Grilled Corn Mexican Style (Elote): No memories?

Today for one of my lessons, I gave the students a journal prompt and asked them to write on it for 15 minutes.  I asked them to think of four memories, two sad and two happy, describe them and then imagine their lives without those four memories.  (This was a prompt connecting to the book that we were reading, Lois Lowry's The Giver. And as I asked them to write on that topic, I spent some time mulling over some of my own memories and started wishing that I could simply forget some of them.  I'd like to forget how I yelled at Daughter #1, or clenched my fists when talking to Son in frustration, or how in a fit of rage I screamed at the top of my lungs.

But without the memory of the day before, I have no way to measure how far I've come or how much better I can be.  To have that benchmark of my absolute worst moments allows me to look back and if anything, at least try and improve.  So I'll hold onto those memories, if only to remind myself that I want to be so much better.  Memories, even the bad ones, serve an important purpose.

The good memories are much easier to hold onto - like the time I drove around with a friend in college looking for this special corn that she wanted to eat.  We found it and the memory of that corn, fresh from the vendor, piping hot and delicious rich has stayed with me for a long time.  When I went to friend HKL's house over the last week, she wanted to make the corn so together we whipped up a delicious batch of the corn.  The memory of that first time eating the corn came smashing back to me and it was a wonderful memory.

This is a balance of sweetness, richness, saltiness, acidity, and richness.  Do not underestimate how delicious such a simple dish can be.

**Note** - Cotija cheese is a hard, easily crumbled cheese.  I simply used a fork to crumble it up easily.

Grilled Corn Mexican Style (Elote)
7 to 8 servings

Ingredients
8 ears corn, either white or yellow, husk removed completely if you like.
½ cup cotija cheese crumbled (substitute parmesan if you can’t get cotija)
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
lime wedges

Method
Steam corn for six minutes, until almost cooked. Heat grill and place corn on grill over high head until slightly charred.

Mix together mayonnaise, sour cream, cilantro and cayenne pepper. Set aside.

Brush mayonnaise sour cream mixture over each ear of corn. Sprinkle cotija cheese on top. Squeeze lime. Eat it while it’s hot!

Printable recipe