Vacation blueberry corn salad

Since I was at the shore and on vacation with family I didn't have much of a chance to cook last week. While at the house all of the families take turns cooking for the days we are there, so apart from some help procuring knives I didn't have much to do in the afternoons and evenings. On the night that my family cooked, I did make one thing that I did I will share with you, and that is this blueberry corn salad that I made. It was easy to make and everyone really enjoyed it.

I will start with the basic recipe, because I expanded it by about 4 times so that I had enough to feed all of the mouths in our house:

• 6 ears of corn
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup red onion (minced)
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 6-8 leaves basil
• 1 tbsp honey
• salt and pepper to taste

Since I had a grill available I did grill the corn, though you could easily boil the corn if that is how you like it. This gives me the opportunity to share a great trick for getting the corn off the cob once you have it cooked and cooled enough to handle. Get a large bowl and invert a small bowl inside of it. Stand the ear of corn up on the bottom of the small bowl and slice down with a good knife. The corn will fall off into the large bowl and not go all over the place as it would if you just did it on a cutting board, and the inverted bowl keeps your hands and knife out of the large mass of corn that is already cut. It may not be super handy for one or two, but when you are cutting down 24 ears of corn like I was it is a necessary trick. 

Once you have the corn cut all that is left is some basic salad assembly. Put the cut corn, onion, and blueberries in a large bowl. Cut the basil into a chiffonade and add to the bowl. Next mix the honey, lime juice, and olive oil in a small bowl and whisk until combined, and pour over the salad to dress, and then salt and pepper to taste. 

If you're not sure about a chiffonade, it sounds fancy but is super easy. Take the basil (or mint or other large leaved herb) and make a small stack - no more than 6-8 leaves. Then take these leaves and roll them longwise into a tight roll, then run your knife through the roll. What you end up with is crosswise cuts of herb that make a great visual component to a salad, and a nice garnish too if you want to use the herb as a garnish. 

Cutting a basil chiffonade

Once you have all of that done all there is left to do is enjoy it! We served this as a salad to accompany our "seafood feast" of fresh fish and other seafood that is cooked by my family. My Dad does a wonderful job directing all of the cooking and everyone always looks forward to our meal each year. There really is nothing like fresh-caught seafood at the beach. What will you serve this salad with? Let me know in the comments below or on Facebook!

Is it really vacation if you bring your kids?

Apologies for the several-day hiatus from the blog, but I have only been doing this for a few months now and I was not sure how to get ready to really keep up a solid momentum of posts while away on vacation. However, sitting here pondering a few things - mostly revolving around my children - I really realized something. These week-long vacations are not much fun with really young kids around.

Don't get me wrong - I love my kids. But it is hard enough to get them to go to sleep at a reasonable time at home, let alone in a house with 20 other people. They want to stay up later, they try to get away with things more, they push boundaries - how kids do. It's just way more frustrating when all you want to do is go sit on the beach with a good book and relax and you have to worry about the 1-year old's diaper status and the 6-year old running off into the street because he sees his big cousins doing it and thinks he should be able to do it too. Dinners are cooked by committee and it is not always easy to find things that picky eaters will eat, so meal times can be rough. Then there is the general over-tired feeling that comes from being near the beach and playing in the sun, and we all know how fantastically well-behaved kids are when they are over-tired.


We are not going to stop coming on this trip - it is a family tradition and we would miss it terribly if we would not come, as we have some years. I would miss seeing my nieces, nephews, brother, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, and other family members for this week-long family reunion. Our family would miss the beach, as this is about the only time we get to spend down the shore in a summer. It takes some getting used to - this whole vacation with kids thing. By the end of this week I think I will have it just about figured out - which means that next year it will be completely different all over again.

I guess that's the beach for you - the only constant is the water and change. Tides ebb and flow, sand washes in and is washed out my storms, grasses grow and dunes enlarge, and always and constant is the pounding surf. Somehow it is like having children. Children will always be there - their moods will ebb and flow, they will eat and grow larger and more capable and more independent. I guess the point I am trying to make is that no matter how hot or bothersome the sand is, no matter how many times the seagull swoops down and steals your granola bar, and no matter how many times you thought you reapplied sunscreen but still ended up burned anyway you should be thankful you have the opportunity to be at the beach.  Just as I should be thankful for the opportunity to have children. Having them a the beach and getting off of their routines and schedules is not the greatest, but watching my son play in the surf and his brother building and demolishing and then rebuilding and then re-demolishing sand castles with his older cousin is the point of it all. So I think the answer is yes - it is a vacation if you bring your kids - because bringing your kids is the point of the vacation. It's just up to the grown-ups to try and remember that from our own childhoods.