Fresh Tart

Sweet is good, but salty-sweet is better.

As Minnesota State Fair goers know, grilling makes corn even cornier, drying the kernels a bit and concentrating their flavor to sweet, chewy heaven. Sliced off the cob, tossed with crunchy onion, fresh cilantro, a squirt of lime - and salt of course! - this salsa is just lovely summer food. I thought I'd be tempted to add fresh chiles to the mix but you know what? I think the salsa is better without the heat.

The corn is the salty-sweet star here, just the way it should be.

Recipe for Grilled Corn Salsa, via fellow Minnesota Food Blogger Angharad Guy/Eating for England, on Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

The day I arrived at my inlaws' home in East Hampton, John's dad made one of his famous dins, this time spinach souffles with rock shrimp sauce followed by braised beef short ribs with couscous. For dessert...this luscious lemon pudding. God I love lemon desserts - better than chocolate. Yeah, I just said that.

The pudding is easy to pull together and best made ahead - that's party food in my book. The top emerges golden and crusty but when you spoon into it, it's all soft lemon pudding-y, luscious and creamy. He serves it plain, which is amazing, but I could imagine adding a berry sauce and perhaps even softly whipped cream to you know, gild the lily, Hamptons-style.

Recipe for my father-in-law John's Baked Lemon Pudding at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

I bought the loveliest local blueberries at the market last week, as plump and pretty as as my Grandma Meyer. I got them home, popped a handful in mouth because I'm greedy, and was shocked to discover...sour! Oh so sour!

So I dumped them into a saucepan with some (not too much) sugar and turned them into a quick, warm sauce that tastes great with almost anything, sweet or savory. We've so far spooned the sauce over yogurt, pork tenderloin, raw nuts, soft cheese...

...and crepes! Recipe for Crepes with Warm Blueberry Sauce at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Gluten-free note: I did a crepe test run with Bob's Redmill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour at 11:30 pm tonight - yep - and they worked beautifully! So...adapt away. Don't forget to eat them with butter!

Sweaty, delicious partying is in full swing in Minnesota, whee! Given our short al fresco season, we are maniacal about eating outside, mosquitoes be damned. From food trucks to farmers markets, patios to farm dinners, food just tastes better in the hot sun.

I'm personally full to bursting with beautifully prepared local food, courtesy of a flurry of lovely, farmy events. I was even at the same farm - Riverbend Farm in Delano - twice in the last week. Yah. Too fab, truly.

Yesterday's food fun was via the Tour de Farm Chicknic Breakfast at Riverbend, featuring four lady chefs - Molly Herrman, Sheela Namakkal, Michelle Gayer, and Solveig Tofte. Oh my god, all four are the coolest girls on the planet, cranking out ridiculous food all over the Twin Cities while keeping everyone around them laughing.

When Stephanie March, Katie Hoffman, and I arrived, there they were, glistening in the beating sun while pulling together a local feast for the crowd's breakfast.

Molly's Kitchen in the Market partner Tracy Morgan was pouring icy cocktails (each chef created a signature mix). Loads of volunteers were running-while-melting. King and queen de Tour de Farm Scott Pampuch and Kris Hase played hosts and runners and photographer and...everything.

Steph, Katie, and I - city girls that we are - set out our blanket in shade-that-was-sun in less than an hour. Ah well. We were happy to sweat it out with the rest of the crew, inhaling heaping plates of chilequiles, poached eggs, braised pork, cheesy polenta, BLT waffle cones, empanadas, salads, pancakes with berries, and a healthy sample of each cocktail.

I was personally quite taken with Molly's pretty tomato jam (up top), a bright-and-tangy foil for the porky, cheesy heaven that I slathered it on. I asked her for the recipe last night and she graciously obliged.

Recipe for Tomato Jam at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.