By July heat. The kind of week where the apartment is too hot to cook anything that requires an oven, the Jeep's AC is questionable at best, and the brewery is the coolest place in Milwaukee because it's literally full of cold beer and refrigerated tanks. I am not above loitering near the walk-in cooler during my breaks. Everyone does it. No one admits it.
Megan is in full summer mode — she's reading a book a day, going to the beach with her teacher friends, and doing what she calls "nothing productively," which means organizing closets and rearranging furniture and starting craft projects she'll abandon by August. She reorganized the spice rack this week. I didn't know we had a spice rack organization system. We do now. It's alphabetical. I will never comply.
July pierogi challenge: corn and cheddar. Fresh sweet corn, cut off the cob, mixed with sharp cheddar and a little butter. Summer in a dumpling, part two. I brought a batch to the brewery taproom and put them on the bar during happy hour. They were gone in six minutes. Six minutes. The bartender said, "You should sell these." I laughed. People have been telling me to sell my pierogi for years. I always laugh. But this time, just for a second, I didn't just laugh. I thought about it. The idea flickered, like a pilot light. I didn't chase it. But it was there.
Sunday dinner at Tom and Linda's. Air conditioning that works, which is the real reason I go to my parents' house in July. Linda made cold chicken salad sandwiches because she is sensible and does not cook over a stove when it's ninety-five degrees. Tom sat in his recliner with the AC on full blast and watched golf and sweated anyway because Tom is a man who radiates heat like a furnace. Megan helped Linda in the kitchen and they talked about something that made them both laugh so hard Linda had to sit down. They wouldn't tell me what it was. I'm afraid to ask.
The corn and cheddar pierogi went fast — six minutes, taproom cleared — but I had sweet corn on my mind all week after that, and when Sunday rolled around and Linda was doing the sensible thing with cold chicken salad, I figured I owed it to the season to do something equally sensible on my end. This Corn ’n’ Cucumbers Salad is everything July deserves: cold, fast, zero oven time, and built around the same sweet corn that started the whole pierogi idea in the first place. No walk-in cooler required.
Corn ’n’ Cucumbers Salad
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min (plus 30 min chilling) | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh sweet corn kernels (cut from about 4 ears)
- 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Prep the vegetables. Cut corn kernels off the cob and place in a large bowl. Add the sliced cucumbers and green onions.
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, white wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and dill until smooth and combined.
- Combine. Pour the dressing over the corn and cucumber mixture and toss gently until everything is evenly coated.
- Chill. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to let the flavors come together. Serve cold.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 115 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 4g | Carbs: 19g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 210mg