corn and tomato

i love the absolute abundance of fresh farm markets available throughout d.c. 

and there's no better time of year for freshness than august. walk through any market and you'll see: the produce is just gorgeous. it's instagram heaven.

_ _ _

for this month's seasonal eating post, i wanted to share two super simple ways to use up all those delicious ripe tomatoes and ears of corn you picked up over the weekend.

and when you're working with such great ingredients, you don't really need to do too much.

so let's start with tomatoes.

the boy and i saw this recipe in bon appetit while traveling to florida.

the truth is that bruschetta bores me. it's always soggy, and it just feels...meh. i almost never order it if i'm out to eat.

but i really enjoyed their method, and i'm happy with how it turned out. i tweaked their original recipe a bit to suit my taste as well (is it still bruschetta if i add cheese? eh.) here's what i did:

a few tips: this really is one of those "recipes" where you can just eyeball it. i honestly don't think you can mess this one up. i don't have quantities included as part of the directions because i was pretty loose with my measurements. we used one baguette, a handful of grape tomatoes with some green zebras thrown in for color, about a clove-and-a-half of garlic, and one heaping tablespoon each of olive oil and red wine vinegar. this was more than enough for two people.

i couldn't find fresh buffalo mozzarella at the store that day (cheese snob alert!), so i just got what looked the freshest to me and dressed it up with salt, pepper, herbs and red pepper before adding it to the dish.

i usually prefer dried oregano, but i used fresh here and i liked it. sometimes fresh oregano is too strong for my taste, but since this dish doesn't have too many ingredients, i liked the punch the fresh stuff added.

_ _ _ 

now what about the corn?

i'm happy to say that after years of only being able to enjoy my precious elote when i was at a restaurant or ballgame, i've learned how to make it at home. and it's simple.

so happy.

we grilled our corn, husks and all. i'd say we left them on the grill for about 15 minutes. if you don't have a grill, you can prepare the corn in boiling water or microwave it.

for two ears of corn, we combined about 1.5 tablespoons each of mayonnaise and softened butter.

i like it spicy. we used about 1/8 teaspoon for both ears of corn. but you can use less or omit it entirely if you prefer.

lastly, a word about mayonnaise on corn: just don't think about it. i ate this corn for years, delightful in my ignorance about what it was that made it so good. when i started researching how to make it at home, i almost gagged. 

until about two years ago, you couldn't get me to even touch the outside of a jar of mayonnaise. but the boy's been helping me work through this phobia and i'm now slathering the stuff on my BLTs and adding it to ranch dips.  all i'm saying is that if you're a mayo-hater, just try it. i still can't stand the way the stuff smells, and there isn't even a hint that taste in the finished product. promise. don't be scared.

_ _ _

do you have a favorite way to enjoy late-summer produce?

i'd love to hear it!

_ _ _

looking for more seasonal eating recipes? check out the archives here.