Almost a year ago, I moved away from Berkeley, CA where one of my favorite comfort foods year-round was corn chowder from a restaurant called Smart Alec's (their motto: healthy food fast!). I've tried to reproduce it once or twice but it never comes out thick enough and the flavor is always too bland. I've lost the recipes I tried last summer and fall, but now that my local farmer's market is starting to have corn again, I want to make an effort to get this right, so I can make and freeze a bunch in the end of August. (I'm a grad student, so summers are lazy and school years are CRAZY.)

The Smart Alec's corn chowder definitely contained potatoes, red bell peppers, onions, carrots, and celery, but I'm not sure if it had anything else. It wasn't particularly spicy, but it also wasn't over-salted; I think it had more of a herb-y savory flavor, but I'm terrible at distinguishing herbs by taste so I can't for the life of me tell you which. If anyone has a recipe that might fit the bill, please let me know -- or if you have your own go-to corn chowder recipe that I should try out! (Doesn't need to be vegetarian, either.)

Alternately -- other favorite things to do with corn on the cob, other than just boiling or grilling it?