Good morning!
Friends, I cannot believe thatโs mid-August and that school is starting/has started across the U.S. Even as an adult with no kids, the start of school is a nostalgic trigger that mentally brings on the end of summer.
I was scrolling through last yearโs Digests to review what I covered in August โ tomatoes and pickles, yโall โ so as not to repeat.
And I kind of liked that dual food theme, so Iโm going to go with corn and Hatch chile.
Iโm right smack in the middle of the Midwest, but my love for the New Mexico Hatch chile knows no bounds. Local grocery stores know that we, too, crave spice and flavor out here in the cornfields, so they make sure to stock freshly shipped Hatch chile every August. And we scarf them up.
And speaking of cornfields, I actually donโt live in cornfields, but rather in the uptight burbs that is the home to the headquarters of P&G, Kroger, General Electric, TQL and their corporate ilk. But weโre surrounded by cornfields, and dang if there isnโt some of the best F6 sugar corn around.
I tried growing corn in my garden once. The stand was beautiful, tall and leafy and stuffed with ears. Until I came out one morning to this spectacle:
Raccoons, with their nimble little fingers, discovered the sugary wonders of super fresh corn and decimated the entire crop overnight. All of the ears were missing, except this one. Lol.
I hope you, too, have access to all the beautiful produce of summer.
P.S.: Next month is โฆ. Souptember! The most wonderful time of the year. Itโs the official [self-declared] start of soup season. And itโs also SoupAddict the blogโs 15th anniversary. Fifteen years, I can hardly believe it.
I donโt claim to have invented this soup, but it came to me while I was working my through an ear of Mexican Street Corn, schmears of mayo and Mexican crema and queso fresco all over my face and hands at a cookout like a 6-year-old, and I though, โHm, if only I could eat this out of a bowl with a utensil.โ Eureka!
Most soups Iโll eat all year long, regardless of whether or not the primary ingredients are in season. But this is one soup that I reserve for the end of summer. Frozen corn is perfectly passable, but thereโs just no substitute for newly picked, freshly grilled, silver queen or bi-colored corn.
This is a decadent celebration soup, so donโt plan on checking your cholesterol the week after.
More than any other vegetable, itโs a priority for me each August to preserve generous quantities of our gorgeous local corn. Corn freezes beautifully, and itโs such a mood boost in the dead of winter to break open a pack of summer corn and add to it a soup or salad.
Preserving corn in its sweet, crunchy state couldnโt be easier: thereโs not even cooking involved.
Corn Recipes to try:
Instant Pot Smoked Corn Stock (includes stove top and slow cooker instructions)
Hatch chile reach their best potential when roasted over an open flame. I usually order Hatch chile by the case, so once they arrive, I pick the least hot day (ha!) and spend an hour or two roasting up these beautiful things, to bag up and freeze for fall and winter cooking.
But first, the inaugural batch gets made into Green Chile Stew, that irresistible southwestern pork stew that always manages to kick my inner fall soup season cravings into high gear, regardless of what the calendar says.
Smoky Hatch Chili Corn Chowder
And now โฆ letโs bring it all together, corn and Hatch chile. Corn โ wood-smoked on the grill โ and freshly roasted Hatch chile combined in a soup with homemade smoked corn stock, made from the scraped cobs of smoked corn.
Without a doubt, itโs my favorite corn chowder. (My smoked corn stock recipe includes detailed instructions on how to smoke corn.)
What SoupAddictโs Been Eating (Besides Soup)
With the consistent heat and rain weโve been having here, my tomatoes are going nuts. The surprise of the season has been these Midnight Snack cherry tomatoes, an unplanned, last-minute purchase. They start out green with deep purple shoulders and ripen to mahogany red. You can see the progression on this tress:
Theyโre the kind of complexly-flavored tomatoes that end up in your mouth before they ever reach their intended dish. Like this Capreseโish tomato salad that I have almost every day for lunch, now that Iโm hip-deep in tomatoes.
Cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, green leaf lettuce, homegrown cucumbers and basil. And a creamy balsamic dressing. I also usually fold in a scoop of low-fat cottage cheese (although no mustard, oh my lort).
The best of backyard gardening, right there in a bowl!
Thank you ever so kindly โค๏ธ
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for all the sweet notes you sent me following last editionโs cancer revelation. It was hard for me to โcome out,โ and I still find it hard to talk about. Not because Iโm sensitive about it โ Iโm absolutely not, ask me anything โ but because people get weirded out, and itโs harder for them to hear about it than it is for me to talk about it.
Those of us with incurable cancers live from quarterly scan to quarterly scan, waiting to learn whatโs popped up where (itโs so easy to catastrophize the dread). Or whatโs receded (we barely dare to hope). But last monthโs scans looked good, and I have a breather for a couple of months, where I donโt have to think about my claustrophobia in those damn tube machines.
So, as I tell people who look like they want to dive under the nearest rock when they learn I have a deadly cancer: Bad things can happen, and you can still be okay.
And Iโm okay.
Until next time, friends, stay cool ๐ฅต, stay kind ๐ฅฐ, prepare for that first Pumpkin Spice Latte โ๏ธ, wear sunscreen ๐งด, and remember that soup is never a bad decision ๐ฅณ.
Pure joy to see you in my mailbox! You have been in my thoughts and prayers. Soup season is year round in my house! Temperature be damned! We could live on it, and some salads to go with!
Many blessings for continuing the fight! God bless.
I am so glad youโre doing good! I have love all of your soup recipes that I have tried. Btw youโre right. Soup is life