Gardens are beginning to produce some of my favorite vegetables. The sweet corn is starting to ripen. The tomatoes are just turning red. The zucchini has started taking over the neighborhood.

Regular readers of this column know what I mean about the zucchini. Even if you haven’t read my zucchini chronicles, you can relate. Random zucchini appearing on doorsteps. Loaf pans being borrowed. Zucchini being disguised in a million ways and stealthily hidden in recipes.

I do look forward to garden bounty, even though I have proven time and again to have a brown thumb. I just compensate for that short coming by shopping at local farmer’s markets, roadside produce stands and letting my neighbor’s know I am willing to accept their garden overflow.

This summer, it seems like I can’t get enough of tomato and corn salad. It’s sweet. It’s savory. It’s crunchy. It’s chilled. (Very important when temperatures are regularly above 90!) It’s simple and it’s delicious.

Tomato and Corn Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups corn
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Italian spice mix
3 TB olive oil

Recipe Directions:

1. Rinse vegetables. Slice corn from cob. Slice cherry tomatoes in half.
2. Toss tomatoes and garlic in 1 TB olive oil.
3. Spread in thin layer in a 9×13 baking pan and roast in oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours. Remove from oven and let cool.
4. Roast corn in skillet on top of stove until some kernels begin to brown. Cool.
5. Toss all ingredient with remaining 2 TB olive oil and spices.

Make it a meal:

Serve as a side dish at your next picnic. Spread a layer on pieces of French bread as an appetizer.

Approximate Nutritional Value per serving:

Servings per Recipe: 6, Calories: 117, Fat: 7g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 10mg, Total Carbs: 12g, Protein: 2g.

Variations:

If you don’t have garden fresh corn available, you may use canned or frozen corn with similar results. Grape tomatoes work as well as cherry tomatoes. Yellow tomatoes have a milder acidic flavor than red tomatoes, but can be used. Olive oil can be replaced with any vegetable or salad oil you have on the shelf.

I’m reluctant to add heat to the kitchen during warm days, but this easy recipe is worth turning the oven on. One trick I have learned though, to avoid overheating the house, is to wait until just before bed time. I turn the oven on, and don’t wait for preheat to happen. I put the tomatoes in the oven for two hours and turn off the oven on my way up to bed.

The heat dissipates over night, and since I am sleeping under a ceiling fan, I don’t care how warm the kitchen is.

Give this simple recipe a try and you will see an empty bowl left on the table after supper. That is, if you can keep folks from sampling it before you put it on the table!

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