Photo via Slashfood.com

Chili Lime Corn on the Cob is kill-yourself kind of good.

I don’t really follow a particular recipe—I just kind of wing it, but I know that there are tons of variations. Some people use garlic or garlic powder, others like to coat the ear with mayo.

On Friday night, I made corn on the cob, vegetarian black bean burgers and sliced heirloom tomatoes for dinner and it was so good I almost peed my pants. (Not really.) Corn on the cob is, without a doubt, one of my top favorite things about summertime.

Here’s how I do it (for two) without a grill handy:

• 4-8 husked corn cobs—or more, depending on how hungry you are!. Boil water in a large pot on the stove. Plop in the ears once boiling and leave for about 9-10 minutes. Brandon and I like our corn with a bit of a crunch (you should hear a “crunch” sound when you bite into it), so I don’t overdo it on the heat.
• Remove from stove, set aside.
• Cut a stick of butter, REAL butter, in half. Place one half on each plate.
• Take an ear of corn, place a corn cob holder (I like these) on each end.
• Roll the corn on the stick of butter. Do it. Don’t be scared. Roll that mother.
• Shake a generous helping of sea salt on the cob.
• Sprinkle chili powder, to taste, on the cob as well.
• Cut a lime in half and squeeze the juice onto the cob. Don’t worry about the mess.
• Eat it.
• Eat another one.
• Okay, why not? Another one.

If you prefer to grill your corn, try this recipe from Epicurious!

Do you have a favorite summer recipe or snack?

I don’t profess to be a master chef, but I do love cooking. It relaxes me the same way flute playing relaxes me: it allows me to be completely involved in something to a point where everything else on my mind falls away.

I had seen this recipe from Smitten Kitchen making it’s way around on Tumblr a few weeks ago and decided last night that I’d give it a go. I am so glad I did!

Here’s what you need to make Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter with Linguine, Roasted Garlic Potatoes and Heirloom Tomato Salad.

Sauce & Pasta:

• Two cans whole peeled tomatoes
• 5 tablespoons of butter (or about 75% of a stick, if you want to guesstimate)
• One yellow onion
• Linguine pasta or another type of long, thin pasta, such as spaghetti

I loved how simple this was. 45 minutes on the stove and it was done! The sauce was truly delicious. I was really skeptical of its rave reviews (no garlic?!), but the taste was light and a little sweet and perfect! To get recipe instructions, see Smitten Kitchen’s rundown.

Roasted Garlic Potatoes:

• Several new potatoes, halved
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Two cloves of garlic

Set oven for 450. Place potatoes in a baking dish. Halve garlic cloves and squeeze them in around the potatoes. Drizzle olive oil on top, with salt and pepper to taste. Bake for about 45 minutes (just as long as your pasta & sauce will take, by the way!). Serve as is, or with a bit of cheese or an extra drizzle of olive oil. We ate them straight out of the oven. You can play around with this too, adding rosemary or other spices on top of the potatoes before putting them in the oven.

Heirloom Tomato Salad:

• Two large heirloom tomatoes, preferably in different colors because it’s more fun that way
• Fresh, firm green olives (pitted)
• Feta cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt.

Cut up tomatoes however you prefer. I like smaller bites of tomatoes instead of large halves. Place tomatoes in a bowl, put feta on top of tomatoes. Place olives on top of that. Put a bit of olive oil over everything, add some salt and let it sit while you finish cooking everything else so the oil flavors everything nicely.

This is my kind of meal: fast, easy, delish and inexpensive. YUM!

I’ve visited Tasty Planner before, but never signed up—well, today was the day. I’ve been looking for a great website or app that will allow me to add recipes, sync with my calendar and provide grocery lists and menus. It’s harder to find than you might think! (Any suggestions are welcome, by the way.)

Some final thoughts after using it to plan a couple days of menus:

• It seems a little static—there’s not much user activity, which is too bad. It definitely does not have the community feel that AllRecipes or Tasty Kitchen have.
• Adding recipes is easy and quick. I added recipes from other sites that I’ve had my eye on because I couldn’t find any right away on Tasty Planner that appealed to me.
• Once you’ve added a recipe, you can either add it to your Meal Planner or to your Recipe Box. I added mine to my Meal Planner, because I knew exactly what days I wanted to make which recipes.
• The Meal Planner syncs with iCal! That makes the website completely worth using to me.
• The Shopping List print-out is fairly accurate, easy to read and makes grocery shopping so much easier (and cheaper).

Do you have any favorite tech-y methods for saving recipes and creating menus?

I picked up Nigella Express at the library this afternoon and can’t wait to try out some of the fast and easy recipes. One of my pet peeves with cookbooks is if they don’t have a photo with each recipe. I want to see the end result! This one has a photo on every page, so it made the cut.