Summer Corn Salad

Summer is here and so is fresh corn!  Hot or cold, it becomes a staple at our table for a few weeks.

And speaking of a few weeks….

In the last few weeks, as people are starting to get back to “normal” activities, they are making doctor’s appointments again.  Sadly, I am one of those people.  Sigh.

I called one of my doctors and was told that she wasn’t even taking appointments now since she is fully booked till November. November?  Seriously?  That is several months away!  I was hoping for sometime in this century.  No?  So when does her schedule open up?  Not a clue.  Maybe sometime in October.  Don’t call us, we’ll call you.  But we probably won’t call you, so you’d better call us.  Sometime.  Not sure when.  But if it’s an emergency, I could always go to the hospital.  Ummm, is there a third option? Maybe an appointment with Doctor Bombay?   He came right away, even if he was in the middle of a deep sea dive.  I’d even settle for Professor Sprout or Snape and a few incantations.

Undeterred and still optimistic, I called a second doctor who said that they could see me on November 25.  Not great, but better than the 25th of never like the first doctor.  So I made the appointment, only to realize about two days later that the 25th of November was Thanksgiving.  I know the days have blended together this past year, but Thanksgiving?  Really?  Why not December 25th?  No one ever has anything important scheduled for either one of those days. Strike 2.

I called back and the woman answering the phone and I had a good laugh about them booking me for Thanksgiving before she told me that I should try calling back every Thursday or Friday to see if they had a cancellation for the following week since the couldn’t take any more bookings at the moment.  This was becoming harder than getting tickets to a Beatles reunion, a Rhianna concert, the Super Bowl or a trip to the moon.

Losing hope quickly, I tried a third doctor and got their voicemail.  Apparently, they decided it wasn’t even worth their time answering  calls so they left a five minute message explaining why they weren’t taking calls, how I would never get an appointment,  that Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy didn’t really exist and if I wanted to  I could leave my information, but no one was ever going to call me back.  Ever.

I’m starting to wonder if I could put on a dog costume and get an appointment with the vet.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups corn
• 1/4 cup diced orange bell pepper
• 1/2 cup seeded and diced tomato
• 1/4 cup seeded and diced cucumber
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion

Dressing:

• 1  1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon agave, honey or sweetener of choice (optional)
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine all of the salad ingredients (corn through onion).
2. In a small blender, emulsify the dressing ingredients.  If you don’t have a small blender, then you can put the ingredients into a small jar and shake really well till combined.  The dressing won’t be as smooth, but it will still work.

Enjoy!