Aunt Toni and Uncle Mike are some of the most gracious hosts I have ever known; we feel so lucky to call them family. So many wonderful things come from their home in Indiana; love, laughter, card games, jokes, gin & tonic, friendship, and fresh veggies! These two have the biggest home garden that I have ever seen. There are no better tomatoes in the world than the ones that come from Aunt Toni’s garden. Nearly every summer we get a special delivery of them.  This year, we also received beautiful Indiana corn from their garden. So here I was, with amazingly fresh tomatoes and corn. What to do, what to do. We’ll call it Indiana in a Bowl.

With these kinds of ingredients you don’t need to add much. No really. The first time I made this salad all I did was crack some salt and pepper over it. Delish.

I wanted to re-make the salad with Arkansas ingredients so we made a trip to Farmer’s Market and got some great tomatoes, but must have missed corn season. This time, I added feta cheese and fresh basil.

Tomatoes
Corn off the cob
Feta or Goat Cheese
Salt & Pepper
Basil

Tips & Tricks

• Aunt Toni also taught me how to bowl corn on the cob. Add a couple cups of milk and half a stick of butter to your water; you’ll end up with corn that needs no toppings.
• Make sure you get as much of the silk (or “hair” as I like to call it) off the corn before boiling it.
• The corn should be al dente. I boiled the corn for 9 minutes and that was plenty.
• You want to slice the corn off the cob in chunks – that gives the salad a nice texture.
• A freshly sharpened knife really helps when you’re cutting maters.
• Feta cheese worked but I think goat cheese would have been better.
• Be generous with the salt and pepper.
• I served this “bowl” at room temperature but you could serve it chilled as well.
• If you have a favorite salad dressing you could always drizzle that over the top.Or just use some olive oil. I left mine naked and didn’t regret it.

Beautiful colors and beautiful flavors.