party extras

I had some people over this weekend for a get together. With the weather being so hot, I didn't want either myself or my husband standing over a grill making hot dogs and hamburgers. I thought, too, some people may be tired of the usual summer fare. Instead, I opted for a total do a head menu, all prepared from previous, and recently, made recipes. I made my tri-color pasta fusilli with roasted peppers, tomatoes and mozzarella, buffalo chicken (used ground turkey instead) meatball sliders and slow cooker beef sliders. Also, because it's summer, you have to have corn on the cob. For dessert I made carrot cake and muffin tin donuts. All the recipes can be found on my recipe page. 

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There were leftovers, which came in handy for me as I didn't have to cook for a couple of days. It was a good thing I only cooked a dozen ears of corn on Saturday, as I had a dozen left. My husband and I ate a few ears for dinner on Sunday, but I still had quite a bit left. In addition to the uncooked corn, there were about six ears left that I boiled on Saturday. I went through my recipes to see what I could make with the leftover corn. With some of the corn I prepared Ina Garten's confetti corn (see recipe page) and the balance I made sweet corn pudding.

The recipe is from The Summer House Cookbook, Random House ©2003, and came out of magazine called Garden Plate. I'm not sure if the magazine is still published as this recipe was in their August/September 2006 issue. In any event, it's delicious. The natural sweetness of Jersey corn shines through. Non-pantry items are heavy cream and fresh thyme. I happened to have some heavy cream left from another recipe and thyme is growing in my garden. The recipe came together quickly and uses only a blender and a 6 cup baking dish. After baking it for an hour, the pudding comes out firm, but luscious. The addition of the fresh thyme is a nice accent against the sweetness of the corn. If you looking for something unusual to prepare with New Jersey corn, this is a recipe you need to try.