Corn Chowder

A month ago or so I gave out a recipe for Parmesan Corn Chowder. I was scanning through my recipes yesterday and decided to make this. It tasted great, until I added the cheese. Word to the wise, don't add the cheese just make it a corn chowder instead. It tastes great without the cheese. So here is the revised recipe.

(Vegetarians-you can use veggie stock instead of chicken stock)

Corn Chowder

2 cups chicken stock
1 onion, diced (about a cup)
1/2 cup celery, diced small
2 potatoes, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 cups milk
2 TBS corn starch
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 can corn, drained
1 can creamed corn

In a 4 quart pot heat chicken stock, onion, celery, carrot, and potatoes to boiling. Turn down heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the creamed corn, corn and black pepper. Cook another 2-3 minutes until warmed. Add the milk except 2 TBS. Use the 2TBS milk to mix with the corn starch and then add to the soup. Stir until hot and thick. Serve with warm bisquets or rolls.

(At the end of the cooking process I mashed it all slightly with a potato masher to make the potatoes and the carrots smaller.)

What have you been cooking?

With the holidays, I am sure everyone is cooking up a storm. When we got back from Disney on the 23rd, I began baking. I baked 6 dozen cookies. 2 dozen sugar cookies with red and green sprinkles, 2 dozen mini chocolate chip cookies, and 2 dozen "Mickey Magic" chocolate chip cookies. I used the store-bought refrigerated dough and 'doctored' it up with sprinkles and jimmies.

I baked 4 cheesecakes. I used my uncle's recipe and poured the mixtures in to store-bought graham cracker crusts. I made two plain cheesecakes, one chocolate cheesecake, and one chocolate chip cheesecake.

For Christmas eve dinner with my mother and father, I made the mashed potatoes. The best potatoes I have made was when I used half and half to cream the potatoes. It made them so rich and yummy.

We had Christmas dinner at our house and we had a pre-cooked ham that I heated up, sweet potatoes, green beans (recipe at the bottom) stuffing, and rolls. In the stuffing I saute onions, celery and then added the water and when it boils I pour it into the bread crumbs.

Halfway House Green Beans
4 slices bacon
1 small onion (about a cup)
2 cans french style green beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
1 TBS sugar

Fry bacon and remove to a paper towel lined plate. In the bacon fat cook the onions until soft. Add sugar and the tomatoes and the juice in the the can to the onions. Cook on medium low for about 10 minutes. Add the green beans and cook covered until heated through. Remove from heat and place in serving dish. Crumple up the bacon and sprinkle on top. Serve imediately.