Menu Monday: C Is for Herbed Roasted Corn

C is for corn...and it's a fruit, vegetable, AND a grain!  (Riddle me that, folks.  Riddle me THAT.)

I almost called it just a grain, but then I decided to fact check my facts, and I learned some things.  I was right--it is a grain, and it's okay to call it a vegetable.  BUT I did not know it was a FRUIT.

A fruit, y'all.  It's like that time my roommate Rose told me a banana is biologically a berry.

(Actually, Rosey may have been the first person to inform me that corn is a grain...way back when she took that botany class.  And I totally had to Google "study of plants" to recall the word "botany.")

What????  If you are like me, you grew up calling corn a "vegetable," but then we read a lot of nutritionism junk, and saw the light--it's a "grain."

But it's also a "fruit!"

It's a fruit of the plant because it is formed from the reproductive parts of the plant (SCIENCE!), but it can be classified as a vegetable because it can be harvested fresh as a plant to eat (SCIENCE!!), and biologically, since it is a dried seed-like fruit, it is a grain (MORE SCIENCE!!!)

See, all grains are fruits, but not all fruits are grains.

Oh my goodness, that LOGIC class I took senior year is paying off...IN THE KITCHEN!

So let's get back in there.  :)

HERBED ROASTED CORN

corn-on-the-cob

salt and pepper to taste

fresh herbs (5-6 sprigs per cob)

butter (1 T. per cob)

-Preheat oven to 410.  Shuck and clean corn of silk and debris if necessary.  Place each cob on a piece of foil or parchment.  Season to taste.  Top with butter and add fresh herbs at the side.  Seal corn in foil or parchment and roast for about 30 minutes.

You can choose to serve it with whatever.  We had ours with sweet-n-sour veggie stir fry and grilled peppers.  YUMMY!

EDIT:  I used thyme, and let me tell you, thyme and corn is amazing.  I've always liked thyme in green beans, but I wanted to try it with something else since some friends from work gave us a HUGE thyme plant.

What is your favorite veggie or fruit (or grain!) this time of year?