corn

Blue Cheese Polenta with Rosemary Blistered Tomatoes

June 13, 2014 by Erica

Wanna know something fun? We’re getting married in 99 days!

We’re in double digits – this thing is really gonna happen!

I mean, I think it’s gonna happen. As soon as I get my dress fitted, buy wedding shoes (I want peep toe flats!), pick out the menu, and buy us some plane tickets home. All of the planning is under control for the most part, but a few of the remaining to-do list items are pretty necessary for us to tie the knot. For example, I think it would be nice if we showed up for our own wedding, don’t you? Unfortunately, cross-country airfares seem to be plotting against us…

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Chipotle Chocolate Chili with Baked Polenta

April 14, 2014 by Erica

Chipotle Chocolate Chili with Baked Polenta

So much for seasonally-appropriate meals.

Maybe I should be posting light dishes filled with tender spring vegetables, but this right here is called a chili craving that doesn’t care about the temperature. And I have to share it with you because it’s just so tasty! Plus I’m sure there’s still a spring chill in the air for some of you out there.

For some reason, I had the intense desire to make chili last week. Or maybe it was the intense desire to eat chocolate for dinner? Either way, this chili was born. And as luck would have it, the skies really clouded up before I had the chance to take these pictures. Sigh. Well, I guess you weren’t going to eat chili on a sunny day anyway, were you?

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Breakfast Polenta

April 9, 2014 by Erica

Breakfast Polenta

Hello friends, and welcome to my life, which has become dominated by a raging polenta obsession.

Polenta in the morning, polenta in the evening, polenta at suppertime!

I made polenta once last year with fresh corn, but never (before this weekend) had I ever made it with cornmeal. I was inspired to do so by Andrea and Sarah, who have both posted polenta dishes in the past month. And now that I got around to trying it myself, I have no idea what I was waiting for. So easy it was life-changing! And so nice I made it twice.

This was kind of the weekend for repeat meals… beet pesto, polenta, wine, repeat.

On Saturday it was dinner, but on Sunday it was breakfast.

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Fresh Corn Polenta with Tomatoes and Basil

September 4, 2013 by Erica

Fresh Corn Polenta with Tomatoes and Basil // Coffee & Quinoa

This polenta is my answer to the question, “What do I do with all this corn?”

We’ve been getting a ton of corn in our farm box recently. And by a ton, I mean three or four ears a week. I know, I know, that’s not that much. My dad, who hails from the Midwest, could (and regularly does) eat that in one sitting… but for two city kids who mostly just put corn in our salads (can we still be city kids now that we live in Utah?), that is a whole lotta corn. But something fortuitous happened last week: in the few minutes that I was driving home from picking up our farm box, NPR was playing a piece about heirloom corn and making delicious polenta with it. Ding ding ding! We have a winner. What an awesome coincidence.

Fresh Corn Polenta with Tomatoes and Basil // Coffee & Quinoa

To be honest, I didn’t even know you could make polenta from fresh corn – every recipe I’ve ever seen has involved cornmeal. Shows you how much I know! Turns out, you can make the most delicious polenta EVER when you start with fresh corn. And from the recipes I’ve seen, starting from scratch doesn’t add to the cooking time of “regular” polenta.

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Orzo with Zucchini and Sweet Corn

August 14, 2013 by Erica

Orzo with Zucchini and Sweet Corn

I’m just going to say it: I am nowhere near ready for fall.

You might think it’s jumping the gun to start thinking about cooler temperatures when it’s still August (and I couldn’t agree with you more). But if you live in Utah, you know that anticipation for ski season – forget fall altogether – is already mounting by August. (This I will never understand.) And even the non-ski bums around me are starting to mention looking forward to fall boots, colorful leaves, etc.

Stop it! It’s just wrong.

Orzo with Zucchini and Sweet Corn

Though I’ve never been a fan of the very hot weather, I do love all the things that come with summer – most notably sundresses, summer produce, walking out of the house without bundling up, and the lack of impending winter doom. I intend to cling to all of those things for as long as possible and hope I don’t get hypothermia.

So let’s embrace that summer produce while we still can with this orzo recipe: a warm pasta salad-y dish with lots of yummy texture from zucchini matchsticks and corn kernels, not to mention the orzo. It’s all just barely heated up together, so it’s full of bright, fresh flavor in addition to all those great textures.

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