A Labor Day Party, and Thomas Keller's Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Can I tell you about the heaven that was my Labor Day?  The So Cal sun was shining in a beautiful, cloudless sky, and I got to entertain six wonderful friends and cook a full meal for them, including mouth-watering buttermilk fried chicken, fresh side dishes, and made-from-scratch dark chocolate ice cream and salted butter caramel ice cream for dessert.  We caught up on our lives, laughed like crazy, and everyone left with full stomachs.  If this isn't heaven, then I don't know what is!      

I should tell you, the inception for this Labor Day party originally came from Thomas Keller's famous buttermilk fried chicken recipe.  As I was paging through Ad Hoc at Home, the images of this golden fried comfort food snuggled down deep in my brain and refused to budge; I figured resistance was futile (can you ever say no to fried chicken?), and decided to use it as an excuse to have a party.

Since the fried chicken was going to be the star of the show, I wanted to use light, in-season vegetables for side dishes.  I started out with watermelon tossed with lime, followed by a quick and easy vinegar coleslaw which I accidentally oversalted but everyone still loved.  I was especially excited to use sweet, green heirloom tomatoes and my own tomatoes (Yes! They survived!) to throw together a quick caprese salad.  And finally, a summer party isn't a party without corn on the cob!     

Thomas Keller's Sweet Creamed Corn

So I had a totally different recipe to share with you for my regular Monday post. But then, it just so happens that I was sitting at home on Saturday night (Boo. Life is not always exciting.) with a splitting migrane (Double Boo. Pain is never fun.) and flipping through the copy of Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home that I had just picked up from the library (Yay! Cookbooks are exciting and always fun!).  This cookbook is just filled to the brim with amazing recipes, but when I happened upon this creamed corn I knew with utter certainty that I needed to temporarily abandon those earlier plans and share this recipe with you instead.  I hadn't even made it yet, but I just knew that it would be a winner and that I would be typing this post today to tell you about it.   

I think I felt so certain for three main reasons.  First, I have been feeling a little low on inspiration lately, and for whatever reason (probably because Thomas Keller is amazing?), reading through Ad Hoc at Home chased away all of those lackluster feelings.  Second, the growing season for sweet corn has literally hit its own "sweet spot" which makes the taste simple and sublime.  Plus, corn seems to be the quintessential late-summer vegetable that we all eat in order to take a bite of those last rays of summer sunshine.  And don't let me forget, thirdly, I was so certain that I would share this recipe with you because it is from Thomas Keller.  And can anyone argue that is food is wonderful?