Summer Corn Salad

Last night, we deep fried a turkey.

Yes, I know it's stiffling hot outside...but it was much nicer to have NOT heated up the kitchen for dinner.

Since I wanted to avoid the traditional--and heavy--turkey fixin's like mashed potatoes & stuffing with this meal, I made this instead:

Summer Corn Salad

Ingredients:

4 ears of corn
1 cup haricots verts (tiny whole green beans) *
1 orange (or red or yellow) bell pepper, seeded & chopped
1 small package of grape (or cherry) tomatoes, quartered
3 green onions, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
olive oil
salt & pepper

* You can find these in the frozen veggie section of your grocery store.

Directions:

• Blanch the corn in boiling water. You want it to be cooked, but still retain its crunch. Remove from water & plunge into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
• Steam the green beans in a colander over the corn as it cooks. You also want them to stay crunchy and green. Plunge them into the ice water with the corn.
• Cut the kernels off of the corn cob by standing it upright into a bowl and using a sharp knife to cut down the sides of the cob...or use a corn cutter.
• Combine the corn with the green beans, bell pepper, tomatoes, and green onions.
• Gather the basil leaves into neat pile, roll up like a cigar, and slice into ribbons. Add to the salad.
• Dress the salad with the lemon juice, a few tablespoons of olive oil, salt & pepper to taste.

This salad keeps well, so you can make it ahead of time. And the next day, you can use it to make one hell of a frittata (add bacon, of course).