AliThinks

My Mom's Corn Chowder

In my recent videopost, I mentioned my mother's corn chowder recipe. I had to call my sister (Hi, Elisa!) in order to get it, and was surprised at how few ingredients there are:

1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 - 2 1/2 cups milk
2 cups frozen corn

Mix together, heat, and eat.

Now, living in France got me out of using recipes which required "cream of whatever" soup, because such an entity does not exist over there. However, I was hell-bent on making corn chowder with my Baconnaise, and yet, the four ingredients in my mom's soup (which I loved as a kid) didn't appeal.

So I lightened up my mom's soup, in a manner of speaking.

If you've been reading me for a long time, you'll know that this isn't a food blog because I never measure anything when I cook. However! I happen to remember some of the proportions I used in my chowder! Yay!

First, I started by sauteing a mirepoix in a little bit of oil. Once the onion was translucent, I added some chopped pancetta (leftover from our raclette from a couple of days before), because I figured you can't have too much bacon.

Once the pancetta was cooked through, I added the first of three cups of chicken broth and scraped the bottom of the dutch oven to get all the browned bits up. Now, normally I make my own stock* or broth, but we happened to have some store-bought broth in the cupboard, so I used it.

With the bottom of the pot scraped clean, I added two more cups of chicken broth. Then I added a cup and a half of 2% milk and a half cup of the Lite Baconnaise. I whisked it all together over low heat, then added 2 cups or so of frozen corn.

I let the chowder sit on the stove for a while on low heat. I didn't want it to boil, but I did want the flavors to meld. Also, I didn't add any salt because of the pancetta and the salt in the Baconnaise. And in the store-bought broth.

While I didn't make a lower-fat soup, I did lighten it up (if only in my own head). It was really tasty, and yeah, it was better than my mom's corn chowder.

*I made stock from our Thanksgiving bones (duck confit, if you're interested) and made soup tonight. Duck stock, mirepoix, leftover duck confit, and a rice and lentil combo, bought in bulk last year — two kinds of rice, two kinds of lentils — that was languishing in the cupboard. I love making stock and soup. The possibilities are endless!

The Whole Fam Damily Is Doing It

Mike has spent the last couple of days posting old photos to his blog. The latest are baby photos of Allan and their sister Jo Ann. Now Allan has posted another baby photo on his blog. So what the hell, let me jump on the baby bandwagon. You've seen me in my high school glory. Coming Soon: The Awkward Years.

Or not.

I Would Laugh If This Weren't So Depressing

Here's an article I read in The Onion last night. 

Just another addition to my jar of reasons why I refuse to be a teacher for the rest of my life.  (Any of yas out there hiring?  I'm smart and catch on real quick). 

Actually, thinking about that Onion article and teaching reminded me of my 12th grade English teacher, Mr. Segedy. The first day of class, he recited The Lord's Prayer in Old English.  I'll never forget that: "Faeder Ure..."

He was a cool teacher. I remember he made really good sound effects.  And when we were studying Shakespeare's Sonnet # 18, he asked the class "What could we say if we were comparing someone to a summer's day?  What could we say about Alison?"

The guy sitting next to me (omigosh I had a huge crush on him) piped up with "She's hot?"

I did get hot that day. Hot and red in the face, but I was secretly delighted. See, I was such a geek in high school, and never got asked out, never got invited to parties (Hey DMU, remember OHAB? LOL), and I may not even have had my driver's license at that point.

But let's not forget what happened to the ugly duckling.

Anyhoo, three out of four of my high school English teachers were excellent.  I hope that during my years of teaching, I affect some of my students in a positive way.

 

And not because I'm hot, either.

                               ****

Here are the links I wanted to add to this entry, but which kept turning my entire text into one big link full of HTML gibberish, so I took them out:

The Lord's Prayer in Old English

Sonnet # 18

I don't know why they're working here but not up there.  I'm not going to try again.  I've already spent way too much time fiddling with the damn things.  It's time for me to get ready for work. 

Blue Monday

Easter Monday is always a bitterweet day for me. It 's the day my mom died, not long after my arrival in France. She and my dad made the trip to the wedding in February, and they had a great time. Two months later she died, and I wasn't there to be with her; I didn't even know anything was wrong until it was all over. I take that back. I did know something was wrong, just not what, and I felt like I wanted to go home.

That was 11 years ago, and perhaps I haven't dealt with the grief in the right way. It's as if the feelings stay under the surface until something -- a word, a memory, I don't know -- brings them back. It's like one of those scrapes you get: it doesn't hurt much, then the next thing you know there are little dots of blood all over it.

Cheesy analogy, maybe.

Two years after my mom died, on Easter Monday, my beautiful daughter was born. That's the sweet part of this symbolic day.

The cursor is blinking at me and no words are flowing to meet its demands, so I'll quit while I'm ahead.