CSA week 8: Part 1: The corn has arrived!

Here is what we took out of our full share this week:

-1 head of cabbage
-3 lbs of yellow squash and zucchini
-1/2 lb beans (yellow)
-1 greenhouse cucumber
-1 lb pickling cucumbers
-1 bunch of swiss chard

-1/2lb bag of leaf lettuce mix
-1 bunch curly kale

-8 ears of sweet corn

I'm going to dive right in because we have had quite the busy CSA week and good things are still to come!  The way I'm going to do this week is actually break it into a few posts so you don't feel like you are reading a novel and that way there is more to enjoy.  I was home for a few days to recharge and beat the heat in Connecticut so on Saturday night, we had a few people over for dinner and I made one of my favorite meals: shrimp tacos, black beans and rice, a creamy cilantro slaw, and did a quick pan saute on the corn.  This was the first corn of the season that I had from the farm because I personally hate buying corn from the grocery store and the flavors were so amazing that it was worth the wait.  In the past we were always believers in the method of just boiling the corn and then eating it right off the cob and I had many happy corn filled summers like this.  But I was looking to try something new so here is the run down of the corn and this is going to be the preferred method of cooking this summer because its so easy.
-Cut the kernels off the cob using a sharp knife or a corn zipper (I should probably be an advocate of the corn zipper but if you are confident with your knife skills then go for it).  See the picture below for the technique that you want to follow when cutting.  It always helps to have a flat surface so that way your corn cob isn't tilting all over the place.  There is no other way around this but you are going to have corn kernels flying all over your counter when you are cutting them off.  It's just the nature of the game and I promise that it's worth the cleanup.

-Heat a few tablespoons of butter in a large frying pan until melted.  Toss in some chopped up onion and a few cloves of garlic and saute for a few minutes until it starts to get translucent.  Toss in your corn kernels and let saute for another few minutes, giving it a stir every once and while making sure it all gets coated in the butter.  Once your corn is tender but still have a nice bite, finish it off with salt and pepper and throw in a few leaves of chopped up basil.  

Tonight I was feeling a bowl of pasta so after a quick inventory check of the fridge this is what I came up with:
Spaghetti with bacon and squash
-Heat your large frying pan (if you haven't figured it out yet, one of my go to pans is a 12inch fry pan of a 4quart saute pan because they are so multi-purpose) until hot and toss in 4 slices of bacon that you chopped up into a 1/2 inch dice.  Once this starts to brown, toss in 1 cup of squash (I used a combination of zucchini and yellow squash) that you have cut into 2 inch long matchsticks, and 2 cloves of chopped up garlic. 
-Let this all cook together for a few minutes, then add 2 tablespoons of butter and about 1/4 cup of heavy cream and continue to cook until your sauce starts to thicken up.  
-Meanwhile have your pasta cooking next to the frying pan (I used a 1/2 pound of spaghetti) and steal a ladle full (or 1/4 cup) or the starchy pasta water to add to your frying pan to help your sauce along.  The pasta water tip has truly revolutionalized the way I cook pasta and this simple step makes such a huge difference.  
-Once your pasta is ready, toss it into the frying pan giving everything a good coat.  Finish the pasta off with salt, pepper and a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese.