Pumpkin Cornbread

Is August too early to start baking with pumpkin? Maybe, but that's not stopping me...

The temperature was down in the 60's here the other day, making it really feel like Fall. All of a sudden the only thing I wanted to eat was a hot bowl of chili and some cornbread! As soon as I came across this recipe for pumpkin cornbread, that sealed the deal! The cornbread isn't overly pumpkin-y; it has just the right amount of pumpkin flavor hanging out in the background. It's perfect served with a drizzle of honey on top, alongside a bowl of chili!

Recipe: Adapted from SugarCrafter
Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup milk
  
• 1 Tbsp honey

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease an 8×8″ baking dish. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, spices, brown sugar, and cornmeal.
2. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs, and then stir in the pumpkin, oil, milk and honey.
3. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined, and then pour the batter into the pan, smoothing out the top as much as possible.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Tomato, Corn, Avocado Salsa

I'll pretty much eat anything if it has tomato and avocado in it. Now that it's summer and tomatoes are flavorful, plentiful, and cheap I find myself making salsas all the time. This is one of my favorite because it screams summer!
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So what do I do with this salsa? Pretty much everything. I've thrown it on top of grilled mahi mahi. I've served it as an appetizer with some blue corn tortilla chips. Last night I served it with black bean quesadillas. And more often than not, I just eat it with a spoon.

The recipe is more of a guideline than a recipe. Feel free to add more jalepeno and onion if you want more heat. My only note: Don't be shy with the salt. All of the ingredients really need it to help their flavor come through.


Corn Tomato Avocado Salsa Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of diced tomato (I used about 4 roma tomatoes)
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 cup of corn (canned, fresh, or frozen)
• 1/4 of a small red onion, finely diced
• 1/2 of a jalepeno, seeded and diced
  
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbls chopped cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Grilled Corn Salad

The other day I went to the store and fresh corn was on sale. It was 10 ears of corn for $2! Clearly, I had to buy some corn. I had no idea what I was going to make with it, but I knew I'd figure something out. And I did. And it was so good, I went back to the store 2 days later so buy even more corn and make the same dish again. Yes, you read that right. I might this corn twice in 2 days!

The recipe is pretty simple, but requires a little time and labor. This was my first experience grilling corn, so I read a lot of different methods before beginning. It seems like the preferred method is to keep the husks on, remove the silks, soak in water for about 30 minutes, then grill for about 20 minutes. That's exactly what I did and they came out so good!

I took bits and pieces from different corn recipes I saw and ended up with this. Some recipes call for mayo, sour cream, or creme fresh to be mixed in with the corn but I wanted the freshness of the corn to stand out so I just used a tiny bit of butter. The recipe calls for cotija cheese and I definitely encourage you to seek it out instead of replacing it because it really takes the corn to a whole new level!

Grilled Corn Salad with Cotija Cheese
Ingredients

• 8 - 10 ears of corn, silks removed, husks on (soaked in water for 30 min)
• 1/2 tbls butter
• Juice of 1 lime
  
• 1 tbls chopped, fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/8 tsp ancho chili pepper (I'm a wimp with spice, add more if you want)

Directions:

1. After soaking the corn, grill on medium high for about 20 minutes.
2. When the corn is cool enough to handle, remove the husks and cut the corn off the cob.
3. Saute in a pan over medium high heat with the butter, lime juice, cilantro, salt, pepper, chili powder, and chili pepper.
4. Add the cotija cheese just before you are ready to serve.