Like sand through an hourglass

Saturday's CSA box, our ninth so far, made me kind of sad.

It was so bursting with summer's bounty, it reminded me that all of this will be over soon, replaced by things like School Closures and Wind Chill Advisories.

I mean, just check this out:

-- Corn

-- Tomatoes

-- Green pepper

-- Cucumbers

-- Eggplant

-- Zucchini

-- Cilantro

-- Dill

-- Fennel

-- Sweet onion

-- Lettuce

-- Swiss chard

And even:

-- Cantaloupe

See?

It's enough to make a grown woman weep.

But I got past that. Quickly.

So, I made a big salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, black olives and feta, dressed with just a little balsamic and olive oil.

And I put a big chunk of the cantaloupe in my green smoothie this morning.

I sliced several of those red beauties, brushed them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and pepper and put them in a 250-degree oven for about three hours. I ended up with this "tomato candy" that's pretty hard to resist:

I piled several slices on a sandwich and ate many more right off the plate. These super-concentrated tomato jewels would be wonderful with pasta, though. Ooh, or paired with creamy goat cheese on top of a pizza. Or mixed with scrambled eggs. Or pretty much on top of anything you can imagine.

There aren't too many restaurant dishes I miss from my days in the Inland Northwest (sorry, Spokane). But I did love this great placed called Moontime in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. They made the best veggie burger I've ever had, their gumbo could knock your socks off, and pretty much everything was served with this awesome roasted corn pasta salad.

Now, I don't even usually like mayo-based salads. But this one, with its sweet, nutty corn; pungent red onions; and chipotle kick was unlike any I'd ever had.

And the good guys at Moontime are kind enough to post the recipe on their site.

I've made their version several times before and it's as good as I remember from the restaurant. This time, though, I decided to mix things up just a tiny bit. Remember that Elote, the Mexican corn, from last week?

Well, I turned it into pasta salad.

And it rocks.

A scoop of this is sure to fend off any melancholy. I'll try to remember this in January.

P.S. To make it easier on you dear readers (I'm talking about you, Mom and Baubie), I'm ditching the "blogspot" part of this blog's address. You can now get to Flour Girl at flourgrrrl.com. Best to save the finger strength for kneading bread dough, right?

Mexican Corn Pasta Salad

Adapted from Moontime restaurant, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Serves 4

1 1/2 cups corn kernels, cut from about three ears of corn (or from frozen)

1/2 red onion, diced (I used sweet onion, but red's really better)

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 cups dried fusilli or elbow noodles

1 cup mayonnaise (it's easy to make your own)

2-3 canned chipotle peppers in adobo, finely chopped

juice of 1/2 lime

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place corn and onion on baking sheet. Dot with butter and drizzle with oil. Roast about 20 minutes, stirring several times, until vegetables are nicely browned. Let cool.

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and rinse with cold water.

Combine mayonnaise with chopped chipotles.

Put pasta in a large bowl, add in roasted vegetables and the mayonnaise mixture. Stir well. Sprinkle with lime juice and top with grated Parmesan.