An Elephant Never Forgets

The curtain opens on a young woman sleeping soundly. From her peaceful appearance one would assume there isn't a care in the world that could rouse her, but then she is awoken all at once! There is a horrible pit in her stomach, and she is aware that at some point during this day she has dropped the ball and forgotten something... but what?... And scene.

Found on google image search

Are you concerned that I am starting to think that I am a playwright? Don't fret my friends!! I am well aware of my writing limitations, and would not torture you like that. I am simply allowing you to build the mental picture of my night last night. I woke up feeling that I had forgotten to do something, and then spent the rest of the night kind of asleep and kind of attempting to remember. When I officially woke up and bumbled about in my morning stupor (lest we forget mornings and I are not BFF) I walked into my kitchen to find 4 ears of corn sitting out on the counter. Smack to my face! That's what I forgot. I had purchased the corn at a farmers' market with intentions of creating a masterpiece. However, I used up a lot of my produce on other recipes already. Panic!

Sweet Corn seasoned to perfection :) 

Once I realized the end of the world was, in fact, not happening due to my not-so-important blunder I took stock of the ingredients I still had, and thought about what to create. I had remembered seeing a corn salad recipe that I wanted to try, and decided to use this recipe as the base and then go from there. It is with a VERY full belly that I present to you Sweet Summer Corn Salad!

Sweet Summer Corn Salad 

(adapted from the withinthekitchen blog)

serves 4 and is gluten free

Ingredients:

4 ears of sweet corn

3 lemons

2 medium heirloom tomatoes

2 large avocados

1 red bell pepper

1/3 cup cilantro

1/4 cup red onion

1/4 cup green onion

3 tablespoons Udo's 3-6-9 oil blend*

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

*Lets talk oil really quickly. Feel to use extra virgin olive oil as the Udo's oil is a tad pricy, BUT this oil blend is worth the investment. The taste is fantastic, not to mention the health benefits: http://udoerasmus.com/products/oil_blend_en.htm.

First things first, lets get that corn a'cooking. Fill a large pot with unsalted water and bring to a boil. (I have learned that salted water can dry out your corn!) Husk and clean your corn, and place in the boiling water. Cook for 10 minutes. Removing quickly when done. On a small plate place the salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, set aside.

While your corn is boiling away, cut up your tomatoes into bite sized pieces and put them in a large bowl. Add in your red bell pepper (also cut into bite sized), red and green onions (finely chopped), and the cilantro (very finely chopped). Cut open your avocados and using a small scoop make litte avocado balls, and add them to the bowl: saving half of one avocado. 

Place the saved half of the avocado, juice from 2 lemons, Udo's oil, and salt & pepper (for taste) in a blender and create your dressing. Set aside. 

Once your corn is finished remove it from the water quickly. Let it cool slightly so you are able to handle it. Take the last lemon and cut it in half. Place the lemon into the spices on the plate you set aside earlier and rub it around so the lemon soaks up the spices. Next rub the lemon all over your corn. Really press hard so the juice from the lemon is squeezed out with the spices. Use both halves of the lemon to really infuse flavor in your ears of corn. (You may need more spices, feel free to dump them on the plate and use the lemon to pick them up.)

With your corn seasoned to perfection carefully cut off all the kernels and add them to your bowl. Now that you have all the corn in the bowl with all the other ingredients, slowly add in your dressing while stirring. Make sure it is evenly distributed. And wah-lah! You have yourself a perfect summer salad.