Corn: my current vegetable obsession

sI haven't been in the mood for veggies recently, with one exception: corn. So we have been eating A LOT of it. When I was preparing to leave Montreal last week, due to my desire to have Mexican food, I kindly requested that Grant pick up the necessary ingredients for tacos. We had tacos two nights in a row, and as I was exhausted from the traveling, I didn't make my old standby of Mexican rice, rather, I made corn. Here are a few corn recipes we've enjoyed this summer (#1 & #2 were the new ones I tried last week):

1) Spicy Corn sidedish: Cayenne & Cumin Sweet Corn: I made this the night I got back. I go through more cumin than any other spice, so I figured this would be a winner. We like a little bit of spice, but not too much, so I cut back on the cayenne. I love how spicy food forces you to drink more water :-) I cut this recipe in half and used frozen corn instead of canned, and used basil from my garden.

2) Summer Corn Salad: love a good cold corn side dish. This one was super refreshing & while we ate it as a side dish, it would probably work well as a snack with some tortilla chips. I used frozen corn again & cut this in 1/3, using only 1 tomato.

3) Grilled Corn: this is our first summer with a grill and while we've had grilled corn frequently, we've never been the ones to prepare it. I shucked (such a gross word) the corn, spread butter on it and topped with kosher salt, garlic powder and cracked peppercorns. It was SO good. I think we left it on the grill for around 30 minutes, turning every 10 or so.

and drumroll please.... because dish #4 is my favorite corn dish. Ever. I found it 3 years or so ago and have been making it constantly. Summer, Winter, Fall, Spring. SO GOOD. It combines corn & black beans (another love of mine)... it says to refrigerate overnight but you just have to eat it right away, it's THAT good. I eat it with tortilla chips, like a salsa.

4) Corn and Black Bean Salad: I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil and frozen corn instead of canned. Other than that, this recipe is easy and so delicious. Here's a pic of the last time I made it:

Tarte aux fraises

Tarte aux fraises... [tart oh frehz] This, my friends, is the dessert I live for. A combination of a crunchy yet soft crust, a light vanilla custard, fresh strawberries and a yummy glaze to top it all off. What's not to like? And so many food groups too... fruit, dairy, grains, n'est-ce pas?
Here is my first ever photographed tarte aux fraises experience. Summer 2006 in the city of Avignon, France. They were in the middle of a canicule (heat wave), hence the frizzy hair and lack of make-up. I had quite a few tarte aux fraises that summer... but also a lot of ice cream. Since we're talking about desserts, I think it's fair to throw in my opinion that I would like the USA to start serving ice cream with one of those cookies in it, like they do in France. I would also like to add that despite my ridiculous consumption of pastries and ice cream, I managed to come back to the states even skinnier. I think I'll save those stories for another post. I did not return to France again until 2010, and when I did, I indulged. Multiple times.


One of my cooking projects this summer will be to make my own tarte aux fraises, but I will need tarte pans as well as good strawberries. And I'm a little intimidated by the whole glaze thing... I had a French professor in college who came in one day carrying two tarte aux fraises and after our puzzled looks (this was not the norm), explained "I'm working on perfecting my glaze." Only a true Frenchman is comfortable enough in his masculinity to make such a statement in a room full of college students. Ever since then, I've always assumed the glaze process must be très compliqué.

Until summer, I will be forever thankful for La Chatelaine, a wonderful French bakery not far from where I live. I convinced my husband to take me there for Valentine's Day, and after some delicious boeuf bourguignon, you know what I ordered for dessert...Délicieux.

Pissaladière

This is snow day (well... wind & ice day) #2 for us and I am going a bit stir crazy. So of course I figured a cooking project would keep me occupied for a little while. So I decided to make my first pissaladière, a type of pizza without cheese or sauce.

When I was a college student, I spent two summers living in France. The first time I lived in the city of Dijon, which is in Bourgogne (Burgandy... known for good wine and good food, such as boeuf bourguinon and coq au vin) and the second time in the city of Avignon, which is a small town in Provence. Provence is known for its lavender, sunflowers, sunny weather, herbes de provence, and the list goes on. I love everything about Provence, including the fact that it is super close to the Mediterranean Sea. Both of those summers, I made weekend trips to Nice, a city I first visited as a high school student. Nice is probably my favorite "beach town" in the world. Nice actually used to be part of Italy, so you have amazing Italian-influenced food and architecture, plus great shopping, music, and of course, the beautiful Mediterranean. Before I went to the beach, I would wander through Vieux Nice (old Nice) to grab a picnic lunch. I always saw the pissaladière, but never bought one. Most likely because the three traditional ingredients are onions (yum), anchovies & olives (not so much on the last two). Here's a pic of one little part of Vieux Nice:Today, I made my own pissaladière with what I like on it... which would be solely the onions. The verdict: it was delicious. I followed Ina Garten's recipe from my Barefoot in Paris cookbook for the dough (but I cut it in half), but then just kinda did my own thing with the rest. I cut four onions in half and then sliced the half and put them in a pan with some EVOO. I added in some salt, pepper and thyme (didn't measure, just put it in there). I cooked them on low for about 15 minutes and then added in a few cloves of minced garlic.
I probably cooked them for around 30 minutes until they looked like this:
I rolled out the dough, put the onions on top and brushed the "crust" with some more olive oil...
And baked at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. C'est tout.
C'était délicieux. You wouldn't even know the anchovies & olives were missing.

Could you eat a school lunch every day?

The first two years of my teaching career, I spent 40 minutes standing in the cafeteria watching the students eat. Lunch duty was not my favorite, but it did allow me to get to know some of my coworkers and see how students treat their peers and their school. I have many a memory from those two years, with most of them involving two things:

1- Improper use of the microwave
2- French fries

The microwave only lasted part way into the school year, which was fortunate, because many a fire could have been started with the cooking times the students were selecting for their pop tarts and honey buns (and the fact that they walked away, expecting me to watch it cook... which I did... because obviously I don't want to watch a fire start).

The french fries on the other hand, appear every day. Students return to their tables with their trays loaded with fries. Pizza and fries, chicken fingers and fries, burgers and fries... and the worst offender of all, cheese-filled bread sticks and fries.

The thing that gets me is that there are healthier options. Our school offers salads and fruit every day. They have switched from white rice to brown rice. I truly am proud of my district for the steps they are taking to provide healthy, balanced meals. Unfortunately, the structure of a high school cafeteria allows students to make poor decisions each day. They have chips, cookies, ice cream, pop and of course french fries available each day, and that is what I see my students eating. Worst of all, they buy extra chips, cookies and candy and eat those as snacks later on in the day. (Considering the first lunch is before 10am, I can't blame them for needing a snack.)

This post was inspired by this article I saw on CNN.com, about a teacher who ate and blogged about her school's food for almost an entire school year. 162 days of school lunches. I don't think I could have done it... and the food at her school made ours look gourmet. Yikes. Well, if one thing is certain, if I ever have kids of my own, I think I will pack their lunch. And make sure they know how to properly use a microwave, even if we do not use one too often at home.