Mmmmmm, corn on the cob. Summer is upon us, the fourth of july is near, barbecues are being q’ed up and the wives are forcing us out to have picnics, so I thought I would start off with the perfect corn condom mint. Corn has to have more uses than any other food. It is used as flour, for breads, to make plastic, as a fuel and coal, for sweet sweet sugar, even for smoking pipes, and by itself. The list is virtually endless and the spectrum of products is extremely broad. Something that gives us so much, deserves to be eaten in style. Give a little respect back to the poor cob and add some robust flavors to it. This recipe is so easy to make your infant could do it. And the kids will absolutely love it. The trick is to prevent them from eating it by the spoonful, it tastes so damn good.

There’s something about butter that just makes me want to get fat. I would eat butter all day if I wasn’t already afraid for my health. So here’s one of my favorites, a fancy, yet easy recipe to spruce up your corn on the cob. This is a perfect example of how you can easily make part of your meal extra special and extra fancy. There are so many foods that can and should be spruced up with more flavor, with robust herbs and succulent spices and rich creamy sauces, and many of them are easy to make. And this type of recipe expresses exactly what I try and get across to people, your home cooked food doesn’t have to be bland. Spruce it up!

Lemon Basil Butter

Ingredients:

• 1 Stick Sweet Cream Butter
• 1/4 Cup packed fresh basil
• 1 small clove garlic
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Send your kids out to collect a nice big handful of basil leaves. One thing that I will never forget, that I had to learn the hard way, is that when you spot a living creature squirming around on your fresh produce, never tell your wife about it until after dinner. Believe you me. Here’s a little sucker I found on the basil I used for this batch of butter sauce. Cute little basil sucking bugger isn’t he. Now if I can just find his relatives I will save the rest of my basil plants that they’ve eaten holes through. This was the best shot of him I could get. I tried to place him into a better position but he went and got himself squished. Well, teaches him to eat my basil I suppose.

I use a food processor for this. If you don’t have one, a blender may work but would be better for making a larger batch. If you don’t have either one, you can finely chop up the ingredients, then mix them together in a bowl using a large fork. If you don’t have a fork, use your fist, if you don’t have a fist then God bless you. If you don’t believe in God, well, you’re screwed.

Lemon zest is full of powerful aromatic oils, bursting with flavor. The oils actually vary in taste from the lemon juice, but is similar and quite pungent. The oils in the zest are where lemon flavoring comes from that is used to flavor some pastries and candies. If you happen to have bottled lemon flavoring, compare the smell with lemon zest, it is the same.

Use a zester or fine grater to get the lemon zest. Only use the colored part, as the white membrane can be bitter. Then use half the lemon and squeeze the bloody juice right out of that sucker.

I like to give the stick of butter a few chops so it fits better. I also whack the garlic in half to get my anger out. Doesn’t seem to be helping though.

Add the pepper and salt to taste, then pulverize the hell out of it until it's silky smooth. Enjoy!

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