The Vegetable Is Just A Vessel, Really

I was making my way through my excruciatingly boring line-up of summer TiVo programs Saturday night, and I decided to settle in for a new episode of "Paula's Home Cooking." Y'all know I love Paula, and I'm constantly amazed by the ways she can take a perfectly healthy vegetable and transform it into a fat-laden, buttery delight. And after what I saw Saturday night, I think she may have outdone herself in the cholesterol-spiking department.

Here's what she did. She took some perfectly lovely fresh ears of corn, slathered them with mayonnaise, rolled them in parmesan cheese, added chili powder and salt, wrapped them in foil, and then cooked them on the grill. The finished product looked delicious, though it didn't resemble corn so much as some county-fair delicacy that had been battered and deep fried.

And I of course cannot wait to try it.

We have a propensity in the South for taking healthy foods and rendering them void of any redeeming nutritional value (see fried cheese, fried mushrooms, etc.), and I'm a little curious: do y'all have a favorite "healthy"-food-gone-wrong? I mean, yeah, you like broccoli on its own...but do you like it more when it's covered in butter and cheese? Personally, I'm partial to a squash casserole where the squash, cooked down to the point that all those pesky vitamins are eliminated, is mixed with sour cream, cheese, onion, and topped with buttered cracker crumbs.

I'm not completely hopeless, just so you know. I love steamed asparagus with just a little salt and lemon juice on it.

But if you want to melt some cheese on top, you'll get no complaints from me. :-)