Although not exactly a healthy side dish, I have to admit that I love creamed corn.
It’s a perfect side for any spicy main dish. And it works great as a dip for tortilla chips too!
Creamed Corn
Ingredients:
20 oz corn, canned or frozen
1 1/4 C heavy cream
1 1/4 C milk
1 tbsp flour
salt and pepper
Steps:
In a small pot over medium heat combine corn and cream. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.
In a small bowl whisk together flour and milk. Add to corn and whisk until creamed corn reaches desired texture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (I like lots of pepper with my creamed corn!)
It amuses me to say that the best quesadilla I ever had was in Hawaii, and it’s even stranger to tell you that that quesadilla was had in the Honolulu airport (at Stinger Ray’s)!
For Mexican Monday I decided to attempt a recreation of this quesadilla. What I loved most about it was a back note of lime and the inclusion of corn in the filling. I didn’t succeed in a perfect copy cat recipe with my first attempt, but it was fun to do more with a quesadilla than stuff it with leftovers!
I marinated the chicken with chipotle and lime, sliced it and cooked it fajita style for extra flavor. I then sauteed the corn, onion, and pepper salsa with chili powder in the same skillet. For a kiss of heat I sliced open a serrano pepper (which Stuart purposefully ate!).
I actually prepared extra chicken and made rice to take to lunch the next day.
Corn Pepper Salsa Chicken Quesadilla
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1 lime
1/4 tsp corriander
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp minced chipotle pepper in adobo
1/3 C olive oil
1 C frozen corn, thawed
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1/2 C diced onion
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 serrano pepper, halved
4 flour tortillas
2 C shredded Mexican cheese
Steps:
Combine lime, corriander, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, chipotle, S+P, and olive oil. Marinate chicken at least 4 hours.
Slice chicken. Saute chicken over medium-high heat in a large skillet in olive oil until cooked through.
In the same skillet, cook the remaining ingredients. Deglaze the pan with a splash of chicken stock if desired.
In a separate non-stick skillet, place tortilla and cover entire surface with cheese. On one half top with chicken and salsa. Fold the cheese-only half over the chicken. Flip until both sides are lightly golden and crispy. Serve with your favorite salsa and sour cream.
Every Sunday after July 4th weekend my Dad’s family has a reunion picnic. Today is the 15th Annual Dominican Picnic in Chicago. Even after we moved to Florida we did our best to make it back up there to see all of our family. It would always be a two week vacation, split between Busia’s summer home in Lake Geneva, WI. As we got older and our schedules became more hectic, our Illinois-Wisconsin vacations got shorter and skipped a few years. Unfortunately, this year I am not up there – instead I’m battling this never-ending rain in the FL panhandle.
Last year I was very excited to bring my husband to Lake Geneva and Chicago. Lake Geneva is my favorite place to be and I was glad I could share a piece of my childhood with him – and better yet, he enjoyed it too! I also immersed him into my gigantic family at our reunion. Luckily he’s very outgoing! He spent about 45 minutes helping my uncle set up the volleyball net (why it took them that long I still don’t know!) and he taught cousins how to play Ultimate Frisbee. Give him a sport to play, and he’s happy!
Stuart, Mom, and Me at the Dominican Family Picnic 2012
We assign potluck dishes by letter of your last name – Mom (S) was a salad and I (E) was a fruit/vegetable. I bent the rules slightly and combined our assignments into a tailgating favorite of Corn and Black-Eyed Peas Dip. I can’t remember where I first got the recipe, but it’s become one of my go-to party dips over the past couple years. It’s super simple and nice and light for a hot day.
Corn and Black-Eyed Peas Dip
Ingredients
2 cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
2 cans sweet corn, drained
1-2 pts cherry tomatoes, quartered
2-3 avocados, diced
1 lime
1/4-1/2 red onion, diced
2 bottles zesty Italian dressing
Steps
In a large bowl combine all veggies. Squeeze lime over top to keep avocado from browning. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Add in dressing and mix to combine.
Tostitos Whole Grain Scoops are the best complimentary chip for this dip.
You can adjust the amount of avocado and tomato so suit your preferences, but they do make the dip beautiful! I’ve also tried the recipe using thawed frozen corn because I always have it in on hand, but I’ve found the canned corn works better.
Sew You Think You Can Cook 