at home with ann

For many years I thought I didn't like corn off the cob.  I'm not sure why, but I suspect it had something to do with canned corn at some point.  Last summer during the great CSA corn influx, when we were given 8 ears every two weeks for over a month, I gave it a try just to escape from under the sheer weight of corn piling up.  It's good!  And you don't need to follow it up with floss. Corn and Black Bean Salad is nothing new, in fact I've made a version of it before .  The variation this time was to grill the corn, though.  We had a grilled pork tenderloin this past weekend, and whenever Jon gets the grill fired up, I always have him toss on some sort of vegetable as well.   I love grilled vegetables, but I am scared of the grill because I think it's going to blow up in my face, and it seems silly to get the charcoal going just for a couple ears of corn.  All about the multi-tasking.  And not having things blow up in my face. To gr...

This salad went through a lot of different iterations in my head before I made it.  I started planning to make it a salad, then veggie burgers, then back to a salad.  Mostly I knew that with six ears of corn in the fridge and eight more arriving this week, I needed to make a recipe that involved corn.  Fast.  It could be considered a salsa, I suppose, but the black beans bulk it up a bit.  This was good. So good that I dug into it for dinner at 4:58. Southwestern Black Bean and Corn Salad Ingredients: 1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed 1 cup corn 1/2-1 cup chopped tomatoes Pickled jalapenos, chopped (to taste) 1/2 mango, cubed Dressing: equal parts (~1/4 teaspoon) chili powder, cumin, and coriander.  Sprinkle of salt.   Equal amounts lime juice and olive oil. Mix everything together and drizzle with dressing.  I served with a scoop of guacamole and some tortilla chips for scooping.  Because food you can scoop = good. ...

I know you are all probably Mexican-fooded-out after yesterday (is that even possible?), but I'll share a few more ideas. At the recent request of one of my friends, I have been working on making queso dip that does not involve fluorescent, processed cheese.  Searching online led to a lot of dead ends with the dreaded velveeta, so I went with a very simple creamy cheese sauce with a kick. Easy  Queso Dip Ingredients: 4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese 1/4 cup milk 1/2 cup shredded cheese - I used a Mexican four cheese blend.  A cheddar jack mix would work as well. It's important to have some blend that includes an easy melting cheese, all cheddar will give it a grainy texture. 1/4 cup salsa - I used hot hot sauce, for topping In a saucepan over medium low heat, soften the cream cheese with a couple Tablespoons of milk. When mixture is melted and creamy, slowly add the cheese, stirring well. Add milk, one Tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency. Stir in...