A Cranberry Tart and Some Exciting News

Cranberries can be so much more than just juice and sauce.




As a big fan of cranberries, I am not against either form of cranberry - actually, I am kind of against the jiggly cranberry sauce that plops from a can and then remains a cylinder of red jelly. I just think there is more room in the kitchen for cranberries than we sometimes allow for. It's as if someone decided cranberries weren't good enough, perhaps because they aren't as naturally sweet as other berries, and they've been in the corner ever since. Think about it - they don't even make the cut when it comes to listing all the types of berries: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries - never cranberries. And when it comes to talk about fruits packed with antioxidants and being extraordinarily good-for-you - blueberries hog all the spotlight. But then Thanksgiving rolls around, and everyone suddenly loves cranberries, only to be cast aside again on Friday - shelved for another year.

Poor cranberries - you're not bad, you're just different.



So, because I don't think cranberries should play second fiddle to other berries anymore, here is one attempt at letting them shine.




I borrowed this recipe from David Tanis via Food & Wine Magazine. The only change I made was to use almond flour instead of AP flour in the almond custard - just for an added almond boost. And while this tart will be brought along to my family's Thanksgiving festivities tomorrow, it's going to become a regular hit on my ever-growing playlist. The cranberry-almond combo is one of my all time faves, so this tart will make appearances throughout the fall and winter - not just for Thanksgiving.

And, as if the payoff of a delicious dessert wasn't incentive enough to make this tart, it has an added bonus - the bright red cranberry syrup you'll be left with in the end. I have all sorts of ideas for what I'll do with mine - I'm picturing scrumptious holiday cocktails, cranberry spiked ice cubes, cranberry-shortbread cookies and even a little tart and sweet topping for my morning yogurt and granola. And I might freeze some - so that I can get show some cranberry love in the off-season, too.




Before I leave you to enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday - I'll share some exciting news. The good folks at Gather Journal just came out with their new fall/winter issue - and I'm delighted to be a contributor. Gather Journal is a dream read for anyone who is into food or just beautiful photos - so definitely check out their list of stockists and pick up a copy! You'll be hooked - just like I was.

Pumpkin Curry and Bland Disappointment

Full disclosure - this dish looks better than it tasted and I loathe disappointment in the kitchen.

My friend and favorite farmer, Hector, generously gifted me with this beautiful sugar pumpkin and I couldn't wait to get it into my oven. To be honest, I have never cooked with real pumpkin before - always the store bought puree. As I schlepped it home from the market, visions of homemade pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin scones and pumpkin curry danced in my head.




It was a big'un - weighing in at at around 4 lbs, so I knew I would have more than enough to realize at least two of the scrumptious pumpkin dishes I had in mind. The first half went into an adaptation of Nigel Slater's pumpkin curry. The second half was destined for puree so that I could make a minified version of Kate's honey whole wheat pumpkin bread. Well, I highly recommend the bread recipe. Baked and devoured within one 24 hr period - I enjoyed it with afternoon tea, nibbled on it as pre-dinner snack, had it with vanilla ice cream for dessert and with my coffee the next morning. However, if you are going to make this curry dish, do what I immediately wished I had done after tasting it - make it with sweet potatoes or butternut squash.




I wouldn't have minded the recipe fail as much if it had been a less labor-intensive dish. However, after hitting a couple of different stores for the ingredients that I don't always have on hand, like lemongrass stalks, chilies and ginger - and then having to blend pastes, etc, ending up with a dish that is less-than tasty is, frankly, annoying.



Part of it is my own fault - I got the bones of this recipe from Nigel Slater's Tender, and while it is housed in the 'Pumpkin and Other Winter Squash' chapter, I should have remembered from my time in Ireland that sometimes the squashes we specifically identify as winter squash all fall under the umbrella term of pumpkin in the UK and Ireland. So, the ingredient that Mr. Slater universally identifies as pumpkin in this chapter and recipe, could actually be what we know as butternut squash or acorn squash, or even the rather sweet kabocha squash. And I suspect that's what he intended because this dish needed some of those natural sugars.

I also willingly take the brunt of the blame because I broke a cardinal rule of cooking - one that was drilled into me in cooking school - to taste, taste, taste! I cut up the pumpkin and hastily threw it into the curry sauce, which I had spent the better part of an hour meticulously building, without nibbling the pumpkin first to see that it was worthy. If I had tasted the pumpkin before chucking it in there, I would have found that it was, in fact, rather bland and tasteless and not suitable for this curry. No amount of spices and aromatics were gonna save that pumpkin from the land of bland. Ah, the regret.

But, all is well that ends well - we didn't starve that night. As an antidote to the tasteless pumpkin, I doused it in lime and blanketed it in cilantro and upped the spice ante and we ate it. And I rapidly got over it - the delish pumpkin bread helped. And I learned a lesson - which is that I don't really like cooking savory dishes with sugar pumpkins. So, in the future, I'll be reserving them only for purees and baking.

But - definitely make this dish!  Because this dish really needs an extra kick of sweet and because I want to spare you the same mistake I made, I adapted the recipe below to include butternut squash rather than pumpkin.



Recipe adapted from Nigel Slater's, Tender
Thai-style Winter Squash Curry with Chickpeas
What you'll need
For 4 servings

4 large garlic cloves
1 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 stalk lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed
1 chili, fresh or dried, chopped
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 large shallots, minced
1 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds, toasted
1 large can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cayenne
6 cardamom pods
1 lb butternut squash, peeled and diced into bite-sized pieces
1 cup veggie stock
1 can coconut milk (13.5 oz)
Salt and pepper
1 bunch fresh cilantro
2 limes

Combine the peeled garlic, ginger, diced lemongrass and chili in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until pureed. Reserve to the side.
In a large heavy-bottomed pot, combine the coconut oil, yellow mustard seeds and shallots. Sauté over medium-low heat until the onion begins to turn translucent at the edges - 3-4 minutes.
Add the garlic/ginger/lemongrass/chili paste and chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper and stir. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the mixture becomes fragrant.
Use the back of your knife to crack open the cardamom pods - roughly chop the seeds housed within the pods. Add the chopped seeds to the pot along with the cardamom, turmeric and cayenne.
Next, add the diced squash and stock, stirring well to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, so that the liquid is just simmering, until the squash is fork-tender - about 15-20 minutes.
Add the coconut milk to the pot and stir. Continue to simmer, uncovered, over very low heat for another 5-10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

Serve over brown rice and garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and half a lime.

Spaghetti al Telefono with Arugula and Sungolds and It's Still Summer

Technically, it's still summertime folks. I know this because it's not September 22nd yet, and also because the market is still featuring goodies like sungold tomatoes and arugula - two items that I definitely associate with summer. So there. It's still summer - let's not wish it all away because soon enough we'll be bundled up - and I can accept that inevitability - but not just yet.




My mom used to make this dish a lot when we were young. I always remember it because of the name - spaghetti al telefono. Telephone spaghetti. I love that.

In order to make an al telefono preparation, you must have fresh mozzarella that gently melts and becomes stringy, twisting like the chord of a telephone. Clearly this name was coined back when telephones had chords - which seems so old school now.




I'm a big fan of making good use of the residual heat of cooked pasta. I like to create dishes that are only just wilted or warmed or melted using nothing but the heat of the pasta. This dish does just that. I think it's a waste to put delicate arugula through the trials and tribulations of intense heat. In this dish, the steam and heat from the spaghetti wilts it just right, retaining it's vibrant color and piquant flavor, which is well matched by the sweet juices of the sungold tomatoes. The mozzarella is chewy in a good way.



This dish is ready in the time it takes to boil the pasta, which makes it a perfect candidate for busy weeknight meals. You could probably even make it while on the telefono.

What you'll need:
1 lb spaghetti
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 pint sungold tomatoes, washed and halved
2-3 cups arugula, washed and drained
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, cut into thin strips
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Boil a large pot of well salted water and drop the pasta - cook according to package instructions.
While the pasta cooks, gently heat the minced garlic, chili flakes and olive oil over medium low heat, until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the halved sungolds and season with salt and black pepper.
Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the sungolds are just heated through.
Transfer the sungold mixture to the bottom of a large serving platter and add the washed and dried arugula and strips of mozzarella. Season with salt and pepper.
Once the pasta has cooked, drain it and add it directly on top of the ingredients in the platter. Do not mix it right away - allow the pasta to nest on top and warm the ingredients for a minute or two before tossing it all together. The heat from the boiled pasta is what allows the mozzarella to gently melt.
Mix well with tongs, pulling the mozzarella with the lengths of spaghetti. Add an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and more seasoning, including chili flakes if you like, as needed.
Serve warm.

Almond Olive Oil Cake and Stress-Cooking

I do not stress-eat, I stress-cook.

If Damien comes home to a choice of three dinners, he knows I had a trying day. And if he comes home to dessert, then he knows it was a real doozy.

Last week was a rough one. You know when you feel like you're just getting pummeled by life? That's how I felt. By Friday I had had enough and needed to bake. Something about the precision in measuring and timing makes baking my ultimate relaxation activity. I searched the internet for something that screamed comfort - something that would wrap me up in good feelings. Enter this Almond Olive Oil cake.

Olive oil is probably definitely the number one most used ingredient in this kitchen. I go through the stuff like it's going out of style, so any cake in which olive oil has the lead role gets two thumbs up from this cook. The mere thoughts of the gooey icing and crunchy toasted almonds that were gonna top this cake lifted my spirits immediately. Plus, I had everything on hand - no need to venture out into the scary world from which I was retreating for the afternoon. Perfect.

From the moment the mixing and measuring started, I felt the tension ease and I relaxed. By the time I iced the cakes - I felt refreshed. By the time I finished my first slice - I was smiling.

I chose to make my cake in the form of mini loaves because I wanted to give one to a friend. This recipe, which was originally a 9-inch cake, allowed for me to fill two mini loaf tins. Also, rather than orange, I used a Meyer lemon for the icing/glaze because I love the more mellow brand of lemon flavor that a Meyer lemon offers and I thought it would blend nicely with the orange and olive oil and almond. Other than that, I pretty much stuck with Lillie's amazing recipe.

Adapted only slightly from Butter Me Up Brooklyn

What you'll need:

Cake

1 cup flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp vanilla

zest of an orange

1/2 cup orange juice

Meyer Lemon Glaze

2 Tbsp brown butter

1 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp half and half {you can use cream, but it's what I had on hand}

1 Tbsp Meyer lemon juice, maybe more

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour two mini loaf pans. 

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until it is pale yellow. Add the olive oil, vanilla, orange zest and orange juice. Whisk to combine completely.

Combine the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients - stir until completely smooth. 

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans and place in the center of the oven. Bake for 35 minutes or so, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes or so, before attempting to remove the cakes from the loaf tins.

Top a baking tray with a wire cooling rack. Place the cakes on top of the cooling rack and allow to cool almost completely. 

While the cakes cool, prepare the icing. 

Brown the butter in a frying pan.

Combine the brown butter with the sugar and mix until smooth. Add the half and half and juice from the Meyer lemon. Mix until smooth and slightly runny. 

Use a spatula or butter knife to glaze the cakes. While the glaze is still wet top with toasted almonds, pressing gently so that they adhere to the icing. 

Allow to cool and set completely before eating.

Eggplant Burgers and Food TV

I watch more hours of the Food Network and Cooking Channel than I care to admit. This has been the case since food tv first entered my radar as a teenager. When most kids flicked on MTV for the Real World or VH1 for Pop-Up Video, I turned on the Food Network for a daily dose of Mario, Rachael, Bobby and Ina.

And, on Sunday mornings, when most of my friends were still deep in the comatose slumber that comes only with the growing pains and hormonal swings of teenagedom, I sat in the kitchen, glued to Martha Stewart Living. Cereal bowl in front of me, I made all of the snide remarks required from a too-cool teenager, attacking her annoying perfection and how everything was 'a good thing,' but secretly took notes. My mother, busy in the background and witness to my strange love-hate relationship with Martha, often provided a gentle reminder that no one was forcing me to watch it - a comment that I usually ignored.



My love of food became clear in my infatuation with food tv, which was unfortunate for my younger brothers who, naturally, were given no control over the remote and were not as interested in learning how to roast a chicken or make hollandaise without it breaking. I watched and watched and watched and I learned a thing or two. I'm not gonna go so far as to say that food tv was a driving force towards my eventual enrollment in culinary school, because then I would have to seriously question how I make life decisions, but who knows.

These days, I watch a lot less but it's still a guilty pleasure - not quite on the same level as when I catch myself in the middle of a Real Housewives marathon, but kind of close. The other night, while getting my Food Network fix, I caught a clip from The Farm Café, in Portland, Oregon. It was from The Best Thing I Ever Ate's burger episode. The chef was making an eggplant burger. I knew I had to have it. As Portland is a bit more of a hop, skip and a jump away from my couch in Brooklyn, I knew that in order to have it, I had to make it.

While we are familiar with my adoration for eggplant, which is kind of masochistic considering I might have a teensy allergy to it, we may be less familiar with my disdain for veggie burgers. Never have I eaten a veggie burger I could get excited about. This is not an Anthony Bourdain-style dislike for veggie burgers based purely on their lack of meat, because I definitely appreciate veggies in all of their glory. It's just that I've never eaten a good one and I have vegetarian friends that agree. Dry, sometimes bland, uninspired, generally not awesome, veggie burgers always seem like a token addition to menus, a required element that never gets much thought. When restaurants serve veggie burgers that are a stack of grilled or roasted veggies, I find it amusing. Dear chefs, a stack of veggies on a bun does not a veggie burger make.



This is the queen of veggie burgers. The patty actually kind of resembles a burger, which should probably be the first step in the quest to turn veggies into burgers. The meaty eggplant, minced finely and mixed with breadcrumbs, ends up as a patty with a mouthfeel very similar to an actual burger, which should probably be the second step in deserving the name of burger. And all the toppings put it over the edge: sweet roasted garlic and tomatoes, caramelized onions, crunchy homemade pickles. You could definitely serve this with a side salad - or you can serve it with a pile of crunchy potato chips. Clearly, I went with the chips.



Recipe adapted from The Farm Cafe
What you'll need:
Eggplant burgers
4 Japanese eggplant, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes
1 small bunch of parsley, minced
1 small onion, minced
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeno, minced
1 cup breadcrumbs, maybe more
Salt and black pepper
1 egg, beaten

Roasted tomatoes
1 whole tomato, sliced into thin rounds
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Caramelized onions
1 large onion
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper
1/2 tsp sugar

Eggplant burgers
Place the cubed eggplant in one even layer on the bottom of a large saute pan.
Saute, dry, over low heat - once they begin to soften, season with a generous amount of salt and black pepper. Continue to saute until the eggplant is gray and very soft. Remove from heat.
Combine the eggplant, parsley, onion, garlic and jalapeno in the bowl of a food processor - pulse until pureed.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Use your hands to incorporate the breadcrumbs - if the mixture seems quite wet, add more breadcrumbs.
Allow the mixture to rest in the fridge. Note- the mixture can be made a day ahead if you'd like.
Once you're ready to cook the patties, remove the eggplant mixture from the fridge, add the beaten egg and stir well to incorporate.
Use your hands to form patties, as you would a regular hamburger.
Add 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil to the bottom of a large saute pan - once the oil ripples, it's hot enough to add the patties. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until caramelized and crispy.
Remove from the oil and add straight to a fresh, crusty roll - I used whole wheat.

Roasted tomatoes
Preheat oven to 350ºF
Line a baking sheet with foil and lay the sliced tomatoes on top in one layer. Add the crushed garlic cloves. Season with salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
Roast in the oven until the tomatoes are just beginning to shrivel and caramelize - you don't want them too dry as the roasted tomato juices are a great 'sauce' for this burger.

Caramelized onions
Slice the onion into thin rings. Add the rings to a dry, nonstick saute pan. Saute over medium-low heat until the onions look completely dry. Add a drizzle of olive oil and stir to coat.
Continue to cook until the onions begin to soften and brown. At this point, season with salt, black pepper and sugar. Stir to coat.
Cook the onions down until they are well caramelized and soft, about 20-25 minutes.

I chose to serve the burgers stacked high with roasted tomatoes and caramelized onions, with crunchy homemade pickles on the side - but you can add whichever toppings you like best.

Plum Skillet Cake and a Cast Iron Confession

My kitchen equipment wish list is ever-growing. It's not full of single-use items like a strawberry slicer, or a tomato corer, or an avocado slicer - because I own a knife and, last time I checked, a knife does just fine when it comes to slicing strawberries, coring tomatoes or cutting up an avocado. I've made it this far without a dedicated banana slicer - I think I'll be alright.



No - my list is full of items that I want to buy once and never have to buy again. Things I want my kids to use one day. Things that are multi-taskers and stand up to the test of time. Things like a cast iron skillet.

It's kind of embarrassing that I don't own a cast iron skillet. It's not that they are particularly hard to come by, or so expensive that I can't pull the trigger. It's because the only cast iron skillet I have ever owned came to its demise in my kitchen and now I'm afraid to ruin another one.



I'm going to share the story with you, but try not to be too judgmental. Keep in mind that I was only young, in my first apartment, with minimal understanding about much of anything, let alone proper care of cast iron. I'm going to say it fast and just rip it off like a band-aid - I cooked in my cast iron some gunk stuck to it I scrubbed and scrubbed but it didn't come off so....I left it submerged in soapy water overnight.

Phew. Ok. Feels good to get that off my chest.

You can imagine the scene when I checked it the next morning. After draining the sink, let's just say the skillet was no longer black, but mostly orange.



There was rust all over that puppy. And, here's the second of my sins - I tossed it - not easily mind you, it was rather heavy. What a waste! I didn't even think to consult with the world wide web about whether I could salvage it - I just threw it out. In my rather inexperienced brain I thought, well, it's all rusty, so I guess that's that.

Fast forward to a time when I am, about some things, a little bit wiser. How to properly care for uncoated cast iron is one of the things that I have learned over the last 8 years or so, and although I would most likely be a more competent user of untreated cast iron, I am still a smidgeon worried that I'll ruin it.

You know when kids want a new puppy, and the parents are all, well how do we know you are responsible enough to take care of it? And then, maybe the kids have to borrow their cousin's dog to see whether they like it and to prove they are responsible? That's kind of what I did. I did a test run a couple of weeks ago - I borrowed my friend's mini skillets to make a strawberry-sorrel crisp and it worked out ok. She didn't know about my past as a cast iron killer, although I suspect now she might. I was obsessed with taking proper care of those borrowed skillets. I cleaned properly - no soapy water - I oiled properly, I stored properly. I did all the right things. And I did good.



So now I think I'm ready to take the plunge - that might be a bad choice of words given how my skillet was ruined - and buy another cast iron skillet. But, I still don't own one. If I did, I would have used it for this plum skillet cake.

I got a slew of sweet plums at the market on Saturday and wanted to bake with them. We were headed to a BBQ at a friend's house yesterday and I wanted to bring dessert, which worked out perfectly. This cake is beyond easy to make and is as close to a baking one-pot-wonder as it gets. So easy that I kept one on eye on my cake and the other on the Olympics. Because of my cast iron insecurities, I had to make mine in a regular old frying pan, which I was not best pleased about. If I had used cast iron, the pan would have been hotter and the outside of the cake would have formed more of a 'crust.' I made do with what I had and brought the cake over to the BBQ, frying pan and all, and served it with dark rum whipped cream.



Guess what? When I got there, the first thing I saw in the drying rack next to the sink was an old cast iron skillet. It was beautifully old, with all of the wear and tear and marks of a skillet that has been passed down for a few generations. I took it as a sign and made a decision right then and there, my kitchen will be cast iron skilletless no longer.

And, fyi, this cake was a huge hit, even without the use of cast iron. If you don't have an 8' frying pan, you can even use a regular 8' cake pan.



Cake recipe changed in the slightest and taken from Martha Stewart
What you'll need:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the skillet
1 cup flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
3-4 ripe plums
2 Tbsp brown sugar

For the rum whipped cream:
1/2 pint heavy cream
1 Tbsp confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 capfuls dark rum

Plum Skillet Cake
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Butter the skillet and dust it with flour, shaking off the excess flour. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or with an electric beater, cream the butter and granulated sugar for a few minutes, until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the egg.
Alternating, add the buttermilk and dry ingredients - pausing in between each addition to allow the batter to come together.
Once all of the ingredients have been added and the batter is smooth, pour the batter into the prepared skillet - using a spatula or bread knife to smooth the top.
Thinly slice the plums and fan them on top of the cake, creating whatever pattern you'd like.
Dust with the brown sugar and place in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick into the center comes out clean.

Rum Whipped Cream
Pour the cold cream into a bowl. Using either an electric mixer or a regular whisk, beat the cream until soft peaks form.
Add the vanilla, sugar and rum. Beat until the cream forms stiff peaks.

Corn Biscuits with Lemon-Dill Butter and Performance Anxiety

Three ears of corn have been glaring at me ever since I picked them up last week. Normally, I am pretty decisive and even more so when it comes to cooking. It's definitely unusual that an ingredient, about which I am especially excited, would manage to escape my pot for as long as these ears of corn.

It's kind of like when you get a new pair of shoes that you've been eyeing for weeks. You spend time imagining all the ways you'd wear them, look again and again at pictures of them on the website, maybe make them your screensaver, and just generally muse about how great they'd be if you owned them. And then you finally get them and you adore the shoes so much that you don't actually want to wear them for fear you might ruin them. You know that feeling? That's kind of how I felt about this corn.

I've been waiting since last summer for it. First of the season - we hadn't seen each other in a long time. In my rational brain, I know there is more corn to come, but in my irrational brain, which I'm sorry to say sometimes dominates, I wanted my first go'round of the summer to be the best. I've been so long without it that I became overwhelmed with ideas. So overwhelmed that I couldn't pull the trigger and just cook the dang things.

It didn't help that so many of my fellow bloggers have been doing such amazing things with their corn. I've been getting pummeled with inspiration and recipes that have only made my, shall we say, corn performance-anxiety, worse.

Right after I got home with this corn, I saw Laura's unconventional but no-less-amazing-for-it tacos and I thought, oh yeah, that's it. But then, not long after, I came across Heather's summery looking soup and was convinced it was the answer. And yet, somehow, the weekend flashed by and still there were three ears of corn sitting in my veggie bowl.

They escaped my grasps on Tuesday, even after I came across this poetic soup recipe from Nicole, followed by these refreshing looking wraps that Kate made. You see what I mean?

Yesterday, I had had enough. This corn was getting cooked. But it was kind of late in the morning when the mood took me - too early for lunch, too late for breakfast. So, after a little bit more research, I came across Joy's biscuits and knew they were a perfect fit. Sometimes, it's all about timing.

I put my own spin on them by whipping up a lemon-dill butter to slather on the warm biscuits - I think dill and corn make a beautiful couple. Plus, as I'm sure you've noticed, my biscuits are star shaped. Not because I was feeling particularly patriotic or creative, but because, much to my chagrin, this is the only cookie cutter I own - and yesterday, it doubled as the only biscuit cutter I own.

In the end, the corn did not disappoint and it was exactly as I imagined. Or, at least, one of the ways I had imagined it.