Everything, every little picking up paper, washing my face, finding the phone has been taking years today. Dinner is only beginning to think about itself, it’s past dinner time, and I am nowhere near the kitchen. And yesterday, just what happened to yesterday is what I would like to know. Every once in a while you find a pack of opened cookies and there are a few broken bits left and crumbs that taste like they have given up on being found and if you said to me, how would you describe the state of affairs in your head, I would have to say something like a leftover, opened up pack of cookies. I am working on a revival.
Like a miracle I could cook the other day; but that’s what love does. One minute you’re a paper invitation that has been rained on, sunned on, and beginning to separate, and then a friend shows up and you’re on your feet. I called the menu in over the phone–me in a traffic jam that stretched from the New York state line and her in Mystic–and we shopped when I got there. We had fresh corn scraped off the cob and into a chowder, skewers of chicken breast, red pepper, fresh sage and onion (meant to have sausage as well on there, but no time, no time), a pile of roasted potatoes, and a big salad with everything in it. For dessert we had Dilly and Buster bars from Dairy Queen.
Make the corn chowder, if for nothing else because who eats corn chowder anymore? Start with a soffritto of minced by hand carrots, celery, and onion with a few sprigs of fresh thyme, and sea salt. Let that cook gently until you can barely keep from eating it on it’s own. (one onion, four carrots and the inside stalk from the celery I think). Add the kernels from 8 ears of corn. Stir around after you add the corn for about five minutes. Add milk to barely cover and then add a little bit more. Bring to barely a simmer. Sneak in just a little heavy cream, maybe 3 tablespoons at the most. Adjust the salt, grind in some black pepper, and add two fresh basil leaves and the teeniest piece of fresh rosemary you ever saw.