Quick Small Batch Refrigerator Corn Relish

Whether you serve as a condiment alongside grilled meats, or a simple snack with tortilla or corn chips, this small batch, quick refrigerator corn relish will be a refreshing addition to the menu.

Quick Refrigerator Corn Relish

I had a craving for some corn relish, but didn't want a huge batch made for canning. I wanted more of a snack-sized, easy version to enjoy right away!

A hot corn dish, Veracruz Corn may be served as either a side dish, great alongside your barbecue, or as a hot corn appetizer with crisp tortilla chips. Filled with goodness of fresh, off the cob corn, marinated in a fiery blend of Southwestern seasonings, tossed with veggies and then dressed with a chipotle aïoli and cheese, and passed under the broiler.

Veracruz Hot Corn Dip

I based this corn dish off of one that I saw in Eva Longoria's cookbook, Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends. It sounded a little like maque choux, but with some spicy flair, which it most certainly has!

Veracruz corn was a popular dish on the menu at the now shuttered Beso Steakhouse in Hollywood, owned by Longoria, and though I believe it was considered a side dish on the menu, I really enjoyed it best as an appetizer, served hot with some crisp tortilla chips.

Summer Vegetable Gumbo - Garden in a Pot. A mix of summer's best veggies like sweet onion, fresh corn, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, green beans, sweet bell pepper and okra, a perfect dish for the veggie lovers!

Summer Vegetable Gumbo - Garden in a Pot

Let's have a last hurrah for summer y'all! We are finally at the end of it this Friday, well, at least according to the calendar. There won't be any fall-like temperatures showing up here in the Deep South for awhile yet even then. In fact, the past two days there has been a heat index advisory of 110 degrees. Hey, the good news is this dish can be served hot, warm or at room temperature!

I love vegetables, and this stew is loaded with the summer vegetables I love.

Other than just a general vegetable stew, I actually wasn't quite sure what I wanted to call this recipe when it was all said and done, but when I opened the stored container to heat up a serving the next day, and the aroma immediately spoke gumbo to me, so that's what I settled on. 

Stone ground grits, made with whole milk or half and half, chicken broth, and roasted fresh corn, scraped from the cob.

Roasted Corn Grits

As a side dish, these roasted corn grits rock!

I patterned them after the dish of the same name at Zea Rotisserie and Grill in Metairie, Louisiana after hearing somebody, somewhere along the way talking about them recently. Oh my goodness. I thought my garlic cheese grits were good, but these? Off. The. Chain.

The roasted corn adds such incredible flavor.

Corn on the cob, smeared with a garlic and herb butter blend, individually wrapped and baked or grilled.

Foil Packet Corn on the Cob

I'm hearing chatter here and there of back to school already and I'm not all that unhappy!

No, it's not for any of the reasons you're probably thinking. It's all because back to school means fall is near, and I am sincerely looking forward to fall this year. This summer has been miserable and it seems as if it gets harder and harder to handle as I get older.

I've become a near vampire in the summertime anymore to avoid the heat, so I'm ready for some soup and sweater weather!

Garden Fresh Salsa, made with juicy tomatoes, sweet Vidalia onions, crisp sweet garden bell peppers, spicy fresh jalapeno, sweet corn on the cob and fragrant garden cilantro.

Garden Fresh Salsa

Here it is running up on mid-August already and I realize that I've got quite a few summer posts like this one to catch up on! So don't go fussin' at me for posting a series of non-traditional recipes that may not necessarily fit into the "Southern" recipe box. Besides our southern favorites and classic southern recipes, like everybody else, we also enjoy a wide variety of other foods too, like this.

Fresh Hot Corn on the Cob in (about) 4 minutes, No Husking, No Silks

This super easy method of steaming corn uses un-husked corn, cooked in your microwave, and results in a clean cob with no silk left behind, and corn that is tender-crisp and ready to eat!

Microwave Steamed Corn

Let me repeat that.

Fresh, steamed, hot corn on the cob, ready to eat, with no, that's ZERO husking at all, about 4 minutes per ear (depending on your microwave), and you do not have to deal with those pesky silks that are impossible to get off!

You will have a clean cob with no work, and no silks. Okay... you might find like one single stray silk that stuck to the cob, but that will be about it. Seriously.

I know!

Simple maque choux, a tomatoed corn, is a very simple side dish of tomatoes and corn cooked in sauteed onion and bell pepper.

Maque Choux - Corn and Tomatoes

I guess we're just about winding out of fresh garden tomato season, even for down here, though I did pick up a couple of large tomatoes the other day... not quite knowing what to expect from them. I used some on good ole turkey club sandwiches this past Saturday when we were finishing off the last of the vegetable beef soup I made, and was pleasantly surprised to find them so fragrant and tasty. I thought for a second there that it was still summer! So what to do with this other one?

A garden fresh casserole featuring sweet summer corn and tomatoes, onion, sweet bell pepper and garden fresh herbs.

Fresh Corn Casserole

I don't watch QVC as much as I'd like to, well except during Christmas time, not because I don't love it, but because I do. I would be flat broke is all! At any rate, Terresa Ray was recently filling in as on-air host for two of my favorite Mississippi "Cookbook Ladies" Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley of the Best of the Best cookbook series fame and the company that published my own cookbook!

She was on the 'In the Kitchen with David' segment to do a pre-sell on their upcoming and QVC exclusive August release, Recipe Hall of Fame Fresh from the Farmers Market cookbook. They sold out thousands of cookbooks on that show very quickly.

Corn and tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, garlic and jalapenos, make a fabulous popular Deep South dish all on it's own, but add in a little chicken, serve over rice and you've got a great main dish stew.

Cajun Chicken Maque Choux Stew

Maque Choux, a dish that is said to have been passed down to the Cajuns by Native Americans, is a traditional south Louisiana dish. Sort of a smothered corn and tomato stew, and sometimes, as in this case, made with chicken. Maque Choux is perfectly good all on its own of course, making a great side dish for anytime, but I also love adding in chicken - which usually comes from a chicken that I have poached or roasted and stripped and then used the stock. This is also another great dish to add to the list of what to do with a deli rotisserie chicken when you're in a time crunch.

15+ Ways to Cook Corn on the Cob

Fresh, in season corn is so delicious, why not try it a variety of ways?

Fresh on the cob sweet corn is still tasting pretty good down south so I'm gonna get my fill while it's at its peak flavor, even though it's pretty much available year round these days. Me, I just love the stuff, any way that you make it. My preference though? Simple, and pure, boiled corn on the cob, done just right and only long enough to cook the kernels yet leave them crunchy, with a generous sprinkling of salt, and butter. Butter. Now that's where you can really mess around with some flavor combinations.

Garden fresh corn, sweet bell peppers, tomatoes and some red onion, combine with a sweet and sour vinegar and oil dressing for a wonderful summer salad!

Marinated Corn Salad with Tomatoes

As far as fresh veggies go, I've sure been enjoying my garden tomatoes This is the first year that I've not had an abundance of fresh green beans and fresh peppers though.

The peppers are way behind thanks to those pesky aphids, and while a couple of them do have some blossoms, the heat is pretty rough on them here lately. Maybe now that July is here we'll start getting some more regular rain to help with that. I guess the tradeoff is that this year, unlike last year, I have had a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers, so I'm happy about that! Right now, is the perfect time of the year to find some great super sweet corn at the farmer's market, or at the very least, in the grocery store, so by all means, although canned works great, use fresh if you've got it!