C.O.R.N

Written by Nikki Amara Myers

Close your eyes.  Now, think about corn.  What do you see?  What thoughts or memories come to mind? A favorite recipe?  A family tradition?  Butter and salt?  Summer days?  Picnics?  Yes, yes, and yes. All those visceral responses are correct; however, in the context of this article, you would be absolutely wrong as I was a few months back.

As some of you know, I love food and I enjoy cooking.  Finding new recipes for my own weekly menu planning is constantly on my mind.  Feeding my family healthy, delicious meals is a priority.  With that said, I was reading Emily Roach’s blog, Random Recycling, and she had the word CORN listed as a meal on her weekly menu planner.  CORN?  What the heck does that mean?  How is she going to create a whole meal using corn?  Knowing Emily, as well as I do, I know this IS possible but what is she going to make?  Could this CORN-thing be an acronym?  If so, what, what is it?  Reading further, I learned in Emily’s house, CORN represents a weekly CLEAN OUT THE REFRIGERATOR NIGHT.  Ah ha, yes, this makes sense now.  Accordingly, Emily found this inspiration from a wonderful post on Life as Mom’s blog.  In both instances, cleaning out the refrigerator nights provide opportunities to use leftovers as well as to clean and organize the refrigerator.  Brilliant. 

So, CORN has really taken its place in my weekly menu planning as it does at Emily’s house.  Once a week, I stand, usually listless, in front of my opened refrigerator making peace with whatever leftovers remain.  Sometimes, I reconstitute the leftovers into something interesting while other nights the leftovers are either simply combined with one another, if the flavors warrant, or they are individually plated, heated up, and served immediately to anyone hungry enough and hanging around the kitchen table.  These are the nights I chuckle silently because a lot of times I don’t even like to eat leftovers but I enjoy cooking so this is the price I pay for regularly cooking too much.  Eating, cooking, CORN, meal planning, the kitchen, and the opened refrigerator all have a special place in my day, in my week, and in my life. 

How do you deal with leftovers?  Are you one to cook just enough or do you typically have extensive leftovers in your refrigerator?  Have you established a CORN-ritual?  If so, please let us know what you do and if you have any tips or tricks to share. 

Enjoy your CORN either way – yellow, deliciously buttery with a hint of salt or clean and organized with enjoyable, reconstituted leftovers.  Whatever you do, make it fun, make it enjoyable, and always make it delicious.  


About the Author

Nikki lives locally with her husband and two children.  She is a self-proclaimed foodie, photographer, and blogger.  Now a SAHM, she was a school counselor and cast member of Joey & Maria’s Comedy Wedding for many years.  Nikki currently consults as a private, independent college counselor.  She also writes her own personal blog, Days With Us (follow her at www.dayswithus.com or @dayswithus).