Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local
I suppose they came just in time, those top two teeth to match the bottom two she already had. Kiah had been working long and hard on popping her upper incisors through, her gums clearly swollen and uncomfortable.
It took a couple weeks of rough days and nights, a good reminder that our lives would be very different currently if our baby weren’t such a remarkably happy one most of the time. It just made me sad — and tired, so tired — to see her so sad, knowing she must be miserable. I can only think of one other time before this bout of hardship that I wasn’t able to soothe her and calm her down, so this much desperate sobbing was about enough to break my heart.
Let’s assume that was the worst of it, and that her dental development will be a breeze from here on out. And while she can’t understand it, I feel her struggles were validated by the fabulous timing: because now she has working chompers and it’s sweet corn season.
Kiah had already been devoting all the enthusiasm her 18-pound self could muster to voraciously gnawing on corn on the cob. You don’t know real strength until you try to wrest a corn cob out of my daughter’s tiny hands and their death grip on her prey.
Forget teething toys, this girl’s got sweet corn.
She got that second top tooth peeking out just in time for her wildest dream to come true — two buckets of sweet corn, temporarily left at her disposal.
She must have a sixth sense (silk sense?), because if there were an Olympic crawl-and-stand event, Kiah would have qualified on her way to the corn. As per usual, I was in the middle of way too many things to start the corn process right away, so I just shook my head and let the girl go for it.
I bet she was busy for almost an hour, which is incredible for that tiny attention span. Here I thought the things to do with sweet corn were to clean it, cook it, eat it; maybe cut it off the cob and put it in something or freeze it for later. I look hungrily at every sweet corn recipe that comes my way this time of year, going on all sorts of tangents in my brain for what deliciousness I could make: extra corny cornbread with corn-steeped honeyed whipped cream, spicy Southern corn pudding, ooey-gooey Korean corn cheese, all the possible mash-ups of Mexican street corn. (See, I’m doing it again; once I start thinking sweet corn, I can’t stop.)
But even with all those possibilities, Kiah showed me an entire other realm of oppor-corn-ities. Why limit our creativity to just how we can eat sweet corn, silly us. What about all the other ways we can use it — you can throw it, “sort” it and transfer it from place to place, smack it on the side of the bucket and squirt corn juice everywhere, mop the floor with it, see how thoroughly you can crush and spread kernels around, gnaw on the ends and sides and anywhere you can fit your four little teeth, the list goes on and on. I grew up with carpet in the kitchen and let’s just say we’d have to rip it up and start over if that would be the case here.
Fortunately, it’s laminate, and we live on a farm so it always needs to be mopped anyway. I know just what to give Kiah to distract her while I mop….
Everlasting Corn Salsa
Even with all this world of possibilities, I find myself coming back again and again to corn salsa. It’s everlasting because it has always been one of our top choices and will always be, and also because of its aforementioned effect on our floor. This salsa is of course ideal for tortilla chips (especially the lime ones) and any taco-adjacent dish, but don’t stop there: on a salad (or as a salad itself), sprinkled on a pizza, stirred into pasta. Make extra (if that’s a thing) and freeze a batch for later!
Prep tips: it’s very important to me that you don’t overcook the corn — keep it tasting fresh.
a couple ears of sweet corn, cleaned
juice and zest from a lime
as much cilantro as you want
a small red onion, roasted and minced
a drizzle of local honey
a hot pepper or two of choice, roasted and minced
salt and pepper
Put the corn in a saucepan, cover just so with water, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove corn cobs from water, and set on a cutting board. Once cool enough to handle, cut off the kernels. Add remaining ingredients to taste and chill.
