New England Clam Chowder

Hello, reader(s)! :) It's been awhile! 
My apologies for the lack of posts... Things got busy, and this fell by the wayside. But tonight, I'm back! And I come bearing a yummy bowl of New England Clam Chowder!

This has always been a comfort food, and after the 2 feet of snow dumped on us the past few days, I needed a little comfort food! This is an easy, quick recipe that makes a delicious chowdah :)

Ingredients:
2 small yellow onions, peeled and minced
3 tablespoons butter
21 ounces of minced clams (with their juices!)

I couldn't find this exact amount of ounces. I ended up with 26 ounces (4-6.5 ounce cans.) No harm in extra clams! :)

2 cups diced, peeled potatoes. 

Or however many potatoes you want! I probably doubled this... but I love potatoes!

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

2 cups of milk

1 cup light cream

Directions:

Fry the onions in 2 tablespoons of butter. Cook them over moderate heat until they are pale golden (about 5 to 8 minutes). You don't want to brown them.

This was the only picture I took of the process, because I got too distracted!

After the onions are done, drain the liquid from the clams into the pan. Add the potatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer 10-12 minutes until the potatoes are nearly tender, stirring occasionally.

I have to use clip art due to my lack of pictures. Hope you don't mind :)

How does a clam make a call? On a shell phone!

Then, add the clams, milk, and cream. Cover and simmer 5-7 minutes, just enough to heat through!

At the very end, add the remaining butter, and stir until melted.

Ladle into bowls, and sprinkle with paprika if you want to! At the very least, serve it with some oyster crackers!

And make sure you use the puffy ones, not those silly cracker ones. Good job. :)

Enjoy!

Chicken and Corn Chowder

Welcome back summer? It is a delightfully warm night tonight, compared to how the last few have been, don't you think? (Well, you in New England. Those of you not sitting pretty in the Northeast, I have no idea how your weather has been. Just pretend you're here!)
I planned this meal a few nights ago when it was chilly! And I mean, it was really brisk. I even had to break out the bunny slippers, and that means business.
So the type of dinner doesn't exactly match with the weather - this is more of a fall/winter stick to your ribs type chowder, but it was delicious none-the-less!

(And if you're pinching pennies like I persistently seem to be, it was also a very inexpensive dinner! Less than $10 per serving!)


So if you're feeling chilly, winter-y, or just corny, sit back and enjoy my chicken and corn chowder!


Ingredients (serves about 8)
Of course there were only four of us. And it more or less all got eaten. But that's my family for you. Shh...

• Bacon (8 strips, chopped roughly)
• 2 small onions (or 1 large. I'm not picky with proportions) diced
• 4 and 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 4 and 1/2 cups milk (we kept it light and used 1% milk, but you can use whole if you want it a little thicker)
• About 22 oz chicken stock
• 4 ears of corn (slice the corn off the cob and keep the corn and cob separate)
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 springs fresh thyme
• 1 rotisserie chicken  (take the chicken breasts and shred them with a fork... or chop them if you want it more chicken noodle soup style)
• Salt and pepper as desired

Directions:

1. Brown the bacon in a large pot, and cook on medium high until brown (maybe 5 minutes or so) 
2. Enjoy the delightful smell of cooking bacon
3. Add the onions and cook until soft (you can also use this time to drain out some bacon fat if you want)
4. Add the flour and stir constantly until the flour turns golden brown (DO NOT BURN THIS! a) smells bad, b) might ruin the dinner)
5. Slowly add the chicken stock, whisking constantly.
6. Whisk in the milk
7. Add the corn COBS (not the corn), the thyme, and the diced potatoes.
8. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring regularly to move the cobs around and add flavor
9. After 15 minutes, remove the cobs and the thyme, and add the corn and the chicken.
10. Heat until the chicken and corn are heated through, maybe about 5 minutes.

Brown the bacon and soften the onions...

After adding the thyme, potatoes, and corn cobs 

Serve with some oyster crackers! (Not those thin stupid hexagonal ones. You need the puffy, New England/Cape Cod oyster crackers!) Add salt and pepper as you like it!

I think I could just eat these for dinner, and be happy.

And there you go, from my kitchen to yours, a yummy, easy, sort of healthy, not so expensive, dinner.

Enjoy!