blue artichoke

The weather turned to a cool 97 yesterday; despite the heat warnings, I headed out for a morning walk to the post office and an evening walk around the neighborhood, racking up steps on my pedometer. I tried to stay in the air-conditioning during the heat of the day. Again, it was too hot to cook, so we had leftover pork tacos for dinner and this awesome no-cook corn salad, despite GC's speculation that eating raw corn might mess you up. (It doesn't, by the way).

Fresh Corn Salad

Fresh sweet summer corn requires no cooking, which makes this a particularly appealing warm-weather side dish for grilled fish, poultry, or meat. Just add crumbled feta cheese, grilled shrimp, or chicken to make it an entrée.

3/4 cup light sour cream
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
3 cups fresh corn kernels (about 5 ears)
1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 cup finely chopped green onions

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add corn and remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1/2 cup)

CALORIES 112 (21% from fat); FAT 2.6g (sat 1.3g,mono 0.3g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 4g; CHOLESTEROL 8mg; CALCIUM 13mg; SODIUM 94mg; FIBER 3.1g; IRON 0.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 22.2g

Cooking Light, AUGUST 2007

I also made another batch of ice cream - strawberry cheesecake. This was by far the easiest ice cream to make; cream cheese takes the place of the custard, and thus requires no cooking. Just mixing: cream cheese, strawberry puree, lemon juice, vanilla and half-and-half. Unfortunately, it was also my least favorite ice cream to date. It was definitely cheesecakey, but had a sour undertaste. Good enough to eat on a hot summer's night, but not good enough to make again, or share with you. You deserve better.

Getting to Know All About You: What's the best movie you've seen this summer?