I don’t drink…I don’t swear…I don’t rat my hair. I get ill from one cigarette.
I have a confession to make, America. Beneath all my blustering about Football Saturday and for all my rah-rah sis-boom-bah’s, deep down inside I’m really more of a Rizzo than a Sandy. There are, admittedly, a few fading polaroids still out there somewhere of me at age 7 with pompoms in my tiny hands, a giant smile on my face, and a scripty black F on my chest for “Falcons.” That was the last set of cheerleading pantelettes I ever clambered into, however.
There are worse things I could do than go with a boy or two.
Because just two years later, I saw Grease, and then I saw the light. Sandy the cheerleader was vanilla puddingsville, a total square. No wonder Danny Zuko didn’t want to talk to her in public. Rizzo was the cool one—a born sass-mouther, sure, but tortured inside, fast and loose as a cannon. The neighborhood may have thought she was trashy and no good, but I thought Rizzo was cool. And so the die was cast, a lifeplan was formed. I was going to be a bad girl—a cigarette-smoking, gum-snapping Pink Lady. I was gonna be a cool tough talker, and drink stuff out of bottles in the backs of cars with boys. I intended to get a bun in my oven as soon as I could and wear red lipstick and Candies platform heels every single day.
Luckily, I discovered what a “bun in the oven” really meant before my child-bearing years set in, and by my early 30s, I had long since quit caring what my so-called “cool” friends thought and rediscovered my rammer jammer roots. Finding my inner Sandra Dee may have taken me a little while, but now that she has been unleashed, me and football go together like shoobop sha wadda wadda yippity boom de boom.
So obviously, today I have tailgating on my mind. Though I can’t watch from the stadium as the mighty Tide rolls over Michigan, I can camp out in my living room and cheer on the boys and pretend I’m married to Nick Saban (it’s a sickness I know, but Lord, he’s cute.) No matter what team you’re cheering for today, here’s a sweet little side dish perfect for your tailgating party—it keeps beautifully and is divinely paired with almost anything you serve it with, from grilled burgers to pizza. It’s a heavenly melange of sweet corn and juicy tomatoes, and luckily, you still have time before the big game to dash right down to your local farmer’s market and snag almost all the fixin’s you’ll need to make it.
A perfect mix-and-match salad. Try adding drained black beans, blanched carrots or jicama.
Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer Salad
6-7 cobs fresh sweet corn
4-5 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 medium red onion, diced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of 3 limes
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons cumin
Sea Salt
1. Using a sharp knife, cut corn from cob. Bring 4 quarts of salted water to a rapid boil; add corn and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water. Allow to cool completely.
2. Toss completely cooled corn with tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, olive and sea salt. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before eating to allow flavors to marry. Will keep well for up to 2 days in a tightly lidded container.
Norwizzle's Almanac 