allow to marinate at room temperature at least 30-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Give it a taste and adjust the salt and pepper, if necessary.

Arrange the greens among the plates.  Top evenly with the bean mixture, spooning extra marinade from the bottom of the bean bowl over the beans and greens.  Top each plate with crumbled feta cheese and garlic croutons, if using.

Mushroom Ravioli

Making ravioli can be tedious and time consuming...if you let it. Since I like to have a freezer full of little stuffed pastas for easy and delicious meals even the kids can make, I choose to look forward to making them.  I mean, I purposely find it enjoyable.  I'm not going to kid you - while it's not difficult at all, it is a bit time intensive; the dough takes time, the filling takes time, then putting it all together takes time.  It can easily take up to three hours if you choose to do everything all at once. But here's the thing - you can choose to enjoy the cooking time with your family, or you can plug your ears with a good audio book or album while you prepare several meals of ravioli.  You can also make it a fun social gathering by inviting some friends over for a ravioli making party; each person brings [a bottle of wine and] enough ingredients to make different fillings to share with everyone.

You can split the time by making the filling and dough when you have time and just pop it in the fridge until you are ready to assemble everything. Regardless of how you choose to enjoy your time making the ravioli, you will end up with several delicious homemade meals (even more if you choose the friend option) for what essentially comes down to not a lot of work (just a fair bit of time).  To keep it simple to follow, I've broken the recipe down into three parts: the dough, the filling, the meal.

The dough for the ravioli  is prepared exactly the same as any pasta dough; you can see the photos for the preparation method in my post for Lemon Fettuccine.


Ravioli Dough:

• 2 c unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 c whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 2-4 Tbs water, as needed

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade.  Pulse to mix. With the machine running on dough speed, pour the olive oil down the chute.  Drop the eggs down the chute one at a time.  Add water, 1 Tbs at a time, until the dough catches and forms a ball.  Turn the machine off, remove the dough to a lightly floured surface.  Knead a few times until the dough is smooth.  Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour (or up to 8 hours).

Meanwhile, make the mushroom filling.


Mushroom Filling:

• 1 oz dried porcini mushrooms plus 1 cup boiling water
• 3 Tbs butter
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 c onion, finely diced
• 1 1/4 lb assorted mushrooms (portobello, cremini, shitake, oyster, button, etc...), stems removed, wiped clean and chopped
• 1/3 c dry red wine
• 1/4 c water from porcini mushrooms (above)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 c fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 2 Tbs heavy cream

Place the porcini mushrooms in a small bowl.  Pour boiling water over and set aside for about 20-30 minutes or until mushrooms are hydrated and tender.

Reserve 1/4 cup of the porcini water. Finely chop and add them to the rest of the mushrooms. 

Melt the butter in a 12" skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent and garlic is fragrant.

Add the mushrooms.  Cook for about 6-8 minutes, or until tender and volume has reduced by about half, stirring often.

Pour the wine and porcini water over the mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook another 5-6 minutes, or until the liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally.

Mix in the Parmesan, parsley, and cream.  Cook for 1 minute more.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate until ready to assemble the ravioli.

Mushroom Ravioli
makes about 60 ravioli

• 1 recipe ravioli dough (see above)
• 1 recipe mushroom filling (see above)
• flour for dusting
• Sundried Tomato Alfredo Sauce (optional)

Line 2-3 baking sheets with waxed paper.  Set aside.

Lightly dust working surface with flour.

To roll out the dough, tear off 1/4 of the dough (cover the rest with the plastic wrap or towel).  Press the dough into a rectangle with your fingers.  Run it through the widest setting of your pasta machine (on mine it is #7) about three times, folding it into thirds each time.  If it's misshapen, don't sweat it - you'll fix it shortly. Turn the setting one notch thinner, fold the dough into thirds, and feed it through again.

The dough should be about 14" long.  Cut it in half.

Fold each half into thirds one more time and feed through. Continue lowering the setting each successive time (no more need to fold, just feed) until dough is thin enough (about 1/32, or  until you can see a nice shadow when you hold your hand behind the strip of dough).  *If dough gets sticky while working with it, dust it lightly with flour before running it back through the pasta machine.

Place the dough strips on a lightly floured surface.

Trim the wonky edges, and cut each strip of dough with a sharp knife or pizza cutter lengthwise, leaving one half slightly larger than the other (you will fill the thinner strip, and cover with the wider, so we are allowing the extra room to cover the filling).

Starting about 3/4" in from the edges, mound about 1 heaping teaspoon (the measuring kind, not the the soup kind) of filling on the thinner dough strip.  Continue down the length of the strip, leaving about 1 inch between mounds.

With a pastry brush dipped in water, carefully wet the edges. Don't be too messy with it because if the water leaks off the sides, it will make the dough stick to the counter and it will be hard to pick it up (or scrape off).

Carefully lift the larger dough strip over the filling.  Seal by pressing down around each mound, taking care to press any air out before finally sealing each mound.  Brush any excess flour from the dough with a dry pastry brush.

Using either a knife, pizza cutter, or fancy ravioli cutter, cut each of the mounds into squares.  If you'd like, use a fork to decorate the edges (just take care not to puncture the pasta with the tines).

If you do puncture or tear the pasta, you can try to fix it by twisting the dough to seal calzone-style.

 Place the ravioli in a single layer on baking sheets lined with waxed paper. Continue these steps with the rest of the pasta dough.

To freeze, place the filled baking sheet in the freezer for a few hours. When the ravioli is frozen, remove the pastas to a freezer bag or other freezer safe container.

To boil (fresh or frozen), bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Carefully add the ravioli and gently boil 3-6 minutes for fresh, 5-8 minutes for frozen, or until the pasta is tender and they all float to the top.

Drain and serve with your favorite sauce.  Try it with Sundried Tomato Alfredo Sauce...so good!

May is #pastalove month!

Please join in on the #pastalove fun by linking up any pasta recipe from the month of May 2012. Don't forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #pastalove event! The twitter hashtag is #pastalove :).

Cohosted by:

Astig Vegan, Badger Girl Learns to Cook, BigFatBaker, Bon a Croquer, Cake Duchess, Elephant Eats, Hobby and More, Mis Pensamientos, No One likes Crumbley Cookies, Oh Cake, Rico sin Azucar, Simply Reem,Soni's Food for Thought, Teaspoon of Spice, That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!!, The Spicy RD, The Wimpy Vegetarian, Vegetarian Mama, You Made That?, Vegan Yack Attack. 

Sundried Tomato Alfredo Sauce

The garden beds are finally in and planted.  We decided to go with some old barn boards and a lot of reinforcement.

In the front bed is an assortment of lettuces and salad leaves, arugula, spinach, spring onions, chard, and eggplant. The second bed has broccoli, cauliflower and some Roma tomatoes.  The third bed contains some more Roma, a few San Marzano, and plenty of Beefsteak tomatoes (the cherry tomatoes will be in pots near the kitchen). The last bed has garlic, white and red onions, carrots, and bell peppers (including those cute little cherry peppers that I love so much in summer salads).

We tilled the 16' x 24' bed below, but need to till it again and then greatly amend the soil, and it will contain corn, green beans, pie pumpkins, kidney and cannellini beans, potatoes, and leeks.  This is the spot where my old garden was before we had the bright idea to till it under and plant grass.

Those are my three apple trees in the upper left corner of the picture, and I'm hoping like crazy they produce more than a collective 20 apples in their 4th year.

Unfortunately, the fence I was hoping to use to grow the peas, cucumbers and green beans won't be installed until the first week of July.  I guess I'll just have to fashion a make-shift fence around the new plot for this year.  Oh well.

But I've got a compost bin now.

Oh, and here is my kitchen herb garden, filled with parsley, rosemary, thyme, basil, cilantro, and chives:

The sage, oregano, and lavender is out in the perennial garden along with the roses and lilies (which is behind all of the beds in the top picture).

Tim wants to order shitake and oyster mushroom spores to inoculate some logs and hopefully we will have some fresh (and dried) mushrooms.  We need to look into portobello mushrooms, too, because those are my favorite and so versatile to work with in the kitchen.

So, my friends, that is what I've been doing all week (month, really).  That, and wagging my finger at my kids who are not exactly going to be done with school the first week of June (just like I told them they wouldn't be if they didn't follow the schedule and went along with their schedule - but that's another story, and this is a recipe and food blog, not a homeschooling blog written by a mother who has no problem with saying "I told you so").

Today, however, I spent in the kitchen making bread and my favorite mushroom ravioli.  I made enough ravioli to freeze and we also enjoyed some for dinner topped with this amazing, rich, slightly sweet, creamy sauce.  The sauce is dreamy over any pasta, really, but the cream and sundried tomatoes really compliment the assorted mushrooms in the ravioli (which will be my next post).  This alfredo also makes an awesome dip for bread - so yummy!


Sundried Tomato Alfredo
makes a little over 1 cup

• 3 Tbs butter
• 1/4 c chopped sundried tomatoes (not oil packed)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
• 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  When it's ready to sizzle, stir in the tomatoes and garlic.  Saute for about 2 minutes, or until garlic becomes fragrant and tomatoes soften.

Remove the pan from the heat.  Whisk in the cream.  Return the pan to the heat.  Heat just until the cream begins to bubble (do not boil), whisking often.  Remove from heat.

Stir in the Parmesan, parsley, and nutmeg until the cheese has melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve over hot pasta or use as a dip for baguettes.  Yum.