Dinners this Week
Sunday I went to the Farmers’ Market, and this was my haul. Yes, I spent $30 on berries alone, but I have been known to do that before. Actually, I have spent quite a bit more in the past. I regret nothing. We eat a lot of berries, so that’s not a problem. Same with the cantaloupe, grapes, and nectarines. More of an issue is the tomatoes. (Also the fruit flies! Damn them.) So, without further ado, here are my plans for dinners this week.
- Sunday – Ted cooks on Sundays, and he grilled chicken for us and a veggie burger for Maya. He used a tomato for Maya’s burger, and we had corn on the cob. He bought some yummy salads from the deli at the store.
- Monday – Maya cooks on Mondays, and she made tacos, which also used tomato. My new favorite way to make tacos is to just simmer some chicken thighs in some salsa verde, an idea I found via one of Suzanne’s posts (thanks Suzanne, it’s a hit around here, and we just simmer on the stove since we don’t have a crock pot.)
- Tuesday – My turn to cook. I made lamb chops, corn and basil salad, Engie’s green bean and olive salad. Maya dislikes both green beans and is vegetarian, so I made her some pizza.
- Wednesday – This is a two dinner evening. I wanted to try the fancy pesto that I bought at the Farmers’ Market, which is a basil pesto, but includes pistachios, cashews, and avocado oil. Also cheese, so the cashews are not a replacement. For Ted, I am making salmon, which I will top with some of the pesto. We will have this with green salad, which will use the last of the beautiful tomatoes and lettuce.
- Thursday – We’ll see how Thursday goes. If there’s enough food still in the fridge, it will be leftover night. If not, I’ll have to go to the store I guess.
- Friday – Fridays we go out to dinner, so I’m off the hook.
I think it’s time to post my corn salad recipe, because it’s delicious and so easy. Probably I should have posted it a month ago when corn was at its peak, but at least I linked to it at the end of my Salad Challenge post, so that’s something. Recipe is courtesy of Ina Garten, aka, The Barefoot Contessa. Sometimes I add cherry tomatoes, sometimes I just like the freshness of the corn and basil.
Fresh Corn Salad
Ingredients
- 5 ears of corn, shucked
- 1/2 cup small diced red onion
- 3 Tblsp apple cider vinegar
- 3 Tblsp good olive oil (Ina is always with the ‘good olive oil’)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup julienned fresh basil leaves
Directions
In a large pot of boiling water (Ina says to salt it, but I have heard that you should NOT salt water that you are going to cook corn in because it ruins the flavor or something, so I didn’t salt it), cook the corn for 3 minutes until the starchiness is just gone. Drain and immerse it in ice water to stop the cooking and to set the color. When the corn is cool, cut the kernels off of the cob.
In a large bowl, toss the kernels with red onions, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Just before serving, toss in the fresh basil. Serve cold or at room temperature.
23 Comments
nance
I love a fresh corn salad! I always use tomatoes with corn, but I’m a summer tomato indulger. Have you ever tried red wine vinegar with your corn salad? It’s such a nice match of flavours.
I’ve been buying red raspberries lately. Quite pricey, and I get so few for the money, but I can’t resist. How I wish I liked blueberries–they’re so much cheaper.
J
Nance, I think I have another corn salad recipe that uses red wine vinegar, and yes, I love it too. SO GOOD.
I will pay anything for raspberries. They are my favorite. I like them plain, in cereal, on ice cream, on peanut butter toast, so many places.
Jenny
Oh yum- that corn salad looks delicious. And yep- that looks like $30 worth of berries! We also eat a lot of berries, but I have trouble buying that much at one time. They get moldy so fast. I usually have to go to the store again in the middle of the week to restock our fruit.
J
Jenny, storing my berries in a mason jar with a paper towel in the bottom has been a game changer for me, especially the blackberries and raspberries, which tend to mold SO quickly.
https://jellyjules.com/miscellaneous-monday-3/
Margaret
I would love to eat at your house! I’m not a creative cook and don’t try enough new recipes for fear of failure.
J
Fear of failure is there for sure, but if something comes out completely inedible, we can always eat scrambled eggs!
Suzanne
That corn salad looks HEAVENLY. Yum. You can really never go wrong with Ina!
J
Ina’s pretty good when it comes to the cooking, right? I once made two lasagnes, one Martha Stewart and one Ina Garten, and Ina’s was SO good, definitely won that contest.
Nicole MacPherson
My friend, who has her PhD in organic chemistry, told me once 25 years ago to put a spoon of SUGAR in the water for corn, not salt. Salt works to reduce the moisture in the corn and so sugar is what is needed. I have to say, it works like a charm.
I love my farm market and $30 on berries is something I do on the weekly. We love them here. Between the farm market and my insane garden, I have SO MUCH PRODUCE. This isn’t a problem, but it is a time-consuming thing to deal with all the tomatoes, zucchini, etc that is exploding in my garden right now.
J
I’ve read about sugar before, but never tried it. I will next time!
I just used the last of the tomatoes, and some of them were going bad. BAH! Maybe I should go to the Thursday Farmer’s Market and get more? Probably not…
Melissa
That corn salad looks easy and yum. Fresh fruit and veggies have always been one of the things I don’t scrimp on, so buying all those berries is completely understandable in my books if you are going to eat them. Fresh, local summer berries are the best so why not take advantage of that while you can?
J
Melissa, YES. When I was growing up, the Farmers’ Market was a way to save money. You could go early, get excellent, fresh produce, and pay so much less than at the grocery store. Now, it’s either the same, a little more, or a lot more, depending on the grocery store sales. Though $30 for 6 containers of berries isn’t actually bad (though these containers are smaller than the ones at the grocery store.) Maybe it’s because when I was young I lived much closer to the farms, and now they have to come hours away and I suspect the rent is high too. Anyway, it’s worth every penny, especially for berries, grapes, and tomatoes.
Ernie
I laughed at I have no regrests. Ha. I hate fruit flies. The strawberries I bought at Costco yesterday were delcious. I overdid chicken tacos once I discovered the ease of making them in the crockpot, so we are off those for the moment. Happily no one complains when I make taco salad with ground turkey meat, because I try to avoid red meat when possible. That corn salad looks really tasty.
J
YES on the fruit flies. Right now we have eaten all of the tomatoes, and all of the fruit is in the fridge. I keep thinking they are gone, but then I will see one. Hopefully soon I can take the apples out of the fridge, Ted doesn’t like them cold.
I like ground turkey in my taco salad, too. With all of those spices and flavors, I don’t think you need the beef.
Sarah
Your whole menu sounds delightful, but I am most excited about the corn salad– thank you for posting the recipe!
J
Sarah, it’s really tasty! And easy to modify…red wine vinegar instead of cider, add tomatoes, whatever. Heck, I’ll bet avocado would be good in there too!
San
Oh what a great reminder that I need to go back to the Farmer’s Market. I haven’t been in ages. I am on the hunt for Italian plums again (it’s that time of year!).
J
I don’t think I’ve ever had Italian plums! That sounds heavenly.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
What a lovely veggie haul. But wow expensive.
I wanted to get some red currants and they are ususally somewhere around 1,99-2,99€ when in season. They were going for 9,99€. No thank you.
That corn salad looks like good. I am not a huge fan of corn but every once in a while i buy some pre cooked ones and never know how to eat them. I will pin this recipe if I am in need again.
J
I think I would have left the red currents alone too! Are they out of season right now?
Tobia | craftaliciousme
No not at all. You can usually only buy them when in season so yes I was shocked…
Daria
I am on the look out for easy dishes for when the school starts and this is perfect. I wonder if the kids would eat it… If not- I will! Then I can take some to work, too.
In Russian culture we have a similar salad: tomatoes, cucumbers, corn (usually, out of the can), scallions, dill (always dill lol), slt, pepper, oil. Everything chopped.
J
Your corn salad sounds delicious. This one is so good when the corn is fresh. I’ve never tried it with frozen or canned, but I’ll be it would be delicious!