corn and asparagus salad

my sis in law janet, is having a baby!! ya ya.. not just any baby.. a girl.. *big smile* this tia is very happy.. for so many reasons.. one big reason.. is when my brother would stare at shell while she was throwing a temper tantrum at 3 rolling her eyes and put her hand up to me and say "talk to the hand" and he would actually think telling her to stop would work then getting annoyed when it didn't.. i can't wait for that to happen to him.. ha ha j/k... well sorda... not really.. ok no i am not.. honestly tho' i can't wait for a little precious princess to hold and cuddle and kiss.. my babies are 21 and 16.. no longer do they allow me to squish their cheeks and  kiss them.. ha anyway sunday was janet's shower and her friends out did them selves.. unfortunately i didn't take pictures of any of the food :( well umm because i got lost.. for those that know me. *which you should i am pretty cool chick..* know that i live in a small town outside las vegas called boulder city.. it's about 30 miles from vegas.. well the party was on the other end of the world from me.. 48 miles to be exact.. and i then got lost adding another 15 miles.. aughh.. so by the time i got there people were already eating and my camera needed to be charged.. excuses excuses.. so i really could kick myself for not getting pictures of the amazing food.. we had bacon wrapped dates, shrimp cocktail, tomato and olive tepenade *yum*, cheese, crackers, the hostess actually took rosemary stems and skewered artichokes, salami, olives and cheese.. talk about fancy shmancy.. so much food i can't even remember them all.. but one stood out among all the rest.. one i kept going back to get.. (3 helpings to be exact.. *hiding head in shame*) was the corn and asparagus salad.. it was so good.. now the hostess was busy and i didn't want to bother her about the recipe so when i got home i googled the ingredients and viola the exact recipe popped up from paula deen.. her recipe found here.. so i emailed janet yesterday with the recipe and she confirmed it was in fact the correct one with a tip/hint from the hostess.. believe me your next shower, tea party, luncheon or in my case dinner last night you have to make this you won't be disappointed.. now i am going to give you paula's recipe as is and then give you the hostesses' comments and then what i did differently too..

(the pictures came out funky.. the sky was so dark and it was so gloomy no natural light at all in the house)

prep time:  10 minutes

cook time:  10 minutes

servings:     8

ingredients:

6 ears of yellow corn, shucked (we both used white)

2 bunches of asparagus, trimmed (we both used the thin ones)

1 small red onion, diced small (she told me to soak the onions in ice water for about an hour to cut the sharpness of the onion)

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

dressing:

1/2 cup sugar (i used splenda and only a 1/4 of a cup seemed way to sweet with all that sugar the hostess added water to make it not so sweet.. actually she said she only ended up using 1/2 the dressing she made she thought it would be to sweet to use your best judgment)

1 cup rice vinegar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

(i added a tsp or 2 of crushed red pepper)

Fill a large stock pot with water, salt and bring it to a boil. Place shucked corn in boiling water and blanch the corn for 3 minutes until bright yellow. Then toss the corn into an ice bath. In the same water used for blanching the corn, blanch the asparagus for 1 minute and toss into the ice bath. For the corn, once cooled, remove the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife and cut the asparagus into 1-inch angled sections. Place both the corn and then asparagus into a medium size bowl.

In another medium size bowl, mix together sugar, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Drizzle over corn and asparagus. Mix together well and chill or serve at room temperature.

Paula's recipe above fails to mention when to add the onion so I added them after the corn and asparagus.. it was so yummy!!

UPDATE:  i had referred to janet's friend as the "hostess" as i was not sure she would appreciate being named here in my blog.. however, she has read the blog and said i most certainly can use her name!! thanks amber!! your house was lovely and the party was amazing..