Sweet corn risotto: $1.36/serving

Is anyone else having as much trouble as I am procuring decent corn this summer? It happened (albeit slightly early) with the corn & prosciutto crisp last month, and it happened again this week: I go to the store expecting bins overflowing with cheap, fresh, delicious corn and find a sad little pile of overpriced, desiccated cobs that look destined for someone’s bird feeder. I specifically don’t grow corn in the yard because it’s always so cheap, abundant and delicious elsewhere, and this is the first year it looks like that decision is going to come back and bite me in the butt. I might have to do without, or at least play pretend with a few bags of frozen corn. So, dear readers, if you have access to plump, fresh, juicy ears of corn, this recipe is for you. It’s intentionally simple to bring out the sweetness of the corn against the savoriness of the Parmesan.

Corn & prosciutto crisp: $1.92/serving

I usually make this savory crisp when corn is fully in season and something like 5 ears for $1 (I rarely grow it myself for that very reason; it probably costs more than that to water it), but given that I had some prosciutto left over from the gorgonzola- and prosciutto-stuffed chicken breast with strawberry-balsamic sauce, I thought I’d roll the dice and see if I could find some early-season corn on the cheap. I indeed did find some, but it was hard and pale; not the juicy, yellow sweet corn I was wishfully expecting, even though I don’t recall ever seeing it before July. I ended up having to buy a bag of frozen corn, which, while never as good as fresh, certainly is better than tasteless and unripe. Anyhow, this is a great light, unexpected summer meal when paired with a salad, or works well as a side dish for grilled chicken or other meats when plain ol’ corn on the cob won’t do.

Smoky chipotle-cheddar grits: 59 cents/serving

Anyone following the national weather lately may have noticed a prediction of SNOWMAGEDDON!!!! for the Pacific Northwest. Blizzards! Freezing temperatures! FEET OF SNOW! I was all prepared for this to be another load of hyperbolic nonsense (as is usually confirmed by this informative website), but I looked out the window after I got home from work last night and, lo and behold, it was snowing. It looked to be up to 3 inches or so (which actually qualifies as FEET OF SNOW! for Portland) by the time I went to bed, and by the time I got up it had brought down a small tree in the backyard. It’s raining now and starting to break up the snow a bit, but still, the almost constant focus on the weather has been exhausting—delayed school openings, chained-up buses going 25 mph, talkative strangers overjoyed at the materialization of a universal conversation topic. At this point you may be asking yourself, What does this all have to do with grits?

Sweet potato, corn & jalapeño bisque: 59 cents/serving

You may have noticed that sweet potatoes are on sale right about now. I certainly did, which is why I picked up a few extra while shopping for Thanksgiving. I’ve made a lot of sweet-potato-based soups in the past (sweet potato and regular potato, sweet potato and lentil, sweet potato and squash…), but this one—adapted from one I saw a long time ago in The New York Times—is by far my favorite. It’s spicy and sweet, with little bursts of flavor from the pieces of whole corn. You could even cook another jalapeño separately and serve sprinkled over the top if you want it really hot. It’s not only simple and quick enough to make the week of Thanksgiving, it would also make a wonderful Thanksgiving first course.