Summer Salad with Corn, Tomato and Basil

As summer comes to a close and I ready my boys to head back to school, I can't help but think back to my summers when I was young. For me, summer seemed like an eternity. By the last month, I was ready for school to start and see all my friends again. Now that I'm home with my kids, I wonder if  summer goes by fast or slow for them? I know they are definitely not ready to go back to school like I was and I'm not sure why that is. Is it because we did too much and didn't rest enough? We vacationed in Palm Springs, visited the Living Desert Zoo and WWII Airplane Museum. We also went to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and watched a live Shark dissection, which was totally cool! We watched Wiener Dog Races for the third year in a row. The boys went camping with the cub scouts, we watched two baseball games: Dirtbags and Angels, hiking, bike riding, movie watching, beach going and spent endless hours in the pool. Not to mention, the many sleepovers, play dates, birthday parties, barbeques, and summer camp excursions to Soak City, Bolsa Chica State Beach and Raging Waters. We even squeezed in a 5 week reading class for my youngest son. 
I know I'm exhausted, but maybe they are too. When I was little, our summer vacations were open ended expanses of days with nothing to do, with no set activities. We would go outside, find our friends on the block and make our own fun, climbing trees, swimming and riding bikes. Our family trips consisted of going up to Northern California to see family for a few weeks. The rest of summer was up to us to fill up our time. And maybe that's the difference. 
As a parent today, I feel pressured to fill up my kids' time. I feel like it is up to me to keep them engaged and active. My parents didn't do any of that. We were free to create and fill up our time. Yes, we were bored...but we survived it and ended up making some pretty great memories just being outside and having long, slow days ahead of us. 
But that was a time when life was a bit slower. We didn't have cell phones, cable TV, or video games. We didn't have the pressure to respond immediately to a phone call, text or email. Those things didn't exist. If you weren't home to answer the phone, you missed the call. No message would be waiting for a reply. I know those days are long gone and my kids live in a technology driven world of texts, cable TV, video games and everything requiring immediate response. But hopefully they will look back on these busy summers and remember them as the fun, easy days of childhood.

With all the long, tiring days, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was spend a lot of time in the kitchen. So here's a delicious and easy summer salad. It's easy, because it's made with raw white corn, no cooking necessary, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and tossed with the marinade from the mozzarella with a splash of red wine vinegar. A cool delicious salad that's a snap to pull together. Enjoy!

Summer Salad with Corn, Tomato and Basil 

Serves 6

6 ears of *white corn kernels (about 4 cups)
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 container of marinated fresh mozzarella balls, halved
small bunch of green onions, thinly sliced (I forgot to add these...Oops!)
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

Dressing

Use 1/4 cup of marinade from the fresh mozzarella and add 3 T of red wine vinegar and salt/pepper to taste.

Combine corn, tomatoes, cheese with the dressing and toss. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes or up to two hours. When ready to serve add basil, toss and enjoy.

(*I do not recommend using yellow corn for this recipe, it's not crunchy or sweet enough.) 

Other Summer Salad recipes to try:
Mom's Macaroni Salad              Zucchini Ribbon Summer Salad       Summer Fruit Salad w/Ginger&Lime 

          

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